After sorting through several thousand nominations and collecting over 60,000 votes, NPR has compiled a list of favorite sci-fi and fantasy books.

Harry Potter fans may notice something missing from their list of the top 100. NPR has an answer for you, "You'll notice there are no young adult or horror books on this list, but sit tight, dear reader, we're saving those genres for summers yet to come."

Should Potter have been allowed in the arena? Maybe, but this is also a chance to spotlight some literature than might otherwise get overlooked.

Here is a tease to NPR’s top sci-fi and fantasy books:

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card

4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert

5. A Song of Ice and Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin

6. 1984, by George Orwell

7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov

9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

If you're reading this blog, you're a fan of TV, and as a fan you'll be sure to enjoy the second season of PBS' "Pioneers of Television" (UNC-TV, 8 tonight) a four-part series airing Tuesdays that starts with a look at classic science fiction.

Kelsey Grammer narrates the series, and the sci-fi episode is delightful. It gives a history of the top storytellers of the genre: Gene Roddenberry, Irwin Allen and Rod Serling, who created "Star Trek," "Lost in Space," and "The Twilight Zone" respectively. While Serling and Roddenberry wanted to tell stories with meaning, Allen was all about action.

Seems the early days of television are not much different than nowadays; "Lost in Space" for instance, was forced to get campy, the show reveals, when the super-campy "Batman" became a hit.

What did William Shatner sell from his body for $25,000? Where did "To boldly go where no man has gone before," come from?