Chapterhouse Dune Complete:

Finally, I've finished reading the Dune series by Frank Herbert (the remainder written by others is just meaningless filler.)

I endorsed Herbert in my good books (which really means good authors) hall of fame.  I'm not required to read every book written by one of my top rated authors of the world, but I do have to read at least one of their major works before I can non-hypocritically encourage others to read them as well.  To put my words into action, it wasn't enough to just read the original Dune, I needed to read the entire Dune saga and thus own the praise I had already given with not just cheap talk but real actions.

This is also why I felt the need to read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.  I won't read everything Rowling writes, but I should at least follow the Potter series to the very end, or else there's no point having Rowling in my rankings.

Every other author on my list of 100 favorite authors I've already read enough of, or watched the anime adaption thereof enough of, to have put in the real work of assessing their quality before proselytizing their worth to others.  I'm pleased to say I've now shored up the last weakness in this fortress, and can't be accused of hypocrisy from a single angle regarding all 100 great authors.

Just to be sure, I'd like to read a few more books -- the remaining translated tomes of Baccano, Jo's Boys (or I could just watch the anime thereof), and Middlemarch.  But this is just icing on the cake.  The Dune series was the cake itself and therefore of utmost importance.

The book itself was no good.  The entire series was no good, overall, but I still respect Frank Herbert.  This is because his amazing imagination in creating a sophisticated alternate sci fi universe setting was sufficient to inspire the magnificent Dune II real time strategy game, and that game was a real work of human accomplishment.  Without the books, there never could have been the game.  I also like the Dune movies, television series, music, and awesome catch phrases like "He who controls the spice, controls the universe!"  Long after the books recede, the clever phrases that embed a lot of concepts into very few words will continue on.

As the very last ranking author in my list of fiction authors, it's fitting that I finished reading him last.  But now it's done.  One more worry off my back and engraved into my now non-hypocritical rankings forever.

Just as I've read all the authors I praise in my books hall of fame (or watched the anime adaption thereof), I've watched all the anime in my anime rankings, read all the manga in my manga rankings (or watched the anime adaption thereof), and played all the video games in my video game hall of fame.  Someday I hope to play all the visual novels in my visual novel hall of fame, but that's dependent on more fan translations accruing.  Even in that case, I specifically have a smaller, top ten VN rankings which are worthy franchises I have actually played through, and I am conscientious about playing all of those franchises in full.  If I haven't completed the series yet, I'm still working on it.  For instance, in the case of Da Capo III, I just finished Charle's route today and am now on Aoi's.

I haven't fully watched my own movies/tv series hall of fame shows, but I've at least watched every franchise listed therein.  I'll catch up on what's left to see within those franchises at some point as well.

There's lots of stuff left to do, but I'm not just shooting blindly from the hip here.  Everything I endorse I've tried out myself first, and liked it.  The Hokage's job is to trailblaze in front of everyone else, enduring all the slings and arrows of bitter fortune, so that those who follow can have a nice and easy path set before them.  I've tested all my hall of fame material, so I can guarantee it's all worth consuming.  Those who come after need only follow the instructions to live a full, noble and rewarding life.  I say to you, anyone who can read all the authors in my good books hall of fame, my manga hall of fame, and my visual novel hall of fame, while also watching all the movies and tv shows in my movies/tv series hall of fame, while also watching all the anime in my top anime rankings hall of fame, while also playing all the video game series in my video games hall of fame, cannot emerge on the other side a bad person.  It's just not possible.  Not if they were paying attention to the stuff they were imbibing.  We are what we eat, and when you devour sources of such divine truth, love and beauty, you cannot help but become an agent thereof as well.

Following the instructions laid out in my hall of fames is the ideal education for any child, any human being whatsoever.  Everyone who emerges on the other side would be, will be, the best we can possibly be.  The human ideal.  A world of only people who have fulfilled my hall of fame courses would be the best of all possible worlds, consisting of only the best of all possible people.  I'm not even sure they should still be classified as people after emerging from such a chrysalis, more like seraphim. . .