BookTalk.org

Yes, books can be placed back on polls. And thank you guys for keeping the poll score!

irishrosem -- I hear you! I've always thought the main difference between Canada and the USA is the difference in population. You folks have 10x the population, so there's just that much more of everything -- good people, crazy people, nationalism, movies, xenophobia, etc. etc. We've got people writing nationalistic books here, too. They're just not that interesting. (We do have Rick Mercer, and he does have a blog, but he's not written a commentary of Canadian politics yet!) Of course you want to read about your country -- If you can all arrange it so that one of the two books each quarter is about something else, then I'll be happy!! [thanks, Mr. P!] "All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds." Loricat's Book NookCelebrating the Absurd

"Second Chance" is largely about U.S. foreign policy, so it would probably be a lot more interesting to a non-U.S. reader than "Religious Expression and the American Constitution". And I think some non-U.S. readers would at least find it interesting to see how Americans perceive the presidential decisions that have affected the global situation. That's my argument.

Perhaps you'll consider me shallow, but how USians "perceive the presidential decisions that have affected the global situation" is all I ever see. That's what the air-, print- & net-waves are full of.Now, what I'd like to see is a book that discusses how the rest of the world perceives the US presidential decisions that have affected the global situation...written by someone who is not from this continent, who is honest in her/his opinions & perceptions, who doesn't care about selling his/her book in the USA (and is thus not bleating the 'oh please like me even though I'm not one of you' approved point of view), and who is an engaging writer. I may have to wait a few hundred years before some writer exists who is not emotionally, politically, economically, mentally, socially (etc.) tied to the USA in some way.I'm not saying that the author of Second Chance is in any way dishonest or opportunistic -- I just think that people who live in the USA often believe that the rest of us can't wait to continue the discussion of who/what you and your country represents. But maybe that's what makes a book successful on BookTalk: People in the USA are passionate about their country. The Omnivore's Dilemma had themes that we could have discussed a lot longer than we did, as did The Third Chimpanzee -- but they were books that covered broad topics, of general interest to everyone, but not really passionate interest to anyone. The Freethinker books get a lot of discussion, because everyone involved is passionate about the topic. Hmm.Ah well. Let the votes fall where they may. I'm pretty busy anyway! "All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds." Loricat's Book NookCelebrating the Absurd

Jeepers, Mad. I come on here all ready to vote for Deep Economy after looking through it in the store last night, and then you have to go and throw that out there. I'm going with Deep Economy anyway. I think it will provide a nice contrast to the Thomas Friedman stuff that I've been reading. I'm hoping Second Chance wins next quarter. Right now, I'm just too depressed about current political happenings in the U.S. to focus on it in any productive way.So that's 5 for Deep Economy.And going off Loricat's numbers:Second Chances: 15Deep Economy: 22Nurture Assumption: 3 (or 8 if Sarah is voting all 5)

My experience is that books don't stand much of a chance when they're revived as a nomination in a later poll. I don't know the reason, but we just usually never get around to reading the books that we put off for later. Maybe it's because they're no longer fresh.