Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Tuesday Thingers


Today's Question: What's the most popular book in your library? Have you read it? What did you think? How many users have it? What's the most popular book you don't have? How does a book's popularity figure into your decisions about what to read?

My answer: The most popular book in my library is 1984 by George Orwell; I've read it several times, for school and for myself. I think it's a devastating, powerful book. 19,740 people on LibraryThing have it as of today. The most popular book I don't have is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, with 32,484 owners as of today. (I got this from the "Zeitgeist" page in LT.) I used to own it, but I gave it away. Popularity does figure into my decisions in that if something is really very popular, I'm usually less inclined to read it. I just like to do my own thing.

32 comments:

Traci said...

What a great topic! Here's mine.

jlshall said...

Can't believe it's Tuesday again already!

My answer's up.

Jacquie L Reaville said...

Your outlook on popularity is close to mine. Though a book being popular doesn't put me off it, I don't go out of my way to read something that every one else is raving about.

Here is Mine

Anonymous said...

What a great set of questions! Click here for my response.

Lenore Appelhans said...

I really enjoyed this question and look forward to reading everyone's responses.

My answer here

Lenore Appelhans said...

Oh and don't forget to enter my contest for a box of Euro treats if you haven't already:

Here

Leesy said...

I've posted my answer. Thanks again!

LisaMM said...

I'm going to have to go look at my account. I didn't realize there was a way to see how popular a book is in your library.

But.. I'm not one to really care about that when I choose a book to read. Sometimes if it's too popular and everybody's reading it, I run the other way.

Laura said...

Here's mine for this week!

@ The Golden Road

LisaMM said...

Ok, now I know what I'm talking about. The Catcher in the Rye is my most popular that I have read (19099). Harry Potter (same as you) is the most popular that I do not have.

Anonymous said...

Here is my response for this week! I also exercise my own judgment on popular books.

Anonymous said...

Mine is up!
http://web.mac.com/bluestocking_bb/The_Bluestocking_Guide/The_Bluestocking_Guide/Entries/2008/6/16_Tuesday_Thingers.html

If that link doesn't work. Click on my name. Its the first post so it won't be hard to find.

Anonymous said...

I don't have Harry Potter either:)
mine is ready

Michele said...

Hopefully it's okay to join you guys in this group. I blogged my answers here. Now to finish reading everyone else's responses.

Lisa said...

My response is up!

This is a great topic, although I decided to just skip right over the Harry Potter books. Once you get past that chunk at the beginning, the list gets a lot more interesting.

tapestry100 said...

Here is mine.

Anonymous said...

I love this topic. It's interesting to see which books we have and what we thought of them. It's also fascinating to see why we don't have the more popular ones.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the question, Marie. My answer is here

I have a similar opinion, a book's popularity might make me curious about, but it isn't the only factor in my deciding to (or not to) read it.

Anonymous said...

That is a good question, unfortunately I wish I had different books to discuss... :)

Here is my link.

Silverheron said...

Here is mine as well.

Icedream said...

I enjoyed checking out the list, I hadn't payed attention before, so great topic. My link is here.

Literary Feline said...

I am not put off by a book's popularity--what's important to me is whether the book itself interests me or not.

My response can be found here.

Anonymous said...

Mine is here. I wonder how many people own the HP books ?

Alea said...

The questions just keep gettin better and better! Here's my answer: http://aleapopculture.blogspot.com/2008/06/tuesday-thingers_17.html

Alea said...

In case you don't see the comment I left you on my blog I'm going to post it here too! .....

Oh you should do that for next week! No one sees my little blog, I'd love to see how people answer it!

Cheryl Vanatti said...

Ooh! Ooh! I finally got a Tuesday Thinger up before Wednesday!



Here it is.

Anonymous said...

Good question. I kept mine short and to the point since I'm getting to it so late, but I'm with you, Marie, I'm usually less inclined to read a more popular book. That said, I've read my fair share of popular books, so I guess I'm not that much of a snob.

Moo said...

Interesting question. Here is mine.

http://moosplace.blogspot.com/2008/06/popularity.html

Julie said...

I am a couple of days late, but here is my answer. This is fun, what a great idea!
http://julyso4463.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth said...

Better late than never!

Great question, and fun to research!

Marcia said...

I'm really late this week but here it is: http://printedpage.blogspot.com/2008/06/tuesday-thingersmost-popular-book.html

Marcia said...

Thank you Marie for pointing me in the right direction of the top books at LT. Now I'll go update my post.