[FredZarguna]

OK, you haven't read (or "attempted to read") the Silmarillion. I can't account for your -- or anyone else's -- taste, and won't try. But among the cult of Tolkien's close followers, which probably outnumber Le Guin's even casual readership by two orders of magnitude, it's a well regarded piece. That her awful dreck makes it into this list multiple times is a clear indication of how oversampled she would be in a liberal audience such as NPR's.

As for me, I have read it, and I have also read all of Le Guin's stuff hoping in vain that someday I'd get a glimpse of what people in college assured me was her brilliance. Nope. It's awful: only an NPR audience would put one of her books in the top 100, let alone several.

[Eepsy]

Left Hand of Darkness and The Handmaid’s Tale are there due to all the women who came to vote for Wicked and Outlander and stayed to vote their college reading list...