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Home » Culture and Criticism

Tomato Nation Read-Along #5: Poll

Submitted by on September 15, 2010 – 8:28 PM10 Comments

We’ve got a rather weird list for the fifth round of the TN Read-Along; David Foster Wallace is back, as is Katherine Paterson, and you’ll also see some golden oldies.

Voting will close next Wednesday. Hit it.

Please pick as many as three (3) books you'd like to read along with:

  • Jacob Have I Loved (Katherine Paterson) / fiction (23%, 139 Votes)
  • Consider the Lobster (David Foster Wallace) / essays (18%, 108 Votes)
  • A People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn) / history (15%, 93 Votes)
  • The Power of Myth (Joseph Campbell) / philosophy (12%, 70 Votes)
  • The Moon and Sixpence (W. Somerset Maugham) / fiction (11%, 66 Votes)
  • The Best American True Crime Reporting 2007 (various) / true crime (8%, 48 Votes)
  • My Dark Places (James Ellroy) / true crime/memoir (7%, 40 Votes)
  • Crowned Heads (Thomas Tryon) / fiction (4%, 24 Votes)
  • Four Plays (William Inge) / play (2%, 14 Votes)
  • The Tennis Partner (Abraham Verghese) / memoir (1%, 6 Votes)

Total Voters: 300

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10 Comments »

  • ferretrick says:

    Crowned Heads? Interesting choice…definitely the last Tryon I would read again, and I’ve read them all. (Well except for that posthumous one, which I own but never got around to). It’s just…odd, and overwrought, and kind of fucked up. Not as fucked up as V C Andrews. Actually, come to think of it…

  • avis says:

    I read Jacob Have I Loved as a teenager and it was so completely depressing I can’t see ever reading it again.

  • Mertseger says:

    The Power of Myth turned me into a Pagan.

    Well…it was an important step along the way.

  • Jen S 1.0 says:

    C’mon, Lobster! You can do it! But I’d definitely love to read Inge again–I haven’t since my BA in Drama back in the dark ages.

    I am in total agreement that Jacob Have I Loved was, by a mile, the most depressing YA fiction I ever read.

  • Krista says:

    My Dark Places looks interesting.

    I don’t know anything about The Power of Myth and am only choosing it because Rory and Paris watch the video of it in that spring break GG episode. I’ve considered doing a reading project where I read books mentioned on that show, but I don’t want to read Dead Souls or The Figurehead so it will stay permanently in the idea stage.

  • LLyzabeth says:

    Dude, DUDE…wow, I JUST got done with The Power of Myth, borrowed it from my Dad while I was visiting. Talk about timing. IT’S A SIGN! Heh, sorry, one tends to be very enthusiastic about the mysterious ways of the universe after reading that one..

  • Mertseger says:

    @Krista The Power of Myth the book is just a transcription of The Power of Myth the video, and I have both, and I’d recommend the video over the book. The book can’t capture Campbell’s facial expressions, particularly when he’s telling a myth. Moyers is slightly on the fawning side, but, in this case, why not?

    I was sharing a house with six others during grad-school when the series debuted on PBS. A couple started watching with me on the first night, and by the end of the series my room was crammed with all the housemates and their boyfriends and girlfriends.

  • Lisa says:

    @Krista – Gilmore Girls is the only reason I know anything about The Power of Myth too! And a reading list based on books mentioned on that show would be ambitious to say the least, but you have me kind of intrigued by the idea!

  • Elisa says:

    The only book that I have even heard of is the Joseph Campbell one.

    **Hangs head in shame.**

  • Cat_slave says:

    Jacob Have I Loved depressing? I agree it isn’t the fluffiest of stories, but I think it is a quite empowering tale about letting go of (maybe justified) grievances and get a life of your own:-)

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