I have the first book in the Gormenghast trilogy, but I've sadly never gotten around to reading it.

I haven't much on the NPR list either, sadly, but the books I have read Snow Crash, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and some others) I've very much enjoyed.

I need to read more science fiction, is the moral of this story, I think!

Gormenghast? Really?

I tried Gorgmenghast and it just seemed utterly bleak. I do enjoy Riddlemaster of Hed and I've heard of Mythago Woods, but the others are unfamiliar.

I've read a bunch of the books on your list David, but I don't necessarily agree they're the best ones. For instance, I think that Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber collection is more important (and interesting!) than The Magic Toyshop. And while Gormenghast is hugely important, I don't know many people who've made it through the entire trilogy. (Heaven knows I haven't.)

Plus, no Tanith Lee? No Ray Bradbury? Crazyheads.

Zelazny would go on any list I made, if I was making lists.

Trying to read Gormenghast was a lot like dental surgery, except without the anesthesia.

Yeah, your list is completely foreign to me.

It is a connoisseur's list. ::sniff::

No, I riffed with Knut knowing that we'd have some of the same touchstones and overlap but also some divergence. My taste was really shaped by Lin Carter's Ballantine Adult Fantasy series from the early 70s.

Though it really shouldn't be that obscure. Fritz Leiber and Jack Vance are grandmasters of the genre, and Circus of Dr. Lao and Lud In The Mist are both famous among hardcore fantasy fans.

I managed to read the entire Gormenghast trilogy. Don't know what, if anything, that says about my reading habits ... persistent if nothing else.

I've read a bunch of the books on your list David, but I don't necessarily agree they're the best ones. For instance, I think that Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber collection is more important (and interesting!) than The Magic Toyshop.

More influential, certainly. I'm not even there there is a supernatural element in The Magic Toyshop, though it's certainly gothic.

And while Gormenghast is hugely important, I don't know many people who've made it through the entire trilogy.

I don't think anybody really needs to read Titus Alone.

Plus, no Tanith Lee?

Well, we were riffing off the top of our heads. We would've gotten to her eventually. What would you suggest for a Tanith Lee in the fantasy category? (distinct from horror)

No Ray Bradbury?

Ditto, though I think we were trying to diverge from the NPR list. I would definitely have plumped for Something Wicked This Way Comes though I think Bradbury's greater influence is from his short stories.

Don't know what, if anything, that says about my reading habits ... persistent if nothing else.

Todd, you've read vintage gothic doorstops like The Monk and Mysteries of Udolpho. You're extremely persistent.