Hey, all! I promised Shaunie I'd post my poll this week, and I'm pretty sure I said Wednesday, so here it is!

First, I want to apologise for being horribly indecisive and not being able to narrow it down to fewer than FIVE books to choose from... but that's what the poll is for!
I was in a science-fiction-y kind of mood, which strongly influenced the first four options, but I also have a customer at Starbucks who has been in the store every day for the last three days reading the last choice which really piqued my interest in reading it, myself.

Here's some info on the books we're selecting from for this read-through:


The Day of the Triffids
This is one of the 1001.
The risks of genetic engineering become horrifyingly real in this post-apocalyptic tale of the collapse of human society and nature's revenge.
When Bill Masen wakes up in hospital after recovering from eye injuries, he is faced with a deathly silence. As he peels the bandages from his eyes, he discovers that the rest of the world has gone blind and civilization has come to an end. A future of chaos and violence awaits him, but the greatest threat is yet to come: the Triffids, genetically engineered plants who feed on human flesh. Sensing their new-found ecological advantage, they quietly escape from their confines and seize their day...


2001: A Space Odyssey
This is one of the 1001. It was developed concurrently with Stanley Kubrick's film version and published after the release of the film. The story is based in part on various short stories by Clarke.
Man's control over the machines he has created is absolute. He has manipulated his natural environment, conquered the problems of interplanetary travel, and is ready for what comes next.
In the first year of the twenty-first century, 2001. You are the commander of Discovery, a spacecraft traveling at a hundred thousand miles per hour. Your destination is a planet on the farthest edge of the Solar System. Your companions are a fellow navigator, three deep-freeze hibernauts, and Hal, a chatty computer who ceaselessly guides your course and your life. The mission you undertake through the abyss of space has been set off by a shrieking slab found within the Moon's crater Clavius. There is no possibility that this strange monolith is a natural formation. It is a deliberately buried calling card, left by an alien Intelligence millions of years ago. And you must find It, wherever, whatever It is.


Stranger in a Strange Land
This is one of the 1001.
Winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, this is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs.


Island of Dr. Moreau
This is one of the 1001
A lonely island in the Pacific... the sinister scientist who rules it... and the strange beings who dwell there...
This is the scenario for H.G. Wells's haunting classic, one of his most intriguing and visionary fictions. Living in the late nineteenth century and facing the impact of Darwin's theory of evolution, Wells wrote his chilling masterpiece about the blurring characteristics of beasts as they turn into men. Dr. Moreau, a scientist expelled from his homeland for his cruel vivisection experiments, finds an isolated island that gives him the freedom to continue tortuous transplantations and create hideous creatures with manlike intelligence.


The Golden Compass AKA Northern Lights
Some books improve with age--the age of the reader, that is. Such is certainly the case with Philip Pullman's heroic, at times heart-wrenching novel, The Golden Compass, a story ostensibly for children but one perhaps even better appreciated by adults. The protagonist of this complex fantasy is young Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Oxford University. But it quickly becomes clear that Lyra's Oxford is not precisely like our own--nor is her world. For one thing, people there each have a personal dæmon, the manifestation of their soul in animal form. For another, hers is a universe in which science, theology, and magic are closely allied:
As for what experimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. She had formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with the movements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, but that was guesswork, really. Probably the stars had dæmons just as humans did, and experimental theology involved talking to them.
Not that Lyra spends much time worrying about it; what she likes best is "clambering over the College roofs with Roger the kitchen boy who was her particular friend, to spit plum stones on the heads of passing Scholars or to hoot like owls outside a window where a tutorial was going on, or racing through the narrow streets, or stealing apples from the market, or waging war." But Lyra's carefree existence changes forever when she and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, first prevent an assassination attempt against her uncle, the powerful Lord Asriel, and then overhear a secret discussion about a mysterious entity known as Dust. Soon she and Pan are swept up in a dangerous game involving disappearing children, a beautiful woman with a golden monkey dæmon, a trip to the far north, and a set of allies ranging from "gyptians" to witches to an armor-clad polar bear.
In The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman has written a masterpiece that transcends genre. It is a children's book that will appeal to adults, a fantasy novel that will charm even the most hardened realist. Best of all, the author doesn't speak down to his audience, nor does he pull his punches; there is genuine terror in this book, and heartbreak, betrayal, and loss. There is also love, loyalty, and an abiding morality that infuses the story but never overwhelms it.

Ok -- tell me what you want!

:lol: Well, as of this moment we have a five-way tie :rofl: Each book has been voted for exactly once. Is that five different people voting for five different books? Or is that one person voting for two and another couple of people voting for one each...? I guess I'm just too impatient to find out what the results will be now that I'm finally officially completely out of school for the summer and I have time. YaY! Time! :pepper:

I guess I'll just keep checking. :wink:

some interesting choices! I picked Stranger in a Strange Land, 2001 and Golden Compass. I've already read Golden Compass, but I have the movie here to watch, so it might be interesting to watch the movie then read the book again. I have not read any Heinlen or Clarke, so either of those would be a good broadening of my classic experience, which is probably sadly lacking! ;)

I voted for them all except The Golden Compass, which I have already read, though I am happy to read it again :giggle: I have a copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey on my shelf to read and I expect that I could pick up one of the others at the library if needed.

