I Read Therefore I Am discussion

Hello all - we're changing the way that we choose the monthly Boxalls list read.
Three books will be chosen at random and members can then vote for the one that they would most like the group to read.
The book with the most votes will be our monthly read.

Books that come 2nd will live on to be voted on another day.

Our first vote will be between:

The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt by A Camus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rebe...


Elective Affinities by J W Von Goethe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elective...

A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Severe...

For those of us that have never taken part in a good reads poll before - Just click on "Polls" in the top right hand corner of this page, then click on the book you would like to vote for.
You can change your vote at any point up to August 30th when the poll will close.

Well, the results are in and I can now announce that Septembers monthly read will be A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch.
The start date is Sept 15th - I 'll set up the discussion thread shortly before that.

Elective Affinities which came in 2nd will get another chance - but I'm afraid the Rebel has been rejected.

Ok here are the choices for Octobers read:

Effi Briest - Theodor Fontane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effi_Briest


Spring Flowers, Spring Frost - Ismail Kadare

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1...


Song of Solomon


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_...



The Poll will be open until September 28th

Happy Voting :0)

At the moment Effi Briest and Spring Flowers, Spring Frost are neck and neck - if anyone who voted for the Song of Solomon would like to change their vote to resolve the deadlock - please feel free :o)

And the winner of our October Boxhalls monthly read is .................Effi Briest. I'll set up the discussion thread on October 15th.

In second place and with a second chance of being chosen is Spring Flowers, Spring Frost

And I'm afraid Song of Solomon has been rejected

Ok the randomizer has been doing it's stuff and the vote for our November Monthly Boxhalls read will between:

The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose by Alice Munro

Austerlitz by W G Seabold
and

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

I'll set up the poll tomorrow

The results are in and, after a late surge, the winner is Sense and Sensibility, with The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose in second place.
As Alice Monroe has just won the Pullitser Prize I thought we could ditch the randomizer for one month and have her as our December monthly author.

I'm very happy to replace Fischer with Munro for November but as I've already bought The Thought Gang, could we perhaps just shunt him into December rather than abandon him? Or was that what you had in mind anyway?

Don't Panic Captain Mainwaring! I was thinking of keeping Fischer for November and having Monroe for December. :0)

Sadly Austerlitz came 3rd and is therefore rejected. I really fancy this one, though, so if any one would like to do a read-along with me - let me know :o)

Sorry Lee, I'm somehow a month ahead/behind of the rest of the world.

I know the feeling :0)

Good plan - I was wanting to read the Munro one so having her as our December author fits in nicely. Also re: Austerlitz - if I can find a copy I'm in! Sense and Sensibility was my 3rd choice to be honest although I will still read it.

I'm up for Austerlitz too.

Yay!

I can't remember what I voted for now, I thought I'd chosen Austerlitz

When's good for everyone? Nov, Dec ?

Dec best for me as I generally do loads of reading over Christmas

Dec would suit me fine to - the discussion thread would stay open - so anyone who wanted to read it later could still join in.
I'll set up the Readalongs folder soon.

I'm now getting very confused! What are we reading and when?!!

Sorry Ellie - not an official group read - but if any one would like to join Hilary and I and Laurel we're thinking of reading Austerlitz as a buddy read/ readalong. Hilary and I are going to make a start sometime in December - but the thread will stay open for anyone who reads it later on.

I'm going to start a readalongs folder so that anyone who wants to read a book that they think other group members might join in on, can suggest it and , if they get any takers, start a discussion thread.

Apart from that on the group read front:

Sense and Sensibility won the poll for our November Monthly Read.
Tibor Fischer is our November monthly Author and
Alice Monroe is our December monthly author.

Hope this makes sense - sorry about the essay! :o)

December is fine for me too for the Austerlitz readalong

Right, all clear now :)

I'm afraid that I'm incredibly confused with all of the discussion threads on the site. I'd read this one and thought that the monthly read was Sense and Sensibility but I had an email last night to say that it was Stranger in a Strange Land. I think I've misunderstood how this all works. Help please! You're all reading so many books at once and I can only manage one at a time!

Sorry Tracey - I'll try and explain-

We do have quite a few books on the go - but there's no obligation to read any of them - just join in on the ones you fancy.

We read one book chosen from the Boxalls 1001 books to read before you die a month starting on the 15th and ending on the 14th of the next month. Effi Briest was this month's book and we'll be starting Sense and Sensibility Nov 15th.

We also read one of the longer Boxalls books every quarter - so we'll be reading Stranger in a Strange Land on Nov 1st and ending Jan 31st.

On top of this we have a Monthly author - everyone gets to choose which of their books (if any) they'd like to read. Novembers author is Tibor Fischer (starting Nov 6th)

Hope this makes sense :o)

Just realised this has already been answered on another thread Doh! :0)

The poll is up for our next book - the choice is between:
Jacques the Fatalist- Diderot
The Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector, and Selected Stories (containing The Nose) - Gogol
and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie

Ok the people have spoken and the winner of the poll for our December Monthly Read is ......................................
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

I've started already! :)

Such impatience :0) - I'll start the thread soon then.

And the winner of the poll for January is Obabakoak
I hadn't even heard of this one (or indeed of any of the ones in the poll) and am looking forward to it

Me too, something I've never heard off but am interested to learn more about the Basque people

The poll is up and running for Febs monthly read and the contenders are The Daughter - Pavlos Matesis
The Man With the Golden Arm- Nelson Algren
And A Void Georges Perec
I meant to send everyone an invitation to vote in this poll - but I'm not sure if it worked - can anyone let me know if they received anything - thanks.

I got it

No Lee, I didn't get any message.

But I did get four identical messages from you about Poem of the Day, doesn't know I'd that's any help.

Very odd - perhaps I'll try sending another message about the poll.

I thought I'd posted a comment here but as I can't see it I'll repeat it.

I so hope A Void doesn't win the vote, I don't think I can cope with a book written with all the "e"s missing. My brain is too tired!!!!!

I think it's that the author (and tranlator) have very cleverly avoided using words containing the letter e - rather than miss it out of words that should contain it.

That's a relief!!!!

So The Man With the Golden Arm won the poll for our February read and I have now set up the poll for March to give library users more notice to try and get hold of a copy
The contenders are:
Exercises in Style - Raymond Queneau
Crome Yellow - Aldous Huxley
The Guide - R K Narayan

Hooray to The Man with the Golden Arm! As a challenge for 2014 I am reading one National Book Award winner per month, and I had actually scheduled this one for March but February it will be.

That's cool Jenny - now you can read it with us! I voted for this one as well because it's the only one the local library had a copy of but it does look good.

Has anyone seen the film?- I think it starred Frank Sinatra.

The movie seems to be a real classic as well, my library doesn't have a copy of the book, but about 10 of the movie!

oops, cross-posting. ;) No I haven't but I think I will after reading the book.

After The Man With the Golden Arm -Nelson Algren ( which I keep wanting to write as the man with the Golden gun) in Feb, we have The Guide - R K Narayan starting March 15th