Modern fantasy, the retro version

So, I've been perusing this book from the library for awhile - Modern Fantasy: the Hundred Best Novels, by David Pringle. The title page further specifies: An English-Language Selection, 1946-1987. It's a good book. Each entry has a mini-essay with info on the author, a plot synopsis, and some commentary. Fun to read for a fantasy freak.

I was a little surprised, though, to see that I've only read 9 books (or series) from the list:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Once and Future King - T.H. White
A Fine and Private Place - Peter S. Beagle
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
Watership Down - Richard Adams
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia McKillip
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever - Stephen R. Donaldson

Wait a minute, that's only 8 books. (looks over the list again) alright, only 8 books then. geez. Interestingly enough, all of those 8 are on my (ever-growing) list of favorites. In fact, just looking at the names is enough to make me want to reread them all.

But, there's so much on the list that I always MEANT to read, and seriously need to! The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake. The Dying Earth books by Jack Vance. Anything by Fritz Leiber. I've never read A Wizard of Earthsea, for crying out loud! or anything at all by Guy Gavriel Kay! This just doesn't seem right.

Not to mention the books that I've never heard of, but that sound intriguing enough to check out. Day of the Minotaur by Thomas Burnett Swann, for instance. The Owl Service by Alan Garner. And all of this was published over 20 years ago, since which the boom in fantasy has only gotten bigger!

(sigh) You know that feeling you get as a reader, that sinking in the gut when you realize that you're not going to live long enough to read everything that you want to? I'm trying to ignore that feeling and concentrate on the fact that as long as I live, I'll never run out of wonderful, fascinating stories to dive into. Because after all, what's life without reading?