The tower of books you see to the left is my to-read stack.  When I finish with what I’m currently reading (Botchan by Natsume Soseki – the author of I Am a Cat) I will be picking something from this list.  However, instead of using some arbitrary criteria that I’ll come up with moments before I choose – I’m going to let you be the arbiter of arbitrariness for me.  That’s right, you get to choose my next reading adventure.

All I ask is that you post a comment with the book you want me to read next.  You can give reasons, or just the title.  Or, if you want to pretend like you are ordering Chinese food, just the number from the list below.  Hopefully there will be an overwhelming majority, otherwise I’ll have to come up with some other criteria to choose by, which would defeat the whole purpose of doing this!

I will be finishing my current book in the next 3 or 4 days, so you have until then to respond.

Here’s the list in a format that is a little easier to read than squinting at the picture above:

  1. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
  2. The Inferno of Dante (translation by Robert Pinsky)
  3. A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe
  4. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
  5. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
  6. Everything Bad is Good For You by Stephen Johnson
  7. In Harm’s Way by Doug Stanton
  8. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  9. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (this is just the first book in The Complete Sherlock Holmes Vol. I)
  10. The World of Pooh by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard
  11. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born by Stephen King, Peter David, Robin Furth, and Jae Lee (this is a graphic novel).

Thanks for your help!

Update: I’ve finished Botchan (post incoming shortly) so the voting is closed.  Up next: Stranger in a Strange Land.