After reading Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway this month, and Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent in May, which book would you like to discuss in Book Club in June? Please cast your vote in our poll:
The result will be announced early in May, to allow plenty of time for you to acquire and read the selected title before our discussion in June.
You are very welcome to make suggestions for other books for us to read together — either reply to this message, or send me a PM. We’ll keep a list, and over the months ahead we’ll consider adding such suggestions to future book-choice polls.
When making a book suggestion, please remember that we will be reading books that are in the public domain in the UK and EU, where copyright laws protect work until 70 years after the author’s death.
There are a few days left in which to vote our Book Club’s June selection. Currently, The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane) is in the lead, with Germinal (Émile Zola) and Three Men in a Boat (Jerome K. Jerome) trailing behind, and no votes at all for poor old Castle Rackrent (Maria Edgeworth).
Which of these would you like to read in June? Vote here!
And which other novels do you think we should consider reading in the future? Do you have an old favourite that you would like to share, or a book that you have always intended reading but never got round to?
Speaking as the sole Castle Rackrent voter, is there a chance that it might be added to a future poll? I suppose the same question could apply to any of the books ‘defeated’ in a poll …
Yes, indeed, @Kinsey – and I’m glad you asked, as I’ve been thinking of including occasional polls specifically for out-voted titles. Close-run seconds seem to deserve another shot at some point, but I’d also like to give a second chance to books that were initially suggested by forum users, or that people have picked out as being of interest despite not pulling in the votes. By dint of your question, Castle Rackrent has now made it onto that list!
Out of interest, do people feel that four books is the right number for these polls? Or would it be better to reduce the list to three at a time?