2006 Author Poll

Please vote for the authors whose works you would like to read in 2006.

At the end of the poll, the 12 authors with the most votes will be included in our Book Club reading list in 2006.

You can vote for more than one author!

This poll will close on November 30th.

Angela Carter

Charles Dickens*

Charlotte Bronte*

Choderlos de Laclos

Ernest Hemingway

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

George Eliot*

Gregory Maguire

Henryk Sienkiewicz

H.G. Wells*

Ian McEwan

Jeanette Winterson

James Joyce*

John Gardner

L.M.Montgomery*

Laurie Halse Anderson

Leo Tolstoy*

Lois Lowry

Terry Pratchett

Sir Walter Scott*

Willa Cather

William Faulkner



* = Available on the Forum.



Book Club Procedures

hello more votes for Montgomry and maguire please and terry pratchett
!!!!!!!!!!

Lois Lowry and Terry Pratchett are my top 2 candidates- I like L.M. Montgomery too but I read most of her books already :D

sooo?? reread them!!!

:D

And it's gonna be an entertaining one.

Come on people Vote for Ernest!!!!!

Dostoesky... if I could get the person who nominated him in my hands... start diggin' yer grave :D

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Originally Posted by Jay

Dostoesky... if I could get the person who nominated him in my hands... start diggin' yer grave :D

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Can I help?

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Originally Posted by Nightshade

hello more votes for Montgomry and maguire please and terry pratchett
!!!!!!!!!!

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Night, have you read Maguire's new book Son of a Witch? If so, was it any good?

I hope he returns to the vocabulary and writing style of his first one, Wicked, with this one. I like the other ones, but they seemed "dumbed down."

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Originally Posted by papayahed

Can I help?

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Please, be my guest :D

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Originally Posted by Jay

Dostoesky... if I could get the person who nominated him in my hands... start diggin' yer grave :D

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well Jay I think I can help. :blush: that would be me! but you don't want to kill me... :angel: look how sweet and innocent I am... :)

Says you! :p

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Originally Posted by papayahed

Come on people Vote for Ernest!!!!!

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Hemingway is so over-rated. His characters are so devoid of emotion or feeling.

wat are you'll doing

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Originally Posted by byucougs

Hemingway is so over-rated. His characters are so devoid of emotion or feeling.

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I can see how you would think that, but I would challenge you to go back and re-read some of Hemingway's stuff. Keep in mind that the emotion is not always as effident in what the characters are said to be saying or thinking, but in what motivates them.

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Originally Posted by Jay

Says you! :p

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well don't you think the same? :D *flutters eyelashes*

Scher Ive been thinking why choose only the 12 top that way in decmber we wont have a choice choose the top *umm how many down is Montgomry...* 14! yes pick the top 14 that way we have 2 extra that may never get read but at least we wont be sure what we will read at the end of the year.....
I love suprises dont you??

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Originally Posted by Nightshade

Scher Ive been thinking why choose only the 12 top that way in decmber we wont have a choice choose the top *umm how many down is Montgomry...* 14! yes pick the top 14 that way we have 2 extra that may never get read but at least we wont be sure what we will read at the end of the year.....
I love suprises dont you??

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In 2006, we will not be voting for the authors again. The top 12 authors will each have a month designated and we will only vote on their 10 most popular works to read which book to read during that month.

In case of a tie among the authors, we will go for the more prolific ones.

Prolific, eh? *refrains from making silly comments other than that* ;)

*directs Jay in the right direction*



:p

*being a good girl* ;)

we need more sienkewicz

he's pretty cool! :nod:

Hello, everybody. I am new to the Book Club but would like to be part of it and participate in the discussions. :)

My choices in this 2006 poll are:
Terry Pratchett - my absolute favourite and a great writer
James Joyce would be a delight to read again
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Gregory Maguire
Lois Lowry
(these three authors I haven't read yet (not even "Quo Vadis", shame to me for that :p ) but I read reviews on their main works and I think they would be very good to read).

As for the other "classical" writers (I haven't read the others), I didn't love or hate them in particular so I chose to cast no vote.

