Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

July is the half-way point in the year, and we are going to shake things up a bit. Did you vote for a book that didn't win the poll? Would you like a second chance? Often the winning book wins by the slimmest of margins. For this month our polls will consist of the books that almost won.

Our July polls will include the second place books from January through June of 2023. This month you can swim, bask in the sun, or read a book knowing that nominations will return next month.

Enjoy and visit the polls when they open on May 16th.

Nominations for our August reads (Old School, New School, & Revisit) will be back to the usual rules.

New School 2nd Place Jan-June

June: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, 1924, 226 pages
May : The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, 1940, 222 pages
April: White Noise by Don DeLillo, 1985, 310 pages
March: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, 1996, 203 pages - 3rd Place book: The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham, 1919, 192 pages
February: True Grit by Charles Portis, 1968, 224 pages
January: On the Beach Nevil Shute, 1957, 296 pages

Revisit the Shelf 2nd place Jan-June

June The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (1937), 366 pages, last read Jan 2016
May Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë (1847), 251 pages , last read March 2016
April Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958) 209 pages, last read Feb. 2015
March The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1922) 64 pp., last read May 2017
February The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (1596) 337 pp., (I bet there are a lot of notes in this edition) last read Sept. 2016.
January The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (1982), 448 pages, last read Sept. 2016
January The Iliad by Homer (-750) 683 pages. Last read 07/2012.


Note: There was a tie for second place in January.

Old School Second Place, Jan-June

June Medea by Euripides, 432, 59 pp
May Lysistrata by Aristophanes, -424, 54 pp
April Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov, 586 pages, 1859
March The Aeneid by Virgil, -19, 484 pp
February The Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer, 1485, 323 pp
January Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, 1899, 400 pp

I love this idea! I have so many categories where I wanted to vote for two books and had to let one go. Many of them made it to second place, so I have another chance to vote for them. Thank you, brilliant idea!

Jen wrote: "I love this idea! I have so many categories where I wanted to vote for two books and had to let one go. Many of them made it to second place, so I have another chance to vote for them. Thank you, b..."

You are welcome, glad you like the idea. Obviously it can happen only occasionally, but perhaps we can use it again.

Thanks Jen! I actually see four books that I voted for but they didn't win the poll. Now there is a second chance.

Good idea, thanks Mods! Next time perhaps the books that came last in the polls. ;)

Michaela wrote: "Good idea, thanks Mods! Next time perhaps the books that came last in the polls. ;)"

Good twist on the idea. We may end up using that.

I like the idea of giving these runner-ups a second chance.
Also gives the mods a break this month which they deserve.
I'm rooting for We or True Grit for the New School book.

See you in a couple weeks at the polls.

I think sometimes the runner-up is the choice that probably would've won if the votes were hidden til the poll closed;
tactical vote-changing sometimes allows a popular "second choice" option to win the poll
so yes, they deserve another chance

Yes :-) I am glad 2nd places get a second chance. Sometimes my preference is the group's second choice.

Question: In New School Second Place list there seems to have been no second place for March?

Some rockin' good choices in there! The only problem will be how to clear enough room in my reading schedule to accommodate all the reads I will want to join.

Cynda Reads Again wrote: "...Question: In New School Second Place list there seems to have been no second place for March?"

Yes, the second place finisher for March was Into the Wild - It won June's poll, so I put in the 3rd place finisher.

RJ - Slayer of Trolls wrote: "Some rockin' good choices in there! The only problem will be how to clear enough room in my reading schedule to accommodate all the reads I will want to join."

I agree RJ.