16 Must-Read SF/F Classics for Teenage Boys
Literary Compass has compiled a list of 30 Must-Read Classics for Teenage Boys. Making the cut is a nice selection of 16 genre fiction titles:
- Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
- Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
- The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
- Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
- The Belgariad by David Eddings
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- The Once and Future King by T.H. White
- The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr.
- Flatland by Edwin Abbott
- The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
- The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Time and Again by Jack Finney
Check out the original post for explanations and the complete list.
It occurs to me that I read almost all of those when I was a teenage girl. (The only one I don’t recognize is The Book of the Dun Cow.)
The Foundation Series? Come on! That’s bored the pants off many a grown man.
That’s some serious Ray Bradbury love. I was never much of a fan of his though I read all his books listed except Dandelion Wine. I prefered Heinlein and Asimov. I agree with Derek though. I read the first novel in the Foundation series as an adult, and it bored me to death. Reading about someon sitting and waiting is pretty boring. I heard later books get more action, but I wasn’t inspired to move beyond the first which is sad because I’ve read most of his sci fi novels I could get my hands on.
Where is Lord of the Rings?
That trilogy was the only set of novels that I ever remember the boys ever talking about back then. Of those that actually read anything.
Lots and lots of Ray Bradbury…
Eddings? Eddings? No Heinlein, Norton, Anderson, Schmitz, Drake, Haldeman, etc., but we get Eddings?
Eddings?
Oh my aching head.
:O
And Animal Farm? I can see reading that, sure, eventually, but for fun as a teenager? Urk.
I agree with Tracey – why teenage boys? I also read most of those when I was a teenaged girl. Why with the sexism people? Why not just have one list titled “16 Must-Read SF/F Classics for Teens”?
Well, blame Literary Compass, not SF Signal for the “boys” label. I would point you towards Baen Books, which does have its own list of books for teens (of either sex).
Again: Eddings? Eddings? Oh my aching head.
:-$