One of his top ten books of the night, as told to the Guardian:The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le GuinRead about another book on the list.
I wonder if the wonderful Ursula Le Guin had read [Cherry Apsley-Garrard's] The Worst Journey in the World before she wrote this, arguably her masterpiece. The climax of the book is a terrifying journey, also undertaken in Arctic darkness and temperatures. But it takes place on the distant planet Winter, and the travellers are an ambassador from a galactic civilisation and the ex-prime minister of a decadent kingdom. Le Guin's twist is that the inhabitants of Winter are all of the same sex, which gives her a chance to explore what gender means while telling a gripping story about love under different stars from our own.
--Marshal Zeringue