Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Lost World

80 years before Michael Crichton and Jurassic Park, there was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. Doyle may be best known for Sherlock Holmes (which I do really like), but for me The Lost World is easily his best book. It's a shame too, because it seems like he often isn't even given the credit for it. If people even know about it, they tend to think it was written by Jules Verne. One of the best humans encounter dinosaurs stories ever written, published all the way back in 1912. Jurassic Park by Crichton probably tops it, but not by much. Those two pretty much stand alone at the top of the list.