101 Books to Read Before You Die discussion

Please post your nominations for our June read from our list of 101 books to read.

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Ian Pears

So is this the book we will be reading for June?

Phoenix wrote: "So is this the book we will be reading for June?"

As it is the only nomination, it will be June's read. In July we will seek other award winning books outside of the 101 list.

OK, cool. Why are we doing books outside the 101 list when there are so many left on the list?

Phoenix wrote: "OK, cool. Why are we doing books outside the 101 list when there are so many left on the list?"

Because energy around the titles on that list was slackening. As you can see from our current book discussion, we have only 3 posts and of those, only one has read it. Expanding to other award-winning books was an attempt to gain greater participation by the members.

My library's copy of the current selection is out. :-( But, I'm reading it when possible.

How about The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Ok... I don’t know if I really want to participate in reading other books, as the 101 list was the reason I joined this group. I may just continue on with the list myself. There are lots of other groups reading award winning books.

Leslie, I don't think your nomination is on this list. The june book is supposed to be from the list.

Irene wrote: "Leslie, I don't think your nomination is on this list. The june book is supposed to be from the list."


Fixed. I also support the list. It was what appealed to me, but I joined you late into it. We probably just need a fresh 101 list.

Leslie and Phoenix, Your input about reading off the list or expanding the current list, etc. is valuable. There is a thread where this was discussed last year. I hope you will add your thoughts to that thread. I fear that these valuable thoughts might not be seen in this nomination thread. I also joined after the list was formed. There are a number of remaining titles that don't seem to be generating much energy. So the question was asked if we should either remove some titles from the list, expand the list or alternate this list with a larger pool of titles. Although my vote was not to select from a larger population of award winners (like you Phoenix, I am in another group that reads from award winning lists) this was the decision after lots of thought. But, if I remember correctly, this was adapted as a trial schedule. So, if it is not what the members want, I think there is room to adjust. I think our mod at the time, was trying to figure out how to best meet the desires of the members and increase participation. Thanks for being part of the conversation that is trying to make this group the best it can be.

Thanks for your input everyone! Indeed, participation had slackened somewhat, either due to life business (in my case) or to lack of interest in some of the title, either because many of our members have already read them (Mike, I believe, has read nearly, if not all, of them) or because some of the titles just aren't as interesting to some members. I agree with you, I want to read (almost) all of the titles on the original list eventually, but to keep up interest, I decided to intersperse some other book selections in between, to keep up interest. I'll pop into the other thread to see what you all have discussed there as well. Thanks for your interest!

Didn’t this 101 list come from a 1001 list originally? Why not just pick some appealing titles from the larger list?

I think it's some list a magazine or someone had compiled at one point. Some of the books aren't on the Boxall's list, if that's the one you're meaning, but I think most of them are, or at least most of the authors.

I'm not opposed to creating our own list, even if we're taking titles from the Boxall's list: we could all nominate a few books that we especially like or would be most interested in reading (rather than an overwhelming number like 1001, which is why I liked this group to begin with, as you said!)

Irene wrote: "Leslie, I don't think your nomination is on this list. The june book is supposed to be from the list."

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is indeed on the list but we are a little too late to get a poll finished for June.

Folks; I would simply suggest if you have books from the list you wish to read, please feel free to nominate them at any time. Meanwhile we will also, on occasion, seek outside award winning nominations to help keep the interest fresh. We have read 60/101 and my personal opinion is there are a few stinkers left that aren't worthwhile.

Mike, my comment was about an earlier nomination from Leslie. After my post, she edited her comment and replaced her original suggestion with one from the list. I do know that this one is on our list. Sorry about the confusion.

Mike wrote: "Folks; I would simply suggest if you have books from the list you wish to read, please feel free to nominate them at any time. Meanwhile we will also, on occasion, seek outside award winning nomina..."

Are you saying no poll or are you saying you are not accepting my nomination which was entered on time? It was fixed immediately.

We're going to go ahead with An Instance of the Fingerpost just because we didn't get any other new nominations until right at the end of May (so no time for a poll), but we can certainly keep Unbearable Lightness as a suggestion for July (I ran across it at a yard sale today actually!) and go ahead and get those nominations started! :-) That's one I've really been wanting to read, anyway.

Ok, cool.