I voted for Day of the Triffids, Stranger in a Strange Land and The Golden Compass.

I know I have the Golden Compass here, as well as the other two books in the trilogy so this would be a good excuse to read them.

I think I have Stranger in a Strange Land and it sounds good.

I don't have Day of the Triffids, but it sounds very interesting.

I actually only voted for one (Day of the Triffids) because I've read almost all of the others!

i voted Golden Compass since I saw the movie and my friend gave me the complete set for my birthday...

I've already read 3 of those, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. I wouldn't mind joining any conversations. Although to be honest, I was least impressed with Stranger in a Strange Land. It was like a dessert that goes down smooth while you're eating it but has a funny after taste at the end.

The Island of Dr. Moreau is by far the easiest of those 3 reads if you're looking for something quick.

My classes will be ending this week so maybe I can join you in your reading group! :D

It's looking like The Golden Compass is pulling ahead here. Most everyone has already got a copy. I'm leaning more heavily toward it, myself, as just this morning my 11 year old announced, "I got to chapter two in The Golden Compass last night!" Since it was supposed to be a book that we read together, I was planning on reading it along with him, anyway, whether the group decided on it or not. However, since most of the voters are feeling favourably about it, perhaps that's what we should settle on?

Any objections? Let's make our second Sci-Fi-Fantasy reading group book be The Golden Compass!

If I can track down my copy, I'll join you in a re-read. I need to read it again so I can continue the damn series, since Northern Lights is the only one I read. My copy is in portuguese.

I won't be joining this one if it's Golden Compass cos I've read it and I HATED it big time :lol: I LOVE Day of the Triffids. Not read the others ;)

Oh, Giz, I'm sorry you hated it so! :o

I figured it would be a safe book to go with, though, since everyone who commented but Xeyra said they'd read it, and Xeyra hadn't voted for it 'cause she had already read it.

Is everyone else OK with Golden Compass? It got seven votes, plus myself and Xeyra if she can find a copy, she said -- would that make nine of us reading? Please post so I know!

I am good with it as I have a copy and need an excuse to read it. :grin:

I'll have to go search my boxes of books. I've had to resort to putting my read portuguese translated books in boxes to find space in my shelves for the english books that keep coming!!

It's cool GG - viva la difference and all that. If I had a copy on Mt TBR I'd probably try it again with you guys but I don't, and I have a trillions other books waiting to be read so it's cool. I will wait and see what you all think of it!

I've read Golden Compass (none of the others) and I didn't like it either. I read it way back when it first came out -- at least a decade ago! -- and maybe I'll reread with you guys but probably not. I've got the sequels here too, and for more then 10 years I've never been remotely tempted to pick them up. And I'm a fantasy girl all the way!

I'll definitely be peeking in at the discussion though! :wink:

I'm fine with it, I voted for it, I've got the movie on tap here from Netflix, and gosh darn it, I want my own armored polar bear! (why oh why didn't I buy the armored polar bear pez dispensers when I saw them?! I know better than to let things like that go by! :lol: )


GG, you will never be able to pick a book that everyone will like, that's ok! It gives those peeps a break to catch up on other things, and they'll catch up with us on the next go around! I also offer them a chance to host to choose a book they want to read, it's supposed to be a mellow laid back thing. It's your month, and if that's the book you want, then that's what we'll do! :D It would also be interesting to hear from the peeps who didn't like it as to why, could add depth to the discussion you know? Differing points of view highlight parts of the story that maybe you didn't notice already.

Wow Kyri, I sure didn't realize the series was that old :blush: eep! Time is sure flying by!

Day of the Triffids movie scared the crap out of me as a child. It's still a favorite.

The Golden Compass was a wonderful book, but a terrible movie. A better movie if you've read the book, but still awful.

Stranger in a Strange Land is interesting if you can get past the dated gender roles...

And now there are 3 that are tied! :rofl: Poor GG :hug:

Are you sticking with Golden Compass?

I've read all the books except the Golden Compass and I don't want to read that one so I won't be participating.

Yipes! Would there be a better turn out for Day of the Triffids, then? I have a bookring copy of that one that I need to read, anyway -- Gosh, Shawnie, this is more difficult than I thought! :lol: Really, though, it's down to Triffids and Compass in my head, and I'm going to read both, regardless, so it's a matter of which book you all wish to discuss. Are more people interested in Triffids, then?

You could do another poll with just those two! :lol:

Ok, I've started a new one. Is it possible to get this thread closed so people's responses are channeled into the new thread?

http://bookobsessed.com/index.php?showtopic=4516

Oh dear...I voted w/out reading all the posts and might have tipped the balance. (Voted for Stranger).

2001 is one of my all-time favorites, and I've been meaning to read Golden Compass for a long time now. I read Stranger almost 10 years ago, and I want to re-read it and see how I feel about it now that I've got a bit more life experience behind me.

Long way of saying I'm interested in almost ALL of these :)