Which Book Should I Read Next?

I’m a book monogamist. I tried to read more than one book at a time once, but quickly discovered that I can’t split my attention between two books, since I left one behind and just continued reading the other. So, whenever I’m almost finishing a book, I start thinking about what type of book I am feeling like reading next.

As I’m now unsure about which book to pick up next, I decided to ask for your help! The four books below are the subject of my uncertainty. All of them sound like books I would like to read sooner rather than later. It would be fantastic if you could take a little time to help me by voting until Sunday in the poll at the bottom of the page (after the blurbs of the books), regardless if you’ve read any of these or not. You may have read and liked one of them, or you may just be curious about my opinion on it.

 

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

“As his tale begins, Orlando is a passionate young nobleman whose days are spent in rowdy revelry, filed with the colourful delights of Queen Elizabeth’s court. By the close, he will have transformed into a modern, thirty-six-year-old woman and three centuries will have passed. Orlando will witness the making of history from its edge, dressing in the flamboyant fashions of each era, following passing customs, and socialising with celebrated artists and writers.

Virginia Woolf’s most unusual and fantastic creation, Orlando is a funny, exuberant tale that examines the very nature of sexuality.”

 

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

“Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.”

 

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

“Working as a paid companion to a bitter elderly lady, the timid heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life is bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she falls in love with Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose proposal takes her by surprise. Whisked from Monte Carlo to Manderley, Maxim’s isolated Cornish estate, the friendless young bride begins to realise that she barely knows her husband at all. And in every corner of every room is the phantom of his beautiful first wife, Rebecca.

Rebecca is the haunting story of a woman consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.”

 

Autumn by Ali Smith

“Ali Smith’s new novel is a meditation on a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive, on what richness and worth are, on what harvest means. This first in a seasonal quarter casts an eye over our own time. Who are we? What are we made of? Shakespearean jeu d’espirit, Keatsian melancholy, the sheer bright energy of 1960s Pop art: the centuries cast their eyes over our own history-making.

Here’s where we’re living. Here’s time at its most contemporaneous and its most cyclic.”

 

If you would like to explain your vote, please do so in the comments!