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While the summer of Spinoza is not yet over, it’s time to start planning our fourth 2024 read, which will begin August 28. There are six candidates for your consideration, including two high-vote getters from the last poll plus four new options:

Ficciones by Jorge Borges

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Four Major Plays: A Doll's House / Ghosts / Hedda Gabler / The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey

What tickles your fancy for the fall? Being challenged by the creative legerdemain of Jorge Borges� Ficciones? Exploring English moors and the extremes of human passions in Wuthering Heights? Examining the evergreen moral/social issues raised in Four Major Plays: A Doll's House / Ghosts / Hedda Gabler / The Master Builder? Visiting Europe with a young American woman ready to launch into life in The Portrait of a Lady? Meeting the unique inhabitants of a small town deep in the American South with The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter? Or, puncturing the pretensions of four legendary figures with Eminent Victorians?

This week is available for discussion of the possibilities and any questions. And, it’s always an opportunity to try to recruit others to your cause, I mean, books. Voting will take place next week.

Here’s the schedule for choosing the next read:

July 24 - Spinoza Week 7 & Next read member discussion
July 31 - Spinoza Week 8 & Next read poll
Aug 7 - Spinoza Week 9 & Run-off poll if needed
Aug 14 - Interim Week 1
Aug 21 - Interim Week 2
Aug 28 - Begin 4th Read 2024

Any thoughts/comments on what appeals/does not appeal for the next read?

Susan wrote: "Any thoughts/comments on what appeals/does not appeal for the next read?"

I might join if the pick is Borges or Ibsen. Being kept pretty busy by writing/editing projects, though.

All six titles were published within 100 years (1847-1944), and four out of six come from the same linguistic region. By 25 centuries of literary tradition and scores of languages spoken I feel constantly reminded of the need to introduce more diversity in my literary habits. This month, for instance, I've been reading seven novels written by seven different French women between 1545-1822.

My favourite Brontës': The tenant of Wildfell Hall.
My favourite Ch. Brontë's: Villette.
Loved: Wide Sargasso sea.

I will vote for Ibsen. I want to explore his treatments of the role of women and of family guilt.

In case you were wondering, here’s a brief explanation/reminder of how books for each poll are selected. The Western Canon group has a bookshelf, and you can see which books are included here: /group/books....

We use a random number generator aka the Random Book Generator (RBG) to pick options for each major read from the unread titles.

Books that get a high number of votes on one poll are carried over to the next poll for a second (or third) chance at being selected.

Fed wrote: ".. My favourite Brontës': The tenant of Wildfell Hall.
My favourite Ch. Brontë's: Villette.
Loved: Wide Sargasso sea.
"

The two Bronte titles you mention plus Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and the poetry of Emily Bronte are included on the group’s bookshelf, and both have been included in the next read polls over the years. I’ve wondered why they don’t get more votes, and speculate maybe folks have already read and/or studied those titles and prefer to vote for something new. I think they would make for a lively group discussion myself.

After recently rereading Jane Eyre, I added Wide Sargasso Sea to my TBR pile and look forward to reading it one of these days and getting a different perspective on the “madwoman in the attic�

Susan wrote: "We use a random number generator aka the Random Book Generator (RBG) to pick options."

Thank you, Susan. That's quite sad; I mean: allowing a machine to play a role in deciding my next read. I hope museums will never use the same method to decide what pictures to display. At least the machine won't be upset when I say that sentient beings can curate better lists. ;p

Fed wrote: "Susan wrote: "We use a random number generator aka the Random Book Generator (RBG) to pick options."

Thank you, Susan. That's quite sad; I mean: allowing a machine to play a role in deciding my ne..."

There are certainly other ways it could be done, but using random sampling to choose possible books to read eliminates human bias and gives each book an equal chance of being presented for members to vote on. And of course the bookshelf itself has been curated by the moderators and members of the group, and we are only too human ;).

Voting will open for the next poll at midnight Pacific Time. Here’s the poll: /poll/list/1...

A quick search on Eminent Victorians turns up this interesting tidbit (from Wikipedia):

"On 21 May 1918, Bertrand Russell wrote to Gladys Rinder from Brixton Prison, in which he was imprisoned for his anti-war campaigning:

It is brilliant, delicious, exquisitely civilized. I enjoyed as much as any the Gordon, which alone was quite new to me. I often laughed out loud in my cell while I was reading the book. The warder came to my cell to remind me that prison was a place of punishment."

Hello, All. I have been lurking for some time and haven't read with you in a long while, but I would love to read Ficciones with this group, as it has been sitting half-finished on my night stand for eons!

I saw that it came in strong in the last poll, so maybe we can rally a few people behind it. This collection of ingenious metafictions has often been referenced in other pieces I've read. It comes back over and over again, just like the labyrinth motif at its center. I've read about half of the stories on my own, but I feel I would get so much more out of them if I could discuss them with others!

Just a reminder � you can cast your vote for the next read through Tuesday August 6 (Pacific time). Here’s the link to the poll: /poll/list/1...

It was a close vote, but the choice is Ficciones to start August 28. Here’s a summary of the votes:

Ficciones � 6 raw votes, 11 weighted votes
A Portrait of a Lady � 4 raw votes, 10 weighted votes
Four Ibsen Plays � 4 raw votes, 8 weighted votes
Eminent Victorians � 1 raw vote, 2 weighted votes
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter � 0 votes
Wuthering Heights � 0 votes

A Portrait of a Lady and the Four Ibsen plays will carry over to the next poll for another chance.