Decision-making by DW Poll

[dira]

So, one of the ways in which I am a ginormous nerd is that in the last couple of years, since I started keeping track of what I read, I have started assigning myself goals for the books I read--not just a number of books, but within that a number of non-fiction books, a number of books of poetry, a number of books published in the current year, and so on.

One of my assignments for this year is to read five past award-winning SF/F books, and to keep myself from getting totally overwhelmed I decided to target books from years ending in 1. The first four books I read for the assignment were the Hugo winners I hadn't read before (1981 - Joan D Vinge's The Snow Queen, 1971 - Larry Niven's Ringworld, 1961 - Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz, and the 1951 Retro Hugo - Robert A. Heinlein's A Farmer in the Sky) and that leaves me without an obvious choice for my fifth book.

So, obviously time for a poll! My selections are taken mostly from truepenny's list of SF/F/H award-winners, 1953-2009, plus the Wikipedia entries for the winners of the Lambda Literary Award and the Gaylactic Spectrum Award, minus books I've read before, already know I don't want to read, or can't get through my local library system. That still leaves thirteen books I know very little about except that they've won some sort of award in a year ending in 1, so feel free to give your opinions in the comments if your feelings are not sufficiently expressed by clicking a radio button!

Poll #7840 Help me pick a book to read!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 48

View Respondents

Which of these books should I read first?

View Answers

A Woman of the Iron People, by Eleanor Arnason
10 (20.8%)

Timescape, by Gregory Benford
5 (10.4%)

Jumping off the Planet, by David Gerrold
1 (2.1%)

The Gilda Stories: a novel, by Jewelle Gomez
3 (6.2%)

White Queen, by Gwyneth Jones
0 (0.0%)

Thomas, the Rhymer, by Ellen Kushner
10 (20.8%)

Only Begotten Daughter, by James Morrow
5 (10.4%)

Declare, by Tim Powers
3 (6.2%)

The Dark Beyond the Stars, by Frank M. Robinson
1 (2.1%)

Ship of Fools, Richard Paul Russo
0 (0.0%)

Point of Dreams, by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett
6 (12.5%)

Galveston, by Sean Stewart
4 (8.3%)

Stations of the Tide, by Michael Swanwick
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[keerawa]

I'm rather shocked to report that I'm no help here, since I haven't read ANY of these books.

*blinks repeatedly* Apparently there's still a lot of old sci-fi for me to delve into.

[keerawa]

And, 20 minutes later, it appears that almost none of them are available through the public library system. Odd. And aggravating! But I've got some Melissa Scott on Hold.

[dira]

There is always more out there than you think there is. :)

And as far as being surprised about not being able to get it through your library--I'm working with a fairly large urban system, so I can get more than most. (But check if your library does interlibrary loan! They might still be able to get the books for you. *g*)