Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

Polls are up to decide on the number of books we read each month, and whether to have read-alongs for the longer books from the list. Longer books are those of 450 pages and above.

Please do take part in deciding if the group should:

1. Increase the number of books to 4; three standard size and one longer book

2. Have regular, two-month long read-alongs for the longer books

Please go to the the polls page to place your votes on these two ideas. Voting will end on March 28th

With thanks

Sarah

I am a bit confused about how this is going to work. For April, The Idiot is the 'long' book so it will be read over April & May. So shouldn't we just have 2 books in the polls for May instead of 3?

I like the idea of this group, but I am also active in some other groups which have BoTM of their own. Having 4 books in May for this one group alone isn't manageable for me...

Hey Leslie. We'll probably just have to play it by ear with The Idiot. We hadn't decided to separate the longer books until after April's nominations were in, so the read-along system will probably only come into effect in when we start the nominations for June (mid-April). After that time, there should be a more manageable volume of reading each month.

As for removing one of the categories for May, I'd be reluctant to do this as votes have already started coming in for each one. The Idiot may be a longer read, but it is two thirds of the length of Bleak House - if we can survive the latter, we can certainly survive the former!

I should stress that members of this group are by no means under any obligation to try and read every book within the allocated month. Everyone is bound to have busier months than others - I'm actually about to start my finals and will struggle to read a great amount in the next two months. Feel free to select the books that interest you, and catch up on others at a more convenient time.

OK.I understand about not changing the categories for May as polling is already underway, but was curious about how it was going to work in future. Would the nominations (and polls) alternate between 3 one month and 2 the next?

Hi Leslie, Iona and I are in discussion about the read-alongs, unfortunately I've been especially exhausted so haven't been in touch as much as I'd like with Iona. Apologies for the time it's taking to sort, but we will get there! Although we could change things, it would be nice to get the practicalities of the longer reads and read-alongs right first time.

Thanks for the interest, I'm so pleased how much folks involve themselves in the group.