With thanks to all who participate, here are the results of this past weekend’s poll, which I’ve now closed. This poll’s focus: Summer 2016 Reading Recommendations

The results 

50% of respondents said you’d be turning primarily to fiction this summer, while 29% said you’d read primarily non-fiction. Another 21% said they’ll be reading both fiction and non-fiction over the summer months.

Hard copy books continue to dominate, with 67% of readers turning to them. 25% of respondents said they’ll rely primarily on ebooks, and 8% of respondents will turn to both paper and electronic books.

GENRES

What genres will respondents be reading this summer?

Business/career and educational books came out on top, with almost 30% of respondents selecting “other” and identify such books in a category I didn’t even identify.

Here, in descending order, are the genres most identified by respondents.

1. Business/career/educational
2. Tied: Fiction (general), mystery and self help
3. Biography
4. Tied: Historical fiction and science fiction
5. Tied: Autobiography, drama, fantasy and romance
6. Tied: Essays, literature, young adult

READERS’ PICKS – TITLES

Respondents’ recommendations of books they plan to read this summer, or have already read

Autobiography

• It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership – Colin Powell
• Paris Letters – Janice MacLeod

Business/Career/Self Development

• Blockchain Revolution – Don Tapscott, Alex Tapscott
• Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman
• Find Your Extraordinary – Jessica Dilullo Herrin
• Grit – The Power of Passion and Perserverance – Angela Duckworth
• It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership – Colin Powell
• Originals – Adam Grant
• Presence – Amy Cuddy
• Smarter Faster Better – Charles Duhigg
• That’s Not What I Meant! How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships –  Deborah Tannen
• The Fred Factor: How passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary – Mark Sanborn
• The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right – Atul Gawande
• Writing Well for Business Success – Sandra E. Lamb
• Younger Next Year – Chris Crowley, Henry S. Lodge

Essays

• Letters from the Earth – Mark Twain

Fiction

• All Summer Long – Dorothea Benton Frank
• All The Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
• Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling)
• Dead Wake – Erik Larson
• Go Set A Watchman – Harper Lee
• I Almost Forgot About You – Terry McMillan
• Kitchens of the Great Midwest – J Ryan Stradal
• Life of Pi – Yan Martel
• Me After You – Mindy Hayes, Madison Seidler
• New York – Edward Rutherford
• Paris – Edward Rutherford
• Perfume – Patrick Süskind
• Roma – Steven Saylor
• Swing Time – Zadie Smith
• The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins
• The High Mountains of Portugal – Yann Martel
• The Nest – Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
• The Spinoza Problem: A Novel – Irvin D. Yalom
• The Time In Between (aka The Seamstress) – Maria Duenas
• The Wicked Boy – Kate Summerscale

Non-Fiction

• Colin Powell/Colin Powell revised
• Guns, Germs, and Steel – Jared Diamond
• Meaning in History – Karl Löwith
• Silk Roads: A New History of the World – Peter Frankopan
• Troublesome Young Men – Lynne Olson

READERS’ PICKS – FAVOURITE AUTHORS

• Jeffrey Archer
• Agatha Christie
• Max Depree
• J. K. Rowling
• Edward Rutherford
• Mark Sandborn
• Dondi Scumaci
• Laura Stack
• Karen Swan (“guilty pleasure”)
• Leo Tolstoy
• Brian Tracey
• Virginia Woolf
• Irvin Yalom
• Zig Zigglar
• Max ? (surname did not transmit)