+1

Interesting. Why that and not one of the others you listed?

Yeah, I think many people at least have heard of the Raven or Pit or Usher since they have been used in popular culture at one time or another.

It's a novella. It rides the line between short story and novel. I leaned toward the fact it is most commonly read as a short story, and in comparison to most of Dickens' other works, which were to put it lightly somewhat voluminous, it is short indeed.

Once again, I admit I am pushing the category limits to maximise my choices and have, IMO, a much more profound and compelling list.

It will be the judgment of the voters if I have stretched that credibility too far.

I have now selected arguable category "stretches" for all three of my choices thus far. ;)

Nevermind. I take back what I said.

I went with Cask because it represented a departure from standard crime stories. The narrator is the killer, but there never was an investigation. You have to try and deduce a motive yourself, and the whole time reading the story, you aren't sure if he is insane and if he is actually going to go through with his plan.

I disagree, although I can definitely see where you are coming from. There are far better known works by Poe.

That said, the Cask of Amontillado is, IMO, a personally representative work by Poe. Anyone who has read Poe and knows his life story, you know there was a bit of darkness to his soul and it was reflected in his writing. I'm not going to say he was evil, just very troubled. He saw too clearly the evils of the world around him, had the ability and talent to write about it eloquently and the lack of control to "pull back."

IMO, the Cask of Amontillado contains one of the most heinous individual acts, sealing someone behind a brick wall, like burying them alive. I can think of few more horrifying and long drawn out ways to die. So the Cask, IMO, is amazing.

Poe (if you can't tell) is one of my favorite authors, and I debated all weekend whether I would select the Raven for Poem or The Tell-Tale Heart for Short Story or some of the other selections. I was certain that in making the choices I did, I would end up foregoing Poe. I didn't expect it to be the very next pick, though, cartman.

About the poem part, right? I still nailed it as Short Story? :D

I think Cask is probably my favorite Poe work, esentially for the reasons Cartman argues. The other ones listed all seem a little too popular, although it does seem strange to frame that as a drawback.

Not in a popularity contest.

exactly.

IMO the point of these drafts is to appeal to the masses. If you hit a point where you say screw it, I am in this for myself I think you aren't participating in the true spirt.

Thats not to say you shouldn't pick your own favorites, but when it is so obviously a wrong pick then thats what I am talking about

In that respect, yes, I agree. I have already passed up favorites to go with more well-known selections. For instance, A Christmas Carol is not my favorite Dickens work, and I don't read the Bible every day.

The Masque of the Red Death is my favorite. Of course, the Simpson-ized version of The Raven is sweet :)

Is "Cask" really not that well known? I really thought is was a tossup choosing between the short stories I listed. As I mentioned in my post, I thought about "The Raven", but as a poem I don't think it was that strong a pick. So I went to the short stories.

As I thought about it, Tell-Tale Heart, Fall of the House of Usher, and Pit and Pendulum seemed a little formulaic. They all contained someone going crazy for different reasons. Tell-Tale Heart, the guy is convinced that he hears the still beating heart of the person he dismembered, in Fall the guy dies of his own terror, and in Pit and the Pendulum the guy is terrified of the hole in the middle of room and blade swinging above him, and his brain is mush, more than likely as a result of the torture of the Spanish Inquisition.

But in Cask, the narrator calmly recants the whole story many years later, and seems to be completely rational, even though what he did was clearly the work of a madman. He feels his actions were warranted to right a wrong done to him by (not so) Fortunato. This was the inspiration for other literary madmen, who I won't name in case someone is planning on choosing one of these titles later on. To me, these reasons warranted this pick over the other titles.

I guess we must have cleared out cronin's list.

I'm not sure it's a great fit in the sci-fi category, but getting 1984 this late is a steal.

This draft sucks. It's like everybody is picking punters on the first day.

Not sure I wouldn't have selected Animal Farm instead. Certainly not for scifi, of course (but from amongst Orwell's works).

Are you saying we're picking the bit players when there are star RBs available? :)

FWIW, I considered taking Cask back in Round 2, so I think the pick was a solid one.

I posted cronin's pick?

oh.. he's up again.. give me 1 second

At 3.3 st.cronin takes:

3.3 Dune, Frank Herbert, Series

Of course, this is, like the Foundation series, one of those seminal scifi picks, and on that level, excellent choice.

Still, he placed it in series, which brings the crap in at the back end of the series. Not as impressive.

I honestly would have picked Dune itself and put it in scifi/fantasy, rather than selecting the whole series.

