Live Poll: What Binge-Worthy TV Most Makes You Want to "Binge-Read?"

To be honest, I have been a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire since they were translated to my native Greek language in the 2000s. I prefer them to the television adaptation and I have re-read chapters multiple times. 

I also like the Sherlock Holmes stories since my teenage years, and own a collection of them. But the cast of characters is fairly limited and I have read better short stories by other writers. 

Geez, a while back, on at least two polls, I forgot the link back entirely and Jess had to remind me, lol, and now I somehow got the link wrong. Is it possible to get lag from moving two miles away? ;-)  Fortunately, I was coherent enough to notice it. Thank you for letting me know, though, because I could have continued for a while without recognizing it, if recent loopy-ness is any indication.

Ruby,

Thanks for correcting your link back.

Moving is both physically and emotionally disruptive.

Indeed it is. :)

Mine's based on a specific list and 24 of the entries are different, though. Thanks for letting me know, though.

Maybe you could ask a different question, to make it more original than the other.

That's a good idea. I was, at one point, thinking about asking which book one would most like to read. I'm not sure how original that is but it's different, at least. Thank you for the good advice.

hey fruit...

interesting you should word it like that...was thinking how i grew up reading all of conan doyle's 'holmes' adventures and then falling in love with the rathbone/bruce movies (which i still watch constantly), and now of course, with the cumberbatch/freeman series...(never got into jeremy brett's version or america's elementary show)...do like the robert downey jr. films though...

but since people have forgotten how to read (in america anyway), it did make me think how many of these people voting actually read the books of the shows on which their votes were based...

now since the game of thrones series has become so popular, i'd probably say (hope) at least some of them actually went to the books as well... 

maybe if you wish to reword the question, make it something like 'which series is your favorite from a book that you actually have read'...it's different and actually might change the outcome as well...

just a thought...as always...

I now have one question in the title and a different one in the intro. Obviously, I have to make the questions the same but I can't decide which is better, as well as different enough from the other poll. 'Thoughts, anyone?

Hey rock, thanks for the feedback; I hadn't seen it when I posted what's right above. 

now since the game of thrones series has become so popular, i'd probably say (hope) at least some of them actually went to the books as well... 

Indeed.

maybe if you wish to reword the question, make it something like 'which series is your favorite from a book that you actually have read'...it's different and actually might change the outcome as well...

'Good idea, except that I'm afraid that, with so few people reading these days, no one would be able to vote if I use the past-tense "read." What do you think?

well...while you bring up an excellent point, perhaps this one poll needs to raise the bar a bit and engage the more 'literary minded' among us...(and perhaps spark a few into becoming as such...)...

we may be surprised...

Since both rocky and I, and of course many others, lol, live in the States, I'm sure he didn't mean everyone. I don't want to speak for him, of course, but I took what he said as part of a continuing narrative that he and I have had. (We are both writers.)

I'm an English instructor and I had to take a few different pedagogy courses (yawn, for the most part) in grad school, which committed much time to meta-analytical studies that suggest that, in the United States, at least, the frequency in which people read has been declining for years, as well as the grade level at which people read. Since I'm speaking statistically, that, of course, is a generalization but a frightening and sad one. In addition to the empirical evidence, my anecdotal evidence is that it is very difficult to get most, though of course certainly not all, college freshmen to read even a few pages a night. It pays off, though, when one of those students (or former high school kids or adult learners) comes in, enthusiastic and wide-eyed, after reading a poem or short story, and I get to see the beginning of the world opening up to them. :) 

I have to admit that I'm often guilty of this trend myself. Although I read an awful lot of poetry, newspaper, magazine and scholarly articles, and non-fiction books, I read probably only 10% of the fiction that I did when I was growing up. My literary gaps, especially for a writer, are deep and wide. If I rewrote this poll's question the way that rocky suggested, I think I'd only have two TV series (Sherlock and Elementary) to choose from and that's because of what I read growing up. 

Ruby,

I updated you original post to reflect your list.

Thank you!

