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April & May 2012 Non-Fiction Book Poll

Collaborate in choosing our next NON-FICTION book for group discussion within this forum. A minimum of 5 posts is necessary to participate here!

Select ALL books you would read and discuss with us in April & May

BOOK 1: Evolutionary Psychology: A Beginner's Guide by Robin Dunbar
8

22%
BOOK 2: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
3

8%
BOOK 3: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
2

6%
BOOK 4: Death by China: Confronting the Dragon by Peter W. Navarro and Greg Autry
4

11%
BOOK 5: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
1

3%
BOOK 6: The World America Made by Robert Kagan
2

6%
BOOK 7: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Mate
3

8%
BOOK 8: The Atheist's Guide to Reality by Alex Rosenberg
6

17%
BOOK 9: The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough
3

8%
BOOK 10: The Cultural Nature of Human Development by Barbara Rogoff
4

11%
 
Total votes: 36
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April & May 2012 Non-Fiction Book Poll

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APRIL & MAY 2012 NON-FICTION BOOK POLL
BRAND NEW POLLING METHOD
Actually, this will be our 2nd time using this polling method. The first time was so successful we'll give this another shot. Please forget all past book selection rules and procedures for this particular book selection. If this new method works well we may start using it regularly.

ONLY VOTE IF YOU PLAN TO PARTICIPATE
It is common sense that we only want people voting that are going to participate in the book discussion in the event one of their selected books wins. We're not doing a poll of which books you like or want to read one day. This poll is to select a book we can all read and discuss as a group so you have no business voting if you have no intention of actively discussing the book with us.

EVERYONE CAN VOTE NO MATTER HOW MANY FORUM POSTS
Everyone can vote no matter how many posts they have on the forums or how long they have been a member of BookTalk.org. If you're brand new with only 1 or 2 posts you are still welcome to vote but ONLY VOTE IF YOU PLAN TO PARTICIPATE.

VOTE FOR AS MANY BOOKS AS YOU LIKE
Each person can vote for as many books as they like. If you like every single book on the poll then select every book and cast your vote. We're trying to find the book (or books) that interest the most people. Those winning books will be announced as group discussion books. So you may vote for as many as you feel you would actually read and discuss with us as a group.

CHANGE OR UPDATE YOUR VOTE AT ANY TIME DURING POLLING PERIOD
While the poll is up you are free to change your votes however you like. There are a lot of books on this poll and to make an educated decision you will need to read the book descriptions of each book. This takes time so read a few now and cast your vote for them if you think you would enjoy discussing them. Then, a few days later, come back and research some more books. You can change your vote as much as you like up till the end of the polling period.

NO SCHEDULED END DATE TO THIS POLL
This poll doesn't have a scheduled end date. As votes come in we'll easily see which books have captured the most interest. As members you can see how many people have voted for each poll. As the administrator I can see this plus the names of each person that voted for each book. I'll make a judgment call on when to announce a winner (or winners) based on the volume of votes for the most popular books AND the activity level of the people that voted. All you need to do is research the books and select the ones you would like to talk about. I'll handle the rest.
POLL CHOICES:
The books that had 4 or more votes in our last non-fiction poll have been included in this poll. I've also listed the names of those people that voted for these books in the last poll just to make voting easier for those people in this poll.

BOOK 1 - Evolutionary Psychology: A Beginner's Guide by Robin Dunbar, Louise Barrett, John Lycett
Votes for this book in the last poll: DWill, Dexter, geo, heledd

BOOK 2 - The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
Votes for this book in the last poll: CWT36, DWill, Robert Tulip, franic

BOOK 3 - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Votes for this book in the last poll: CWT36, DWill, Dexter, Saffron, franic

BOOK 4 - Death by China: Confronting the Dragon - A Global Call to Action by Peter W. Navarro and Greg Autry
Votes for this book in the last poll: Chris OConnor, DWill, franic, lindad_amato

BOOK 5 - A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Votes for this book in the last poll: CWT36, DWill, President Camacho, franic

New Selections Not on Last Poll...

