Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

This month's categories are Comedy and State Of The Nation

so let's get nominating... :o)

For State of the Nation, I nominate Vineland by Thomas Pynchon

For Comedy, I nominate The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker by Tobias Smollett

For State of the Nation, I'd like to nominate Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. I've been wanting to read it for a while, and was hoping to get to it this year.

For Comedy, I'll go with Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding.

Renee wrote: "For State of the Nation, I'd like to nominate Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. I've been wanting to read it for a while, and was hoping to get to it this year.

For Comedy, I'll go with..."


Renee, you should definitely consider joining Reading the Chunksters. They are getting ready to read Les Mis. right now:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Christopher wrote: "Renee, you should definitely consider joining Reading the Chunksters. They are getting ready to read Les Mis. right now:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... "

Thanks, I'll have to look at that group.

I did not see a lot of knee-slappers on that Comedy list.

However, I will go with Scoop by Evelyn Waugh.

And for State of the Nation,

The Day of the Locust

most accessible in the US as Miss Lonelyhearts / The Day of the Locust

What about the laugh-a-minute Kafka entrant The Castle? (Actually, I haven't read it--it might be funny. There were parts of The Trial I laughed at)

I nominate

Augustus Carp, Esq. By Himself Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man by Henry Howarth Bashford for COMEDY.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe for STATE OF NATION

Oh, I have been wanting to read Augustus Carp but other books have been intervening. So I will second that one :)

For State of the Nation, I suggest This Sporting Life by David Storey. The GR blurb says:
"Rugby League football in an industrial northern city circa 1960 is a life of grime, mud, sweat, intrigue and naked ambition. In This Sporting Life, David Storey recounts the fortunes of gladiator hero Arthur Machin from the day of his inclusion in the local team to the match when he begins to feel age creeping up on him. Through Arthur we are taken into his raw, often brutal world of players, backers, Saturday crowds bloody noses and broken teeth, landladies and communal baths"

Renee wrote: ",,,For Comedy, I'll go with Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding. ."

Renee, it's like you're reading my mind! - look what dropped through my letterbox today:



:oD

ok so, so far we have 5 nominations for State of the Nation:
Vineland
Les Misérables
The Day of the Locust
Uncle Tom's Cabin
This Sporting Life

and 4 for Comedy:
The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker
Bridget Jones's Diary
Scoop
Augustus Carp, Esq. By Himself Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man

given the relatively small number of people we get voting, we probably don't want many more than 5-6 nominations going forward to the Polls, so although I won't close nominations until Sunday (8th), please don't add any more unless you really don't fancy any of the above...

I haven't made any suggestions, as there's a few I'd be happy to read :)

I think that more people would vote if a message was sent out when the polls go up. But on the down side, you get people voting who never comment on the discussion and the active members of the group might end up with books they don't want to read...

Leslie wrote: "I think that more people would vote if a message was sent out when the polls go up. But on the down side, you get people voting who never comment on the discussion and the active members of the gro..."

Yeah, Leslie - exactly. The months where I sent out full group notifications for voting, the small group of us who were reading the monthly reads all got stuck reading books no one seemed to really want. Because of that, I started just notifying people via the nomination thread, figuring people who were following the threads were the ones we wanted.

I think Darren was working out some kind of system and is going to try a few things, so we'll see where this takes us! :-)

I suppose you could make a system where only people that have participated in, say the last 3 months, can vote in the current poll.

Are any of you aware of the group, Reading 1001’s voting system? It’s very impressive. They give members participation points to vote with. At the time of a new poll each member gets 1 point = 1 vote. You can get 3 extra points (I think) for each group book you read & participate in discussing; 1 point a month for general talking; more points for completing challenges etc. The polls are sent out to each member via Survey Monkey. Each member takes responsibility for keeping track of their points in an open thread. It does seem like a lot of work for the Mods to keep in control of but the members enjoy it and it means they can use up to 5 points for each poll, choosing whether to use all points for one book vote or spread over a few books. Remaining points are then rolled over to the next month.

I’m not saying we should copy their voting system exactly but perhaps we could take a few ideas from their example?

Interesting! That would be good for me as I am talkative *grin*

OK, nominations closed!

Polls are up, and will open shortly - tell your friends!! ;o)

Catriona wrote: "Are any of you aware of the group, Reading 1001’s voting system? It’s very impressive. They give members participation points to vote with. At the time of a new poll each member gets 1 point = 1 vo..."

I have actually seen there system, and I do agree that I like systems like that. The problem I had was that it was getting hard enough for me to just post the monthly polls without the extra craziness! Maybe with an extra helpful new moderator, though, we could go back to considering some of these extra types of polls!!

I decided not to send out a wholesale Poll Invite to all members, but just to those more recently active.

we had 14 different voters last month, so hopefully we can see a slight increase...

I will send out an "all hands" message informing everybody after the fact of what we'll be reading in May in the hope of drawing a bit more traffic...

just a reminder that Polls Close Tomorrow (Friday)

currently in the lead we have Uncle Tom's Cabin and Scoop, so if either of those don't appeal you need to get voting!

also, there seem to be fewer votes in State of the Nation than in Comedy, so a few people might have overlooked voting in both...?

I didn't vote in the State of the Nation category, as I'm not interested in reading/ rereading any of them, so I didn't want to vote unfairly.

I am interested in a few of the comedy options, I don't think my choice will win, but I might see if I can get a copy of Scoop.

I didn’t have an option to vote in State of the Nation....From the list I may not have chosen Uncle Tom’s Cabin, however the beauty of the list is you may discover hidden gems (or monstrosities ;-) ) you wouldn’t have picked up otherwise. If you guys are reading it I will give it a go, it may turn out to be a new favourite.....

Pink wrote: "I didn't vote in the State of the Nation category, as I'm not interested in reading/ rereading any of them, so I didn't want to vote unfairly.

I am interested in a few of the comedy options, I do..."

I thought Scoop was hilarious Pink, but I have a fondness for satire. I hope that you like it if you do end up reading it. My choice (Augustus Carp, Esq. By Himself Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man) came out pretty low down but I might read it anyway.

Fay - as a group member you should be able to vote in all our Polls - there's a link up near the top right of every group page, which I reproduce here:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/1...

the invites I sent out were directly linked to just one poll (Comedy in your case) but I thought I put in links to both in the accompanying message - PLMK if you have any probs... :o)

@darren thanks :-)

Leslie, I am a fan of Waugh's style of satire, though I haven't read as much of his work as I'd like to. I have a couple of his books on my shelf, still unread, but need to source a copy of Scoop.

Darren wrote: "I decided not to send out a wholesale Poll Invite to all members, but just to those more recently active.

we had 14 different voters last month, so hopefully we can see a slight increase...

I wil..."

Should I be flattered or insulted that I wasn't included in those who got an invitation?

@leslie - ohhhhh burn 😂🤣

Leslie - You must've already voted before the invites went out - I certainly didn't forget you! ;o)

meanwhile The May Poll Winners Are:
Uncle Tom's Cabin and Scoop


I've already read (and enjoyed) Scoop, so will join in the discussion for that
UTC has been on my TBR list for a while, so this is the ideal opportunity to just do it!
(plus it's free on Kindle and gutenberg!)

Fay wrote: "I didn’t have an option to vote in State of the Nation....From the list I may not have chosen Uncle Tom’s Cabin, however the beauty of the list is you may discover hidden gems (or monstrosities ;-)..."

Hee hee. It was me that nominated the monstrosity :)

@Renee I will forgive you this time ;-) I actually am cautiously optimistic so watch this space.....