Actually, there was one I didn't like :D I read two books by G.G.Marquez and didn't like them at all. They just failed to stand out to me as great and I had the slightest feeling of overratedness. I'm not criticizing style, but ideas. However, I see many people have voted for him. Does that make me... sort of a snob? :confused:

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Originally Posted by LightShade

Actually, there was one I didn't like :D I read two books by G.G.Marquez and didn't like them at all. They just failed to stand out to me as great and I had the slightest feeling of overratedness. I'm not criticizing style, but ideas. However, I see many people have voted for him. Does that make me... sort of a snob? :confused:

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Nahh. If you don't like it, you don't like it :D

Hooray for Joyce in the lead!

Lightshade, which two did you read by Marquez. I am planning on beginning my exploration of his work soon (as soon as I am finished with what I am reading now).

I planned on starting with Love in the Time of Cholera and then moving on to Memories of My Melancholy Whores.

Welcome;

And a good choice ye made with Sienkewicz :nod:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LightShade

Hello, everybody. I am new to the Book Club but would like to be part of it and participate in the discussions. :)

My choices in this 2006 poll are:
Terry Pratchett - my absolute favourite and a great writer
James Joyce would be a delight to read again
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Gregory Maguire
Lois Lowry
(these three authors I haven't read yet (not even "Quo Vadis", shame to me for that :p ) but I read reviews on their main works and I think they would be very good to read).

As for the other "classical" writers (I haven't read the others), I didn't love or hate them in particular so I chose to cast no vote.

Actually, there was one I didn't like :D I read two books by G.G.Marquez and didn't like them at all. They just failed to stand out to me as great and I had the slightest feeling of overratedness. I'm not criticizing style, but ideas. However, I see many people have voted for him. Does that make me... sort of a snob? :confused:

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now now puppy dog Jay, you know you are just cranky FROM LACK OF SLEEP. And if Kaltrina would not have voted for him I would have. He is one of the three I want to read along with Dickens and Lowry. I know some might groan and say Dickens but I have been looking hard about me at the issues of the day and it seems to me that in many ways over the last twenty years or so certain things have regressed in the western society and the topics Dickens wrote about so passionately are back.And the same with religious or lack of them ideas so I voted for fyodor. And because Sweden and Belgium : have decided to legalize euthanasia, and Sweden has already killed four children I beg of you, vote for Lois Lowry and at least take a look at the topic. It is an awesome book, perhaps not literary in some ways but it does make you think, think hard.Thank you for letting us vote for more than one book Scher. I really appreciate that. :wave:

Here are the top twelve of the Book Club race:

In the lead is James Joyce, with seventeen votes. He has been quite a lead figure, but has he still strength enough left to keep his position till the finish? He has a small gap behing him - noone has sixteen votes yet, so he can be vary and see if anyone starts catching up with him. But will this be enough? Can he keep the first place?

Sharing the second and third place, side by side, are Dickens and Dostojevsky, two Ds with fifteen votes both. Can either (or even both of them) beat Joyce? Sure, he has got a good lead, but these men have had longer time to rest than Joyce. There is yet still time, anything can happen and the tension rises.

Behind those two, stepping on their heels are - oh my God, it is hard to believe - three writers - not one, not two, but three writers. They surely have a close struggle there with fourteen votes. Marquez, Faulkner (modern day writers are still strong) and, ladies and gentlemen, can you believe it - our first woman. Let us all congratulate her for being the most powerful representative of her sex.
Will she be able to beat the men in the first-place race? The women are mysterious people - perhaps she can - she wouldn't be the first to take a surprise victory. This is an age of equality between sexes, after all.

The struggle behind that human mess is not so strugglous - but it is tense still - two people with thirteen votes - Eliot and Pratchett, his beard forward, going side by side, trying to go past each other - will they succeed?
Pratchett has made a sprint lately - probably his beard helps him to deal with the air drag and provides warmth, but will it help him defeat Eliot? Maybe he can even go past Bronte, Faulkner and Marquez. Even defefating Dickens or Dostoyevsky is still possible - after all, though corpses have been very agile here, living people are fast too. Maybe he can even, we repeat, maybe - even pass Joyce. We know that it sounds utopic, that it is unrealistic - but, as we have said before, there can be a surprise victory - and nothing is sure until the finish of the race - and there is plenty of time to that date.

There is a small gap behind Pterry and Eliot, but it is followed by another big group - Wells, Scott and Tolstoi, with all having eleven votes. Will science fiction, a title or Russian spirit help to cross that gap? It is good to go in teams, but will someone break forward and start his spurt? Will they? The tension is very high.

