Poll
For our utopia/dystopia theme, which book would you prefer us to read and discuss?
You have an option to type in an additional candidate, if the list as is does not meet with your approval.
You have an option to type in an additional candidate, if the list as is does not meet with your approval.
The Dispossessed By Ursula Le Guin
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick:
The Book of the New Sunby Gene Wolfe
Walden Two by B.F. Skinner
Fatherland by Robert Harris
Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia by Samuel R. Delany
Blindness by José Saramago
1984 by George Orwell
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Roadside Picnic By Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Foundation Pit Andrei Platonov
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
The Castle by Franz Kafka
Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov
Grimus by Salman Rushdie
Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
A Clockwork Orangeby Anthony Burgess
Never Let Me Goby Kazuo Ishiguro
Battle Royaleby Koushun Takami
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Cloud Atlasby David Mitchell
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
The Children of Men by P.D. James
The Running Man by Stephen King
Poll added by: Traveller
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Pixelina
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Feb 25, 2014 05:36AM
So many good choices, but I ended up picking a book I have not read but meant to read for a long time :-D
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Oh wow! I think I'll save this as my summer 'to read' list (although that might be a bold goal)!! Awesome Trav! On the not so great side, I can't decide now, lol.
Jeanette (jema) wrote: "So many good choices, but I ended up picking a book I have not read but meant to read for a long time :-D"I've been wanting to read that one for a long time as well, so let's do it in any case, shall we?
Oh! I do want to apologise for all the funny "by" typo's . I roundly blame Goodreads for that. The poll choices are a mix of manual typing and those "add book" links (which are showing up at the bottom of the poll) and it all looked fine before pushing the "post" button.... :P
The Foundation Pit Andrei Platonov; Vineland by Thomas Pynchon; Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia by Samuel R. Delany; The Running Man by Stephen King (haven't read much of him - hope it is better than The Dome); Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov; Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood; Roadside Picnic By Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. Many of the rest of the list I have already read, but I could be convinced to do them again, although that would not be my first choice. Hmmm, I think I should have just listed the ones I am not interested in. On the other hand, how would I know?
Allen wrote: "Oh wow! I think I'll save this as my summer 'to read' list (although that might be a bold goal)!! Awesome Trav! On the not so great side, I can't decide now, lol."Ruth wrote: "The Foundation Pit Andrei Platonov; Vineland by Thomas Pynchon; Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia by Samuel R. Delany; The Running Man by Stephen King (haven't read much of him - hope it ..."
ROFL
I had to vote for Walden Two simply on the basis that Traveller included it. One of my absolute favorite utopias. I can't help thinking that only somebody whose own children claim he raised them in a Skinner Box could actually design a utopia. He wasn't a very nice man, but nor was the man who wrote Utopia.I reread it every now and then, and usually immediately follow it with Hellstrom's Hive, which has a somehow similar vibe but really shows just how thin the line is between Utopia and Dystopia.
Chose the Murakami, just because I couldn't get past the totally weird and enticing descriptions on Amazon ... then narrowed the list to what I thought involved more traditional sounding dystopian worlds. My runners up, in order:Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Running Man by Stephen King
Children of Men by P.D. James
The Vonnegut and Nabokov reads sounded intriguing as well. Good stuff!
Hmm, it looks as if the Dispossessed is winning at this point- and to think I almost didn't include it, because we've already read a Le Guin.
Ohhh! Someone voted for Book of the New Sun! I am ecstatic! The only downside with it is that one needs to read all 4 volumes to really get the full intent of the cycle, and that might prove to be a bit long for a group discussion. Perhaps when we're out of books to read, we can take it a book at a time, I wonder...
Traveller wrote: "Perhaps when we're out of books to read,..."Out of books to read?!? If only that could ever be a possibility...
Ruth wrote: "Traveller wrote: "Perhaps when we're out of books to read,..."Out of books to read?!? If only that could ever be a possibility..."
Heaven forbid that ever really happens.... I meant, for this group.. :P But yes, even that...
