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It was an unscientific survey, but the results were fairly interesting.

1. The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams 85% (102)
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four — George Orwell 79% (92)
3. Brave New World — Aldous Huxley 69% (77)
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — Philip Dick 64% (67)
5. Neuromancer — William Gibson 59% (66)
6. Dune — Frank Herbert 53% (54)
7. I, Robot — Isaac Asimov 52% (54)
8. Foundation — Isaac Asimov 47% (47)
9. The Colour of Magic — Terry Pratchett 46% (46)
10. Microserfs — Douglas Coupland 43% (44)
11. Snow Crash — Neal Stephenson 37% (37)
12. Watchmen — Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons 38% (37)
13. Cryptonomicon — Neal Stephenson 36% (36)
14. Consider Phlebas — Iain M Banks 34% (35)
15. Stranger in a Strange Land — Robert Heinlein 33% (33)
16. The Man in the High Castle — Philip K Dick 34% (32)
17. American Gods — Neil Gaiman 31% (29)
18. The Diamond Age — Neal Stephenson 27% (27)
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy — Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson 23% (21)
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham 21% (19)

I consider myself a fair expert on geek novels, so I have tons of quibbles with the list. First, 1984, Brave New World, and American Gods aren’t geek novels, at least not by my definition. From the books that I know on the list, apparently, “geek” only means scifi, which rules out a ton of books that would have displaced others here on the list. American Gods is a vastly inferior novel to Gaiman’s own Neverwhere. I’m assuming The Color of Magic is meant to represent the whole of Discworld, since it is not the strongest entrant in that series by a long shot. Microserfs is a geek novel, sure, but in my not humble opinion… it sucked major donkey balls. It’s like listening to a 15 year old talk about their self-obsessed life and how hard they have everything. Oh, and I’m assuming the I, Robot votors are doing a name recognition thing, since it’s really a collection of short stories and not overly compelling short stories at that.

20 is a lot to come up with, but my personal geek list - and here, I’m defining geek as the non-pop-culture normative societal misfit geek. So… fantasy as well as tech. Also, only one entry per author, will note if I mean for the entry to stand for the author’s whole ouvre or that series.

Actually, these aren’t meant to be in order because I’d have too hard a time deciding between apples and oranges. Numbers are just to keep track of how far I’ve gone.

1. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings. I hate the series and I can’t abide Tolkien, but you have to give the series its due.
2. Adams, HHGttG. From the list above, who am I to argue?
3. Pratchett, Discworld.
4. Stephenson, Diamond Age. Also included here would be Snow Crash and maybe, maybe Cryptonomicon. Definately not the latest trilogy. P’tooie!
5. Lovecraft, collected works. C’mon, only geeks read Lovecraft.
6. William Gibson, Neuromancer. Collected works. Yes, I put the cyberpunk originator below the copy (Stephenson). That’s what I thought of first.
7. George RR Martin, Song of Fire and Ice series.
8. Aasimov, Foundation series.
9. Arthur C. Clarke, Rama series.
10. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land and a few other stories. Again, hate the guy and most of his works, but he wrote some enduring classics.
11. O. S. Card, Ender’s Game. He’s written a lot of books, all generally with some form of his Mormon philosophy, but EG and the first two books of the Alvin Maker series kicked ass.
12. Mists of Avalon. I haven’t read it, of course, but every woman I know has so that must mean something. I’m going to throw in TH White’s The Once and Future King here too, just because.
13. Greg Bear, Eon, Eternity, Moving Mars, Forge of God. Just those four books, but they were good enough to put him on the permanent list.
14. Gaiman, Sandman series and Neverwhere. Haven’t read Anansi Boys yet, but most of his other work has been shyte. Except for Good Omens (with Pratchett). That ruled.
15. Alan Moore, Watchmen, V for Vendetta.
16. Jordan, Wheel of Time series. First three books only, before each book turned into a parody of the books before it, with increasing one-dimensional characters and ever more detailed discussions of food. Stop me if I’ve mentioned this before, but man.. after the third book… stinky poo series.
17. Erikson, Gardens of the Moon series.
18. Connie Willis, Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog.
19. Philip K. Dick, collected works, though I prefer the pre-crazy Valis trilogy.
20. Herbert, Dune. I thought it was OK, but longevity gets it in.