Any interest in period polls?

[wordeater]

Hi, everybody,

Would there be enough interest on this forum for a series of polls on everyone's favorite novels by period? I've noticed there are a lot of these polls on film and music websites (favorite films or albums for each year), but for books I could only find smaller polls where you have to post your all-time top 10 of books or something, and the Bible always wins. Wouldn't it be interesting to do polls on novels for each period? I would exclude poetry, plays and non-fiction for now, because those are too different to compare. Novellas and short story collections could be included, but that's open for debate. The periods could be something like this:

Before 1800
1800 - 1819
1820 - 1839
1840 - 1859
1860 - 1879
1880 - 1899
And from there on every decade.

We could do one period each week, everybody could post his list of favorites, whether it's short or long. If there are enough participants (five seems like the absolute minimum, ten would be better) we could count up the points etc. However it's not just about points, I hope it would lead to some good discussions and tips. So what are your thoughts?

[Pompey Bum]

I'm in. The periods are a little artificial, but what the heck. As you say, it's about the discussions.

[mortalterror]

Not worth the time. Everyone is going to fall into the 19th century to mid twentieth century bracket because that's what they were taught to read in school. You might get a few people reading current stuff, but almost nobody is going to vote for the medieval, classical, or neoclassical periods. The solid majority will vote romantic/victorian/modernism. The modern literary education is based on novels instead of poetry and drama such as earlier ages preferred. You might get a few votes for the Elizabethan age, based on Shakespeare, but it probably won't be because the person's read Ford, Marlowe, Lyly, Spenser, Nashe, Wyatt, Sidney, Campion, Jonson, Kyd, Dekker, etc.

[mona amon]

I like the idea, but since most of the oldest literature I've read is either poems, plays or non-fiction, I'll have very little to contribute to the pre 1800 slot if we exclude them.