A conversation with Richard Palmer on Twitter this morning reminded me of my reading challenge a few years ago in which I reread a number of science fiction classics that I remembered fondly from my early teens. The challenge did not go well. I hated most of the books, could not understand why I’d ever liked them in the first place, and ended up purging my bookshelves of everything by Harry Harrison, EE ‘Doc’ Smith and Alan Dean Foster. So, of course, I thought it would be a good idea to have another go. As you do. But I’m not entirely sure which books to read and write about. As a result, I’ve decided to throw out a bunch of suggestions (of books that I actually own), and run a poll.

I’ve listed a bunch of titles below, and you get to select six for my challenge. I will read each book and then blog my thoughts on it during July, August and September. Asterisked titles will be rereads, though I likely last read them decades ago. Yes, all of the writers in the poll are male – but that’s deliberate. Twentieth-century sf by women writers I read for SF Mistressworks, and I generally to find it to be of middling to good quality. The titles I’ve put in the poll below are from middling to bad quality. At least, that’s what I’m expecting. Some may prove to be much better than I remembered them, though I’ll be surprised if they do.

Remember, a maximum of six votes only. If you have any suggestions for titles not on the poll, leave a comment and I may consider reading it as one of the six. But nothing published after 1975, please. I’ll close the poll at the end of the month, giving you just over a week to vote.