Nominations for July/August/September 2011

Nominate up to three books; second as many as you like. Nominations close at the end of next week, we'll say Friday 24th, and then it'll be put to the vote. Any books that have been seconded at least once will be eligible.

With voting: the two top books will be our next two reads. In the event of a tie for the second book, we'll have a second vote.

Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense. :)

May I nominate three large books that have been on my shelves for far too long already:

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

I second Oryx and Crake and i nominate

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Seconding Jude the Obscure

Nominating:
The Charterhouse of Parma
The Brothers Karamazov

I think that is all for now...

I'll second The Rings of Saturn and The Charterhouse of Parma

I'll nominate

The Golden Notebook by Dorris Lessing
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers

Would also like to nominate

A Shakespeare play, open to suggestions
Tristram Shandy
The Iliad
The Idiot

I'm seconding A Confederacy of Dunces and nominate:

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Restoration by Rose Tremain
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Seconding The Golden Notebook! and Tristram Shandy.

I'm seconding The Golden Notebook and Infinite Jest

I'd like to nominate The Golden Bowl by Henry James
Illusions perdues by Balzac (Lost Illusions)

I want to second everything! But I'll just second The Iliad, that (and The Odyssey) I've been meaning to get to for ages.

I will second The Sound and the Fury, The Golden Bowl, and Lost Illusions. I would also be interested in a play by Shakespeare. What a great list of nominations!

I'll nominate 100 Years of Solitude. There is already a read organized for July over at both the 1001 books group and the Club Read group, so ... 1. it could also be a group read here, and we'd have this massive LT read going on this summer, or 2. not (and those who want to read it can still come on over and join us too--while still reading whatever book they're reading here).

The Golden Bowl is such a bog that the peer support of a group read is highly valuable. This from a bog body.

The Golden Bowl is certainly not for those touched with ADD or ADHD. It requires time, effort, and concentration to make it through.

I will second 100 Years of Solitude as I am planning to read it this July. I definitely need a group for this one.

I'll second Lost Illusions and nominate Miss Marjoribanks.

Sorry everyone, I've got the list of nominations, but MisterPoll is not being happy with me today. I'll try again later.

FYI, these are the books that have been nominated & seconded:

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald
The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
The Iliad by Homer
The Golden Bowl by Henry James
Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

A great list to choose from!

Jude the Obscure won the coin toss for me. Sorry, Honore.

Okay, voting is now open (sorry for the delay): http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/527750

Voting will close on Sunday 3rd July. Most popular book will be the first book to read, and sometime in August we can start reading/discussing the second most popular book.

ETA: Link for results (D'oh!): http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/527750/results

I vote for 100 Years of Solitude.

Hi Hoopdriver, have you voted over on MisterPoll? http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/527750

I won't be counting any votes that aren't done there. It's anonymous, and you've got to the end of the weekend to vote. (You can also vote for more than one book.)

Sorry if you have actually voted over there, I just didn't want you to miss out.

wookiebender,
Thanks for the tip. Wasn't aware that this is the way it works.

What happened, it is July 3rd and the poll is already closed! I would like to vote for Jude the Obscure and Tristram Shandy if still possible.

#22> Well, you got one and a half of your votes. :) Tristram Shandy is our first book up, and we'll need to have a vote-off for Jude the Obscure and 100 Years of Solitude for our second book.

Sorry, it was probably a time zone problem there, I believe it was open to the end of *our* weekend, sorry if that wasn't the same as your weekend.

Hmmm, I think I should be able to set up the voting within LibraryThing with one of those polls for the vote off, that'll be easier than another MisterPoll poll. Stay tuned...

Woohoo! I was hoping we'd pick Tristram Shandy!

Thanks for organizing all of this, wookiebender.

Club Read 2011 is doing a group read of 100 Years of Solitude right now. As in most people haven't even read the first chapter yet. That way you guys can do 100 Years there and read Jude the Obscure here. Just a thought.

#26> Good point, lilisin! I'll keep it as a poll here to be fair to all, however.

(ARGH. You'd think that searching in WikiThing for "poll" would have returned *something* of use, wouldn't you? I repeat, ARGH. Finally found out how to do it, but why it didn't get found in a search is beyond me.)I'm on holidays now, and won't be near to a computer for a while. Can I assume that this poll can take care of itself? Thanks.

(Apparently one can only have one poll per message...)

Okay, it's definite: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Stern is our first read; Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy will be our second.

I've only got a sample of "Tristram Shandy" downloaded at the moment, could someone else with a proper (ie, complete) copy set up some threads? Or could someone with a proper copy say whether it makes sense to have three threads, one for books 1-3, one for books 4-6 and one for books 7-9? That sounds reasonable, but I am assuming the books are of comparable size.

I've got a paperback copy of "Jude the Obscure" and it seems to be nicely divisible into two. Any objections to making two threads, one for parts 1-3 and the other for parts 4-6?

I plan to read Jude the Obscure in September, so that works out well for me. See you then, and have fun with Tristram Shandy (personally, I'll stick with the film of that one for now)

These are two very good--and very different--books. Unfortunately, I can't see myself re-reading either of them now. Enjoy!

Ditto, I'm going to opt out of both of these reads.

I'll give Tristram Shandy a try - I've always been afraid to tackle it. As for Jude the Obscure, I've already read it and it's too lugubrious to read over the summer...

#29> My daughter came in town for a quick trip to my niece's wedding, and she brought my copy of Tristram Shandy with her. I got to look at it, and your divisions look like good ones for the discussion threads. She just finished it, and it sounds kind of interesting. I hope to do both reads, but I already have the book for the first one, so I am good to go.

FYI -- I am having trouble finding a copy of Tristram Shandy through my library system --- but I see that there is a free kindle edition available. It will be my first e-read on my smartphone! I'll be ready to start first week of August.