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The Barbelith Big Read Book List – Vote now!

  
  

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Red Cross Iodized Salt
03:05 / 11.12.03
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace VOTES: 3

Cause I actually do re-read IJ (or at least parts of it) for comfort. Yay Don Gately.
 
 
PatrickMM
03:20 / 11.12.03
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick Votes: 2
 
 
sleazenation
08:55 / 11.12.03
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut VOTES: 4 or 3 depending on who you believe

I nominated Slaughterhouse 5 am i allowed to vote again now?
 
 
Olulabelle
09:02 / 11.12.03
Yes of course you are. For the final selection (this bit) each person is allowed one vote. Your nomination counted only for the first round.
 
 
The resistable rise of Reidcourchie
09:03 / 11.12.03
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Votes 1

best of a bad lot, though I nearly voted for Kavalier & Klay. What, no pirates?
 
 
Mourne Kransky
09:29 / 11.12.03
Your nomination counted only for the first round.

In that case: Left Hand of Darkness - 4 VOTES
 
 
fussycat
09:55 / 11.12.03
The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin VOTES: 1
 
 
sleazenation
10:30 / 11.12.03
Well since i can vote...
i cast my ballot with slaughterhouse 5 making the running total

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut VOTES: 5
 
 
wembley can change in 28 days
10:58 / 11.12.03
For such a high-falutin' IQ/EQ group, there's a lot of cack favourites to be had! Oh well.

Generation X by Douglas Coupland. VOTES: 3

Because I had the end of the world supermarket story photocopied and on my wall for years.
 
 
illmatic
11:09 / 11.12.03
Myth&Angel - that should be VOTES:2 for Wizard of Easrthsea. May I commend you on your excellent taste.
 
 
Olulabelle
11:09 / 11.12.03
This list was made under basically the same criteria as the BBC Big Read, so our list would suggest that as a community we appear to be less literary and more inclined to 'cack fantasy' than the general British BBC watching public.

This was our criteria for nominations: This list is not of the 'best' books (contemporary and classic works of literature that stand out for their fine writing, profound explorations of the human condition and their impact on the direction of world literature) as that would look more like an English undergraduate's reading list. It's a list of comfort reads or books you always go back to, even if it's something you last read in childhood. It's an emotive list rather than one of literary excellence.

And I feel compelled to say if you don't like the list, where was your nomination, hmmm? See Books for occasional threads on, gosh, books.
 
 
Quantum
12:17 / 11.12.03
Now Votes:3 for Wizard of Earthsea (after much grappling with my conscience over the Homeward Bounders- sorry DWJ), if only for Ged's scary shadow.
 
 
The resistable rise of Reidcourchie
14:13 / 11.12.03
Originally posted by olulabelle, the high priestess of Odd

"And I feel compelled to say if you don't like the list, where was your nomination, hmmm? See Books for occasional threads on, gosh, books."

Oh that's what that forums for, explains a lot.
 
 
Cheap. Easy. Cruel.
14:30 / 11.12.03
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson - votes: 2

There is my vote. So many good ones. I wish I had known, I would have nominated The Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
 
 
Spyder Todd 2008
14:50 / 11.12.03
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card, 1 vote.
I haven't read most of the books on this list, though not from lack of trying. I just don't have enough time for reading....
 
 
Pemulis / Dee Vapr / Hungrygho
15:36 / 11.12.03
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace VOTES: 4
 
 
gergsnickle
17:18 / 11.12.03
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace VOTES: 5
 
 
somavee
20:03 / 11.12.03
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick Votes: 3
 
 
Mr Tricks
21:38 / 11.12.03
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, VOTES: 3
 
 
moriarty
02:35 / 12.12.03
Watership Down by Richard Adams VOTES : 2
 
 
uncle retrospective
06:02 / 12.12.03
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut VOTES: 6
 
 
wembley can change in 28 days
06:29 / 12.12.03
Ooh! And I would have voted for Life of Pi.

oulu - my complaining was meant to be a bit more lighthearted than perhaps it was taken. I remember being paralysed with indecision when faced with the prospect of choosing my favourite book. I almost had a heart attack while voting, as it were.
 
 
Ariadne
06:39 / 12.12.03
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov VOTES: 5
 
 
rakehell
02:05 / 15.12.03
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, VOTES 6
 
 
Cloned Christ on a HoverDonkey
03:23 / 15.12.03
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut - VOTES: 7

Although Ingenious Pain comes a very close second. Both amazing books, in their own ways.

Then Cryptonomicon.
 
 
Disco is My Class War
06:20 / 15.12.03
This list is so awful I think the point of the exercise will be hopelessly lost. Nevermind.

Left Hand of Darkness: 5 VOTES, now, because it is a book I return to in a comforting kind of way. Nevertheless, if I had my way, I'd be nominating:

Vineland, by Thomas Pynchon
Sarah, JT Leroy
The Marketplace Series by Laura Antoniou -- just to quell any misconceptions that I'm not in favour of "genre" novels.
Play It As It Lays, Joan Didion
Libra, Don de Lillo
The Outsiders, SE Hinton

Pity I don't check the books forum often enough.
 
 
Rage
10:11 / 15.12.03
Ok then.

I nominate A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick and Shamanspace by Steve Aylett.
 
 
Fist Fun
11:30 / 15.12.03
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Votes 1
 
 
Ofermod
01:18 / 16.12.03
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick Votes: 4
 
 
gravitybitch
02:07 / 16.12.03
Ahhhrgg.... I think unheimlich man? was stacking the deck, as it were - ze started The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin with three votes. (at least in this thread...)

I'm torn. Out of the 9 on the list that I've read, 4 are books that I might go back to for a second/third/whatever read, and there is no point to strategizing with my vote as I don't think any of them are serious front-runners and they're all pretty well tied, both in the general vote and in my affections.

...pppffftttghghght... Cryptonomicon: three votes.
 
 
Bastard Tweed
07:02 / 16.12.03
This may point to something intrinsically broken about my persona but I actually do read

Naked Lunch-William S. Burroughs VOTES: 1

for comfort. There's just something about rampant alienation from one's own body that makes me feel all warm-and-snuggly-like.
 
 
Bed Head
23:30 / 16.12.03
Tropic Of Cancer by Henry Miller VOTES:2

And I cant believe Jack is the only other person to vote for this world-eating work of genius. So, it’ll end up, like, in last place, but I don’t care. Personally, I prefer Capricorn, anyway.
 
 
ephemerat
09:35 / 17.12.03
I too preferred Tropic of Capricorn, but for what it's worth:

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller VOTES: 3
 
 
Sax
09:42 / 17.12.03
Someone vote for Kerouac, you bastards.
 
 
Jack The Bodiless
11:47 / 17.12.03
The Man Who Was Thursday, G K Chesterton - VOTES 2

...and will you twats please stop complaining that the list is crap?! You've had the rules and the format epxlained to you over and over, and you've missed your chance. If you're going to participate, stop being such fucking children. If you're not, stay out of the thread.

Christ. *oooh, cack list, cack list, oooh cack fantasy, oooh, if I'd had my way I'd have* SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP
 
  

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