Oh, yeah, I planned, from the start, to always include the book's title and author - it's just taking me a while to move down the list. 'Same thing with putting the / in before the "I" letters -- my new laptop does this annoying thing that I haven't figured out how to disable yet: If I type a forward slash before I type the "i," it automatically capitalizes it. I really hate auto-correct. :)

Thanks for the feedback about the title and question. Do you think that the fact that they are a little different is ok? I'm usually kind of annoyingly specific but I'm guessing people will get that they're both getting at the same thing even if they are literally a bit different. ..?

hey fruit....

just had to make a comment with the new working title for the question, which again changes perspective...

of course, i still love the conan doyle pieces from which sherlock sprung, as well as all the dumas adventures about the musketeers which i've already read...

but now with the new wording, it makes me think that i would like to read something i've never read before, perhaps 'masters of sex' since it is biographical, or 'china beach' for similar purpose...even 'orange is the new black' or 'wallander' perhaps, just because they may seem interesting...

so now the onus focuses on the pretext of wanting to reread something i've already read, or begin to read something new that i haven't...

boy..when you pick a topic, the fruit falls far...

love it...peace... 

Yeah, I had a very similar experience when I was researching the books from which the shows are adapted. I realized that there were books that sounded really interesting even if I might not be that interested in the series -- or series I've watched and enjoyed but didn't know that they were based on books and thinking I'd like to read some of those. It's funny that you mention "Orange is the New Black" and "Wallander" because those are two of the three series, along with "Homicide," that I think are great but didn't know they were based on books and am now very interested in reading. I also realized that there are all of those Sherlock Holmes short stories that I never read, even though I read a couple of the novels. I'm also wondering about the Dexter books: I love that series and always knew it was based on a book (I found out it's actually a series) but I always dismissed the book because I'm a shamefully ridiculous literary snob and always figured the book must be bad because I think the title is really bad, lol. I'm rethinking that and a few other things. 

Thanks, rock, and peace right back at ya.

"always figured the book must be bad because I think the title is really bad"

You judged the book by the title? Titles are often a poor indication of the actual content or quality of a work. The Name of the Rose has very little to do with roses, Gone with the Wind's title is an allusion to the poem  "Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae" and does not prepare you for a narrative spanning decades, and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe is about a political conspiracy and not the nursery rhyme. 

Indeed. I was making fun of myself for, at one time, making such a judgement, although my judgement of the title was the opposite of the titles you cite: Those titles clearly are quite thoughtful, whereas my judgement of just the title in and of itself was that it seemed either lazy or of simply a taste in language that I don't share. As far as me being self-effacing, however, I was in graduate school studying poetry, at the time, and so words were of supreme importance -- I'm still a poet, of course, so words are just as important but I've gotten back to reading more fiction and most fiction writers aren't poets and that is as it should be, so I no longer think that they have to treat language the same way. That's a rather simplified explanation but it would be difficult to be more thorough here. 

I certainly didn't mean that I think titles should be an obvious indication of content, by the way. I am not a narrative poet and I prioritize negative capability so I certainly don't need, or even prefer, titles that are clearly representative of content. The title to which I was referring, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, clearly labels the content, which I don't prefer, but what I didn't like about the title is that it's a terrible use of alliteration. I think the makers of the great TV series were wise to choose something else, which I think works really well in its simplicity. 

Titles are a big deal to me, though; I made a poll once about films with literate, intelligent, and creative titles that display appreciation of language. 

I'm guessing about 30%, which is an awful lot, considering that there are 35 options. I hope not, though, just because it's more interesting that way. Sherlock might give it a run for its money, though, and series such as Hannibal, House of Cards, and Dexter should provide some competition, as well, especially since I changed the question. Reading about uber-popular film villain, Hannibal Lector, should help, for example, if it goes live. 

This list is taken directly from Metacritic and they chose to not include series based on comic books, even ones for which they calculated a rating. They list series from comic books in their exclusionary criteria. That's a good idea for a poll, though, and one that you'd probably do really well. 

Thanks for the correction. I'm not sure where I thought I got that information. I'll change it. 

I used the implied "series" or "show" (like NBC's "must see TV"), instead of typing it out, to try to keep the title from being too long. I'll consider both ways or try to come up with something different. Thanks for the feedback, Jess. 

Dan, I noticed you already added some of this; thank you, so much! 

The above post includes a bit more information.

Wow, you're fast (Dan or Peter)! Thank you!

One of the benefits of becoming an IMDb GS Champion is mind reading powers. ;-)

Hahaha. Your mind reading powers are impressive. :-)