Book News and Reviews » Poll

Poll: How Many Books Did You Read Last Year?

Julia — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:32:00 +0000

The “How Many Books Did You Read Last Year” poll has closed. Thank goodness for all you avid readers out there! You’ve restored my faith in humanity. The following are the results:

53% voted that they read ten or more books last year
30% read between five and ten books
23% read somewhere between three and four books

Thanks to everyone for voting. Happy reading for 2008! I hope you will include my short story After the Bombs – due for release in a couple of months – as part of your 2008 reading material.

(I know, I’m shamelessly plugging, but hey, it’s my website)

Only Three Fourths of Americans Read

Julia — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:56:00 +0000

This statistic is freaking me out. Apparently one in four Americans read no books at all last year. What is up with that? Also, the typical adult on average read only four books last year. Four! I read at least four books in a month, usually more like six. What do these people do with their time? It seems that it’s people like you and me who keep the publishing industry afloat!

Now that I’ve tsk tsk’d the American people, how much do you read in a year? I’m setting up a new poll to ask everyone this question, so check it out.

Classics Poll Comes to a Close

Julia — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:24:00 +0000

A poll was taken of “Which Classic is better” and the following are the results:Last Place with 5% of votes was:

Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea
Tied for second place with 27% of the vote were:

Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables
and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
And…Drumroll please… the winner with 38% of the vote was A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh
Thanks for your input to all that participated in my little poll!

Classic Roundup

Julia — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 07:38:00 +0000

I created a poll on “Which Classic is Better?” a few days ago and I wanted to explain my selection of books – why I picked the ones that I did and not other ones.The poll consist of the following books:
The Old Man and The Sea (by Ernest Hemingway)
Les Miserable (by Victor Hugo)
Hamlet (by William Shakespeare)
Winnie The Pooh (by A. A. Milne)
Aesop’s Fables (by Aesop)

I recently read Hemingway’s book and found his writing style intriguing, simple and beautiful. It was a wonderful book about human struggle and a different way of life than the fast-paced craziness we live in today.
I also recently read Les Miserable. It is a wonderful and fascinating book. It’s really long and might be tedious for people who don’t like to skip over bits.

Hamlet, well, who doesn’t love a little Shakespeare? I fie you to say you don’t like Shakespeare. You’d better have a damned good reason.

Winnie the Pooh, well, I grew up on Winnie. Also, I had an ulterior motive. I know my step mom LOVES Winnie the Pooh, so I had to put it up for her.

Aesop’s Fables are incredible classic. I love them. I think they are one of the many reasons I also love Neil Gaiman’s book Anansi Boys.

Now, as is obvious from above, I put that particular list of classics because I love them. I will now tell you some classics I don’t love and why.Two classics I don’t love:

1. The Catcher in the Rye (by J.D. Salinger)

Okay, why don’t I love Catcher in the Rye? I know this is a highly acclaimed and criticized novel and you can listen to everyone’s opinions about it if you want, but my basic beef with this book is that the during entire book nothing happens. Can you tell I am annoyed? I wasted days reading this book and nothing happened at all. That’s why I didn’t put this book on my poll. If you like it, fine. Good for you. My cousin likes it too and I still love her, so I won’t judge you by it, but I don’t like it at all. If you like this book, feel free to tell me how wrong I am for not liking it. I’d love to hear what other people think about it.

2. Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Ah, good old Atlas Shrugged, why isn’t it on my list? Well, I certainly think that this book has some great ideas in it. Unfortunately, that’s all I can say for this book.
What I have to say against it is that it’s way too long. I think about half the book could be cut out without losing any of the integrity of the story, the philosophy she is trying to convey or her other ideas. I also felt like I wasted time while reading this book and ended up just leafing through it at the end.
Also, she repeats her philosophical ideas far too often. They are already incorporated into the story, so there is really no reason for her characters to talk about it, for them to think about it and make speeches about it. I didn’t buy the book for it’s philosophical merit. I bought it to be entertained. To her credit, the philosophy is really pretty interesting and usable.

That’s really about it. I usually like most of the books I’ve read, even if they are flawed. So, there ya go. I’m still going to do a review this week, but I thought I’d also give you a little back story on my poll.

My Favorite Classic Isn’t on Your Poll – Doofus!

Julia — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:58:00 +0000

If your favorite classic isn’t on my poll, comment below to tell me what it is! I’d love to know!