Tomato Nation Read-Along #14: Poll
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on January 19, 2012 – 5:49 PM14 Comments
Plagues and Bible-thumpers hang on from our last poll, plus the Fug Girls, VJs, and a brick of a book about Nixon and Carter. Pick us out a good one!
Which book(s) would you read along with? (You can pick as many as 3.)
- The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (John M. Barry) / history (19%, 131 Votes)
- Spoiled (Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan) / fiction (17%, 123 Votes)
- Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge (Don Lattin) / history (15%, 106 Votes)
- Stories I Only Tell My Friends (Rob Lowe) / autobiography (14%, 97 Votes)
- Saturday Night: A Backstage History of SNL (Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad) / pop culture (10%, 67 Votes)
- I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution (Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum) / pop culture (10%, 67 Votes)
- The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crimes (ed. Roger Wilkes) / true crime (8%, 57 Votes)
- The Game From Where I Stand: A Ballplayer's Inside View (Doug Glanville) / baseball (4%, 27 Votes)
- Music for Chameleons (Truman Capote) / essays (3%, 20 Votes)
- Marathon: The Pursuit of the Presidency, 1972-1976 (Jules Witcover) / politics; doorstops (1%, 10 Votes)
Total Voters: 329
Loading ...Share!
Tags: books Go Fug Yourself Jesse Camp The TN Read-Along
Man, everybody’s avoiding that influenza book like the plague!
I voted for infleuenza. Among other things, I’m currently working through Under the Banner of Heaven, and just finished Inside Scientology, so I’m all set with the religious freaks of any kind for a while…
Ba dum tiss!
Baseball, MTV and Truman Capote. I like those three things.
Barry’s influenza book is truly great. I read it a while back, and it’s really stuck with me. You learn how really medieval American medicine was at the time. (The subtitle should be “Hooray for Johns Hopkins!”)
I love the Fug Girls, but that book wasn’t half as good as I was expecting. Too much fan service, not enough heart.
I second the thumbs up for The Great Influenza – I found it incredibly engrossing to read, and I learned so much about medicine and what really went on during the epidemic.
I put in a vote for the Backstage History of SNL – I read it years ago, and really enjoyed it, but it left me with the indelible impression that Dan Ackroyd is equally funny and scary. (There’s a description of his reaction to a memo from NBC brass that’s just, um, wow. Too call it a meltdown of epic proportions is an understatement.) The downside of the book is you realize how much stronger and fearless the show once was, and that the SNL that’s currently on the air isn’t much better than a corpse that’s being dressed up on a weekly basis. Still, it’s a great read.
Aw, four of you voted for the doorstop! Love you guys. (lift with your legs pls)
Interesting to hear that Dan Ackroyd comes across as scary in the explosive sense. A woman I know lived in a town where Ackroyd had a home, and she’s always maintained he was scary in the “I really hope I’m not working ALONE at the convenience store when he comes in” way. And that he was known for trolling the local high school for girls. Ick.
I will say for Aykroyd that he handled a profoundly idiotic fan moment very graciously. Long story very short, it involves a certain writer whose name rhymes with “Farrah Funting” gushing to the man about “Spies Like Us” while sharing a freight elevator. …”SPIES LIKE US.” The elevator operator took me by the shoulders and asked me very gravely if I had been drinking. (It was 8:30 AM.)
Same elevator, several years later, I bust out a “that’s what SHE said!” on Carson Kressley and the elevator operator is like, “You take the stairs from now on, kookbag.”
Oooh! The Great Influenza. :)
I need a good excuse to reread this (because I’m snowed under readings for grad school, so of course I’m looking for ways to procrastinate)!
Hee, hee, Farrah Funting. All those who now want to see Sars go blonde again and get a Farrah?
@ ferretrick: Oooh, that could be the goal for the next DC challenge: Sars with Farrah hair, reinacting a scene from Charlie’s Angels (while dressed as a tomato, of course.)
I’ve actually already read most of these choices (good choosin’ y’all!), so I went with Marathon.
I got “The Great Influenza” – I assume that was the winner?- from the library. Waiting for the read-along to start… :)