And, the last of the top twelve is beloved Hemingway. Or is he so beloved at all- he seems to be quite in the back with only ten votes. But, many wish luck for him - including us and even one of the organizers - yes, we did a small interview with the notorious Scher and she revealed that if Hemingway stays in top twelve, she will start with him in January.
But will he be able to stay there? He is, after all, the last one to have the point place.
There is a great chance that those on his heels - like Montgomery will sprint and pass him - for the next chance is yet over a year ahead - will Hemingway be able to stay in the top twelve? Drinking doesn't make one a very strong competant, but Hemingway seems to have a lot of willpower to stay in - will he?

All the possibilities are still in the air.

Keep in touch for further news in the Book Club Struggle, Taliesin Book Club Commentaries stops here.

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Wow, James Joyce is on the top. I have not heard of him. *sighs*

Lois Lowry, Lois Lowry. When my daughter told me her favorite book of all was the Giver I stopped and stared at her. I am serious. Here was a child who in the whole of her life considered reading one chapter a year of any book cruel and unusual punishment. She kept urging me to read it and I kept putting it off because I did not know the author. Then one day I grudginly gave in and from the first line I was swept away and an anxious wreck as I read each word. I am not here to say she is a writer like Tolstoy or Tolkien, certainly not like the great Fyoder D. But Dickens wasn't that perfect a writer in certain ways, yet he was a great writer. So is she.I am quite confident that once you read this book it will haunt your thoughts and decisions in life forever.
When I finished the book I could barely face anyone for a couple of days.I just had to be by myself and think. Think hard.

Dear Pensive,
I hope with all my heart that little bird finally comes to a place of rest, food and peace. Her little wings must be breaking by now and I feel exhausted just looking at her exerting all her energy poor thing. go birdy go.

eliot is a girl!!
:D

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Originally Posted by Psycheinaboat

Lightshade, which two did you read by Marquez.

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I read "The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and her Heartless Grandmother" (in a volume that also contained several other short stories mainly centered around the idea of the evil sea and its terrible effect of people. The title story (of Erendira) was interesting up to a point but then got tiresome and boring; I find it's too stretched and... I don't know how to put this... maybe too poetic and vulgar at the same time? like a sort of fairytale for perverts :D (just my little opinion). A sick story anyway.
Also, "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" - my opinion: easy story, pervert ideas again :D nothing new, philosohpically and stylistically speaking. I was bored once again. Besides, I think I have a certain dislike for excessively weak characters. :p

I also heard opinions of people who have read "The Autumn of the Patriarch". They seemed to follow the same lines as my above-stated opinions.

Somebody who has read other G.G. Marquez book, please tell me: are all of them centered around sick ideas? are all of them gloomy, are all characters doomed?

I am however planning to read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" since that's the book who won him the Nobel prize and I'm curious to find out what's so special about it.

ps - pcockey, thank you :)

pps - hello, Nightshade :D

Hey :wave: Lightshade we are actually reading a G.G Marquez book this month "Love in time..." maybe you can join in?? :D

YAY Pratchett *waves a flag*
( the smilie supply line is down :bawling: )

PS Tal why do you call him Pterry??
:confused:

Hey, Nightshade :)

I've seen the November Book Club "assignment". I think I could manage to find the book and borrow it, but I don't really feel like reading another Marquez, thank you :D

Pterry is what his fans call Terry Pratchett. Starting from Pyramids, where everybody's name began with "Pt". And, as his last name begins with P and his first with a T.... I guess that was the idea.

ahh well you learn somthing every day :D :nod:

I'd like to read everyone except for Sienkiewicz :sick: Can I give him minus one point? We were tortured by him at school, I tell you :lol: (although I recommend Quo Vadis)

It is interesting that the usual authors are leading the poll. Are we not willing to try new authors out of our usual reading habits? Like...

Willa Cather

and

Faulkner

and

Ian McEwan

and

Hemingway

and

Angela Carter

and

Winterson



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Faulkner seems to be doing fine with 16 votes. That would make him 3rd or 4th?

...Sienkewicz!

His stuff is pretty cool!

And can be found on gutenberg :D which is pretty cool, considering that none of the public libraries around my neighbourhood are open either before or after I go to work... by some sadistic arrangement, they are open only while I am at work. And none of them is conveniently close to my office. I suspect some cosmic conspiracy against my literary education :p