Read both of those books.
I have every Heinlein book ever published (even some rare gems). Arthur C. Clarke, all of the main Asimov books,,,Dune...L Ron Hubbard (before he went wacko, and on and on.
Ha! Bee's a geek too! Who would'a thunk it?
Coincidentally, I recently ran across a poll done by Modern Library back in 1998 that ranked the top 100 novels of all time by their board members. They also ran a populist poll among readers and published those results:
Modern Library Best 100 Novels of All Time Many of the usual suspects appear on both lists, but there was clearly some ballot-box-stuffing going on with devotees of both Hubbard's Scientology and Rand's Objectivism.
Atlas Shrugged and
The Fountainhead commonly appear on "Best Novels" lists, but not the top two spots. But
Battlefield Earth and
Mission Earth on
any best list, let alone 3rd and 9th best novels of all time? Puh-leeeze!
You'll notice a lot of Heinlein on the populist rankings as well, even some of his juvies. Charles de Lint fans clearly had a vote program in place too.
I've got a a ton of Heinlein too, but not all of it. I don't have many of his juvies, but most everything else I do have in hardback (I try to buy only hardbacks, or quality trade softcovers if no HB available - I hate cheap standard paperbacks). The oldest book I own, that I bought new off of the rack, is a paperback Signet copy of Double Star from around 1969. Fifty cents retail cover price. My, how times have changed . . .
