Last week the staff here at LibraryThing came up with a list of candidates for our next two One LibraryThing, One Book selections, and put them up for a vote. The results are in!

February

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Dracula and Frankenstein were pretty neck-and-neck (ha!), but Oscar Wilde’s only published novel won with an impressive lead. Dublin City Public Libraries tackled this one as a One City, One Book read a few years ago, too.

Official discussion will begin on February 10th at 12pm Eastern. Thinking about joining us for this read? Introduce yourself, or look for the threads labeled “Dorian Gray,” over on the One LibraryThing, One Book group.

For now, staff will be creating new threads, but feel free to start your own come February 10! You might also want to make use of our new Spoiler feature, if you’d rather not ruin the plot for others.

March

American Gods

In another landslide victory, Neil Gaiman’s meandering journey through deities from pantheons the world over beat out The Poisonwood Bible and, the 18th most-added book on LibraryThing for December, Where’d You Go, Bernadette.

Official discussion for American Gods will begin on March 10th at 12pm Eastern, but feel free to get started early! If you’d like to join us for this read, Introduce yourself to the group, and look for threads labeled “American Gods” on the One LibraryThing, One Book group page.

As above, staff will be handling creating new threads for American Gods until official discussion begins on March 10. Prior to that date, please use Spoiler tags liberally! After that point, all group members are free to start new threads.

More?

I hope you’ll join us for one—if not both—of these reads! If you have any general One LibraryThing, One Book questions or feedback, those are always welcome in this thread.

One LibraryThing, One Book is kicking off the new year with a referendum! Following considerable discussion, and a concerted staff huddle, we’ve collected a few options for both February’s and March’s One LibraryThing, One Book.

Come rank the titles you’d like to read and discuss with the community!

Winners will be finally set on January 10th, at 10am Eastern.

February 10: Classic Horror

Click to vote | Discussion topic

March 10: Contemporary Fiction

Click to vote | Discussion topic

More Information

Reading will begin as soon as voting closes, and we announce the winners in a blog post.

Discussion for February starts on the 10th at 12 noon Eastern time.

You can read through each (or either) title at their own speed. We will also create continuations of “Introduce Yourself” and “First Impressions” threads. As before, please keep these threads spoiler-free before the discussion officially begins.

Discussion for March starts March 10th at 12 noon Eastern time.

If you’re new to One LibraryThing, One Book, be sure to read through our original blog post.

We had a quite successful first OLOB; almost 100 members joined our discussions about The Circle, and we posted over 1,000 comments collectively. The dystopian novel sparked many topics concerning current online privacy issues and future predictions both good and bad (but mostly bad). We may encounter similar discussion topics, depending on which book is chosen, so keep this in mind when voting. No matter what, I think we’ll end up with some excellent selections!

How the Titles Were Picked

The titles were picked by the LibraryThing team, attempting to take praise and criticism of the last pick into consideration. All the books are widely available in libraries, as paperbacks and in the used market. All are highly regarded and have good ratings—Frankenstein and Dracula somewhat lower, probably because they’re often assigned in schools.

To discuss the selection further, come see the Talk topic here.

Questions? Comments?

As always, general questions/comments about One LibraryThing, One Book, are welcome on this thread.

Happy voting!