Dune is probably my favorite book, if only the sequels were as nearly as good.

Yeah I think Dune would be an extremely solid pick as a Sci Fi/Fantasy book, but as a series I think it's a poor choice.

I'll also add that I think Cask is a very solid pick for a Poe work. I don't think it's a waste at all.

darn. I was hoping for that as a sci-fi sleeper

that was my plan.

I'm probably one of the least 'well read' people following this thread, and I think your selection w/ Poe was a very solid one, not a waste at all IMO.

I have not read the series (it's on my to-do list), but I was under the impression that the books authored by Frank Herbert were pretty solid, and that the crap ones are the ones other people have written.

the first 2 (maybe 3) books were solid, the rest are distinctly "meh." Even the ones written by Frank.

IMO, the first one is an amazing book and one of my favourites, but even the second book is a major step downwards. I didn't finish the 3rd book, and haven't touched the others.

Ah. I guess in that case it's good that I only have the first 3 sitting on my bookshelf. Unless I really like the 3rd one, I can just stop after that.

Fiction - 1.4 Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
Single Short Story
Poem
Fantasy/Science Fiction - 3.4 War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
Series
Sport Related
Children's
Non-Fiction
Biography/Autobiography
History - 2.7 The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank

nice one maple...that takes care of H.G. Wells just when I was thinking of something there...

I need to take a bit with this pick...

See Axxon, I told you other people would make other "wtf?" picks to balance yours out.

My only issue with the Poe pick is when it was. I was actually considering using that or the Tell-Tale Heart later.

Nah, Dune was going to be my pick this round, but I was going to use it strictly as a Sci-Fi pick.

Actually, I'd like to go on record as echoing some of the recent love for the pick. Cask is my favorite Poe work by quite a stretch. The narrative is so composed, at least on the surface, and so matter-of-fact as the build up and execution of the crime unfold... shudder. I love that Fortunato's supposed insult is never revealed. A horrible story, in a good way!

And re: Dune series, they drop off in quality precipitiously after the original. Dune itself is so good though, and the universe of the books so expansive and well fleshed out, that I got through Children and God Emperor with quite a bit of enjoyment, as I recall (this was many years ago). I attempted the next two and couldn't close the deal, though. Awful.

Erm, I think I mistepped. Children was II, and Messiah III, and God Emperor Iv, right? Anyhoo, at some point it devolved into dreck at the midpoint of book IV, whatever the title was.

I was considering Grimm's Fairy Tales myself. Great selection.

Messiah is 2 and Children is 3. So I guess that's confirmation to just stop after Children. :)

+1

I was thinking one of the fairy tales would be good for Short Story, but I think it actually works better in Children's.

Agree.

YAY for people liking my pick

Since I don't pick again until late 4th round, I didn't think he would still be on the board by then.

It seems my pick is either a love it or hate it pick.

Fiction
Single Short Story
Poem: 2.6 - The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
Fantasy/Science Fiction
Series (A set of books continuing the same story and intended to be read sequentially) 3.5 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Sport Related
Children's
Non-Fiction: 1.5 - On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin
Biography/Autobiography
History

I can't be alone in thinking this series of books one of the most enjoyable. And after all, it does provide the answer to life, the universe and everything.

From Wiki:
References to the series can be seen on websites, within TV and radio programmes, songs, and in console and computer games. Examples include borrowing Adams's characters' names, or references to the number 42, or other catchphrases, or even reusing "The Hitchhiker's Guide to ..." to title other books and articles (which Adams himself had borrowed from Ken Welsh's Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe). Hitchhiker's references have also appeared in several series and episodes of another famous British science fiction series with which Adams was once affiliated: Doctor Who. The online Babel Fish translation service was also named in honour of a fictional creature that Adams created for the Hitchhiker's series. The 1980s British Pop band Level 42 attribute their name to the ultimate answer, while the rock group Radiohead named a hit single after Marvin the paranoid android. The instant message program, Trillian, is also named after a lead Hitchhiker's character. Internet search engine Google pays tribute by offering "42" as the answer to the search criteria "What is the answer to life the universe and everything?" In the Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends episode, "Bus the Two of Us," Bloo picks up a hitchhiker holding a sign reading "Magrathea". Adams may have popularized the modern usage of the prefix "mega" to simply mean "great" (which is the meaning of the original Greek). Before Hitchhiker's, which used terms such as "mega-stupid" and "megadonkey", the prefix "mega" was almost exclusively used in the technical SI Metrics sense - meaning 1,000,000 times.(in computing: 1,048,576 times)