BOOK 6 - The World America Made by Robert Kagan

BOOK 7 - In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Mate

BOOK 8 - The Atheist's Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life without Illusions by Alex Rosenberg

BOOK 9 - The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough

BOOK 10 - The Cultural Nature of Human Development by Barbara Rogoff

The below books had only received either 0 or 1 vote after one week of having this poll open. These options are therefore removed from the poll in an effort to make the research easier on people in the last few days of polling.

December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World by Craig Shirley
Votes for this book in the last poll: CWT36, Chris OConnor, DWill, franic, wilde


Night (Oprah's Book Club) by Elie Wiesel
Votes for this book in the last poll: CWT36, Chris OConnor, DWill, Saffron, wilde


Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment by Janet Heimlich

This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking by John Brockman
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Re: April & May 2012 Non-Fiction Book Poll

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Looks like it only allows for one pick
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Chris OConnor

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Re: April & May 2012 Non-Fiction Book Poll

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Oh, I will fix that now. Thanks, Dexter!
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Re: April & May 2012 Non-Fiction Book Poll

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OK, the poll is fixed. Everyone can now vote for all 14 books if they like. And you can change your votes at any time up until the close of the poll.

Happy voting!

:)
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Chris OConnor

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Re: April & May 2012 Non-Fiction Book Poll

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It really is hard to find the perfect book selection process. I'm going over the results of the last poll and this is what I found. We allowed ALL members to vote no matter how many posts they had on the forums. That was the big change. Was it a smart idea?

"franic" voted for BOTH of the books that ultimately won the last non-fiction poll yet this individual currently has a total of 5 total posts as of February 24. His last post was a month and a half ago. He contributed nothing at all to either of the book discussions he claimed he was interested in. Out of 5 posts 4 were in the "Introduce Yourself" forum.

See the problem? We want to allow new people to vote but is it really fair to the people that will actually discuss the books? Those members that have proven themselves should have the right to influence the books we select. People that are most likely never going to participate should not have an influence. The only way we can differentiate between the two is with their history on BookTalk.org.

Dave The Marine, on the other hand, had less than 25 forum posts when he voted in the last poll. Yet he did indeed participate in the Hobbes discussion.

Maybe we need to look at each person that votes on a case by case basis.
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Re: April & May 2012 Non-Fiction Book Poll

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I think you've got to make a judgment call, Chris, just like you're doing to end the voting. I'm sure everyone here is confident that you'll do it fairly.

Unfortunately, we're not getting much participation, it seems. Maybe a lot of these picks are too heavy, but not all of them are, so I'm not sure.
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Chris OConnor

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Re: April & May 2012 Non-Fiction Book Poll

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When the site upgrade happens we should get a significant increase in traffic. With that traffic should come quality new members with a serious interest in books. Hang in there and we'll fix this.
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Dexter

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Re: April & May 2012 Non-Fiction Book Poll

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By the way, DWill gets the award for most flexible participant.
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Dexter

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Re: April & May 2012 Non-Fiction Book Poll

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Chris OConnor wrote:When the site upgrade happens we should get a significant increase in traffic. With that traffic should come quality new members with a serious interest in books. Hang in there and we'll fix this.
You seem very confident, I hope you're right!

It is baffling to me that this forum does not get more traffic -- your Google ranking seems pretty good. You've got lots of Facebook followers (that don't show up here). There are millions of people (presumably) who read non-fiction as well as fiction. There are high-traffic forums out there devoted to the most obscure topics. And yet we get maybe 5 people (10 would be a big one) in a discussion? Weird.
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Re: April & May 2012 Non-Fiction Book Poll

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I've noticed a lot of visitors on the site, but not many people participating in the discussions. Perhaps people just don't have the time.
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