New Leaf Vote for March 2018 • The Book Came First

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by gmw

I can see this is an approach that is possibly encouraged by the "only vote if you intend to participate rule" - by holding off until you can see if a book you like might win, and only voting if you think your vote can carry it over, you get to obey the letter of the rule if not necessarily the spirit of it.

After seeing how things worked last month, I don't think you would be alone in doing this. But the more people that do it the riskier it becomes as the deadline approaches, with everyone sitting there hitting refreshing waiting to be the last to cast their (hopefully deciding) vote, and also trying to make sure they get in early enough for their vote to count.

Well, assuming many people feel strongly about avoiding a particular book, sure. But how likely is that? Anyway, I was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek about the whole thing.

What I find difficult is working out if I should vote for books I nominated. On a personal/selfish level this can be counter productive (I am here mostly in the hope of being exposed to new stuff but I have so far I have been nominating books I have already read because I know they are worth nominating); but why bother nominating them if I don't want to encourage others to read them? So far I've gone with voting for my nominations but sort of hoping that my other votes counts more.

I had been thinking about this myself, but with an unlimited number of votes allowed, there's no reason not to vote for the book you nominated.

[CRussel]

Well, I went ahead and suggested the Chiang book at the library, and voted for it. I'm not really convinced, but it's certainly a possibility. And maybe I'll get lucky and my Library will order it? Hey, it never hurts to have hope.

[CRussel]

I'd really like to strongly suggest a nod for two of the books that aren't yet getting much uptake -- Elmer Gantry and The Old Man and the Sea. EG had a huge impact and is a powerful book, excellently adapted to the screen. I'll be reading it regardless, and watching the movie. The Hemingway is his finest book, superbly adapted to film with the author involved in the 50's adaptation. I admit, Spencer Tracy isn't exactly a Cuban fisherman, but he does well in it. And having read the book recently, when it became Public Domain in Canada, I can highly recommend it. An excellent book, well worth the awards it received.

[JSWolf]

The Light Between Oceans is not getting enough love. It's a 10-star book (when the rating system only goes to 5). It's that good. So please vote for it and get it up there. It deserves to win.

[JSWolf]

I have finished converting the 1818 version of Frankenstein to ePub. I have cleaned up the rather sloppy code. It's well formatted will convert well to KF8/KFX.

[Catlady]

I haven't voted yet, but The Light Between Oceans and Elmer Gantry are my top two choices. In fact, I already have the former on hold at my library.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I haven't voted yet, but The Light Between Oceans and Elmer Gantry are my top two choices. In fact, I already have the former on hold at my library.

Elmer Gantry is amazingly relevant today, both in regard to religion and to the cult of personality. It's an extremely powerful and entertaining book, and the film is pretty terrific, too. And the price is right.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by issybird

Elmer Gantry is amazingly relevant today, both in regard to religion and to the cult of personality. It's an extremely powerful and entertaining book, and the film is pretty terrific, too. And the price is right.

It is a book I planned on reading this year anyway--I've been trying to read one or two classics a month. I have only the vaguest recollection of the book and the movie; I keep checking the TCM listings for the film, but so far it's not scheduled.

[astrangerhere]

Happy to see Carson McCullers doing so well, even though I didn't nominate it. Her short story "Sucker" was in my top 10 last year.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Happy to see Carson McCullers doing so well, even though I didn't nominate it. Her short story "Sucker" was in my top 10 last year.

Yes, though I'm concerned that it's rather expensive at $10. It's slightly less at AmazonUK (£4.99 or ~$7 USD), but that's not an option for most of our members. OTOH, I had no difficulty getting a copy from the BC Public Library Overdrive, so if it wins, or you want to be proactive, folks should definitely check their library.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I didn't vote for McCullers because I have no desire to reread it. It's commonly taught in American high schools. I'd like to read something more contemporary and different so that's why I gave my vote to Ted Chiang instead.

Both are available at my libraries with no waits. Both are nominations that should lead to interesting discussion.

[JSWolf]

Personally, I prefer The Story of Your Life. I want something more modern and given the numbers, this is it.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I didn't vote for McCullers because I have no desire to reread it. It's commonly taught in American high schools. I'd like to read something more contemporary and different so that's why I gave my vote to Ted Chiang instead.

Both are available at my libraries with no waits. Both are nominations that should lead to interesting discussion.

This wasn't taught in my high school, or I'd have read it. At least it was in my library, since the Chaing was not.

Seriously, though, I'd prefer reading either Elmer Gantry or The Old Man and the Sea. Both should be obtainable by everyone. EG is a bit longer than absolutely desirable (430 pages), but with our longer lead times I don't think that's a huge issue. (And both should provide for decent discussion.)

[latepaul]

I really like Story of Your Life. I only didn't vote for it because I've read it (and the collection it's in) twice in the last eighteen months or so.

[Dazrin]

8 hours to go and latepaul's non-vote is the difference between first and second place. If you don't like the winner you can blame him I think.

Anyone planning on a last second vote to keep us on our toes?

Last call!

Spoiler:

In actuality, latepaul didn't vote for either of the front-runners (at this time) so he doesn't have anything to do with this but I couldn't resist.

latepaul, I hope you will forgive me. And I did vote for it, partly because you liked it enough to read it 2x in 18 months. That's a good endorsement in my book.