Last night I watched My Favorite Book on ABC TV. The program polled a bunch of Australians to determine “our favourite book”, and the winner was Tolkien’s desperately-in-need-of-editing tome, The Lord of the Rings.

While it was interesting to see that four of the top 10 were genre books, and that the #1 title was a fantasy, it made me think about my own answer to the question: what is your favourite book? It’s a question I’ve always disliked, and tried to avoid answering by claiming poor memory or whatever. I think the reason I’ve avoided the question is that one book isn’t like another and comparisons seem odious. Also, I’ve been so overwhelmed by the cult of the new and the need to read what’s coming out tomorrow that I don’t get to spend much time re-reading, reading just for pleasure, or even looking back. Reading is business these days, and almost everything I read is for business. Kinda takes the fun out of it a bit.

Still, that’s just avoidance. The first science fiction novel I recall reading is Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy and the first fantasy was probably Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but neither book would make my top 3. In fact, I don’t think a genre book would make my top 3, which would probably be:

1. this;
2. this; and
3. this.

Oddly, all were books that I was assigned to read at High School as part of an English class I was doing, and all of them knocked me out when I read them. The #1 book is the only one I ever shared with my parents that seemed to communicate with them too.

I don’t know whether I could pick a Top 3 genre books, just because I’ve read so many and loved so many. And also because I go off them. I once read C.J. Cherryh’s Downbelow Station five times consecutively in early 1987, but I don’t know if I could read it again. I loved Dune, but doubt it’s readable any longer, and I don’t think I could read anything by Heinlein, even though I loved his work above all else at one time in my life. Hmmm. Well, here’s a Top 11 genre books that I’d identify as having had a profound affect on me. They’re not the only books I’d pick, and I’d probably pick a different list tomorrow morning, but today I’d pick (in alphabetical order by author):

Light Years and Dark, Michael Bishop ed.
Nova, Samuel R. Delaney
Burning Chrome, William Gibson
Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
The Year of the City, Frederik Pohl
Northern Lights, Philip Pullman
Pacific Edge, Kim Stanley Robinson
The Child Garden, Geoff Ryman
The Rediscovery of Mankind, Cordwainer Smith
Islands in the Net, Bruce Sterling
Strange Things in Close Up, Howard Waldrop

…is officially “go”. The agreements have been made and I have about six weeks to get it together. I’ll work out the details over the next few days, but I know pretty much what I want to use, which is a relief.

There are many practicalities that govern assembling any book, especially something like a year’s best annual. I’ve been reading for three of them this year and, while it’s been rewarding, the final books have been impacted on by all sorts of real world considerations (which don’t need to be gone into here).

Realising that, I began to think about what stories I’d put into a year’s best, if the only restrictions I had to face were 1) the book was a single volume and 2) the stories were ones I really liked. After a bit of thought, I came up with a list of thirty-one stories that straggled across genres, but might just sneak into a single set of covers.

Looking at the list, it occurred to me that I should probably try to sequence them, but this is an idle thought experiment, and I only have so much time. Still, if you’re interested in such things, here’s my ‘Best Stories of 2004’. Oh, and should you wonder, this list was winnowed down from over 230 stories, a number of which were damn fine.

“Flat Diane”, Daniel Abraham
“The People Of Sand And Slag”, Paolo Bacigalupi
“The End of the World As We Know It”, Dale Bailey
“Sergeant Chip”, Bradley Denton
“Anda’s Game”, Cory Doctorow
“Zora and the Zombie”, Andy Duncan
“The Annals of Eelin-Ok”, Jeffrey Ford
“Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves …”, Neil Gaiman
“The Wings of Meister Wilhelm”, Theodora Goss
“Waiting for Gandalf”, Joanne Harris
“The Baum Plan for Financial Independence”, John Kessel
“Lisey and the Mad Man”, Stephen King
“Red Nose Day”, Margo Lanagan
“Singing My Sister Down”, Margo Lanagan
“The Faery Handbag”, Kelly Link
“The Silver Dragon”, Elizabeth Lynn
“Reports of Certain Events in London”, China Mieville
“The Third Party”, David Moles
“The Fabled Light House at Vina Del Mar”, Joyce Carol Oates
“Pat Moore”, Tim Powers
“Life in Stone”, Tim Pratt
“Cold Fires”, M. Rickert
“The Enchanted Trousseau”, Deborah Roggie
“The Voluntary State”, Christopher Rowe
“CATNYP”, Delia Sherman
“Perfidia”, Lewis Shiner
“Screaming for Faeries”, Ellen Steiber
“Luciferase”, Bruce Sterling
“The Last Geek”, Michael Swanwick
“Three Days in a Border Town”, Jeff VanderMeer
“Golden City Far”, Gene Wolfe

A journalist at UK newspaper The Guardian has queried the value and honesty of newspapers annual ‘best of the year’ booklists. Given that I’ve just embarked on helping to compile Locus’s annual recommended reading issue, I’m curious what blog readers think of such things. Are they worthwhile? Are they anything more than fun?

Jeremy and Jason over at Night Shade have announced their list of 2005 titles. As with all of the lists I’ve been producing here, not every book appeals to me, but they all look good. In the case of Night Shade, I love their books and most of their titles are exceptional.

Of the list below, I’m really excited by the Haldeman and Liz Williams books, and think the Gwyneth Jones novel (which I read in its UK ed.) is a complete stunner. Actually, if you haven’t read Bold as Love you should make it a top priority. The Night Shade edition is sure to be gorgeous.

Blood Follows, Steven Erikson
The Healthy Dead, Steven Erikson
War Stories, Joe Haldeman
The Gist Hunter and Other Stories, Matthew Hughes
Bold as Love, Gwyneth Jones
Conference with the Dead, Terry Lamsley
The Boar, Joe R. Lansdale
Dead in the West, Joe R. Lansdale
Bronze, Kit Reed
London Revenant, Conrad Williams
Snake Agent, Liz Williams
The Complete Hammer’s Slammers Vol. 1, David Drake
Letters from New York, H.P. Lovecraft
The Ghost Pirates and Other Revenants of the Sea, William Hope Hodgson
The Night Land and Other Perilous Romances, William Hope Hodgson
The Collected Jorkens Vol. III, Lord Dunsany

I should also add some kind of comment about Liz Williams. I haven’t read much of her stuff, but she’s been getting good reviews, which is cool. What surprised me, though, was the recommendation I got from Charles Brown about her stuff. I talk to Charles every week to catch up on work, life and SF, and he told me he’d just read her novel Banner of Souls and her Night Shade collection, and he pretty much raved about them. In fact, he recommended the original story from the collection for my year’s best, which is a complete first. I’ve seldom heard him so enthusiastic about a writer. It’s enough to make me check Liz’s work out more closely, and should make you do the same. Charles knows what he’s talking about.