Playing favorites
- Thread starter mjp
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After 180 votes, here's a breakdown with percentages, which gives a slightly more "familiar-to-the-eye" benchmark for comparison than just the total votes (for example, check out The Most Beautiful Woman.../Tales... vs. South of No North. The total votes seem to indicate a pretty big lead over South of No North, but the percent difference is only 4.5%).
Some surprises in here; I haven't read Love is a Dog From Hell since I bought it in ~1989. Anyway...
Novels
1 Ham On Rye (55) 30.6%
2 Women (54) 30.0%
3 Factotum (31) 17.2%
4 Post Office (25) 13.9%
5 Hollywood (8) 4.4%
6 Pulp (7) 3.9%
Poetry
1 Love Is A Dog From Hell (37) 20.6%
2 Burning In Water... (24) 13.3%
3 The Last Night Of The Earth... (19) 10.6%
4 Play The Piano Drunk... (16) 8.9%
5 Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (15) 8.3%
6 You Get So Alone At Times... (15) 8.3%
7 The Days Run Away... (14) 7.8%
8 Septuagenarian Stew (12) 6.7%
9 War All The Time (11) 6.1%
10 Dangling In The Tournefortia (10) 5.6%
11 The Roominghouse Madrigals (7) 3.9%
Prose
1 The Most Beautiful.../Tales... (66) 36.7%
2 South Of No North (58) 32.2%
3 Hot Water Music (46) 25.6%
4 Portions From A Wine-Stained... (10) 5.6%
Posthumous poetry
1 What Matters Most... (53) 29.4%
2 Betting On The Muse (34) 18.9%
3 The People Look Like Flowers... (17) 9.4%
4 Open All Night (13) 7.2%
5 The Night Torn Mad... (12) 6.7%
6 Bone Palace Ballet (12) 6.7%
7 Come On In! (11) 6.1%
8 Slouching Toward Nirvana (11) 6.1%
9 Sifting Through The Madness... (10) 5.6%
10 The Flash Of Lightning... (7) 3.9%
Other categories
1 The Movie: "Barfly" (46) 25.6%
2 The Captain Is Out To Lunch... (33) 18.3%
3 Screams From The Balcony (24) 13.3%
4 The Pleasures Of The Damned (22) 12.2%
5 Run With The Hunted (20) 11.1%
6 Shakespeare Never Did This (14) 7.8%
7 Living On Luck (8) 4.4%
8 Reach For The Sun (7) 3.9%
9 Beerspit Night And Cursing (6) 3.3%
Some surprises in here; I haven't read Love is a Dog From Hell since I bought it in ~1989. Anyway...
Novels
1 Ham On Rye (55) 30.6%
2 Women (54) 30.0%
3 Factotum (31) 17.2%
4 Post Office (25) 13.9%
5 Hollywood (8) 4.4%
6 Pulp (7) 3.9%
Poetry
1 Love Is A Dog From Hell (37) 20.6%
2 Burning In Water... (24) 13.3%
3 The Last Night Of The Earth... (19) 10.6%
4 Play The Piano Drunk... (16) 8.9%
5 Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (15) 8.3%
6 You Get So Alone At Times... (15) 8.3%
7 The Days Run Away... (14) 7.8%
8 Septuagenarian Stew (12) 6.7%
9 War All The Time (11) 6.1%
10 Dangling In The Tournefortia (10) 5.6%
11 The Roominghouse Madrigals (7) 3.9%
Prose
1 The Most Beautiful.../Tales... (66) 36.7%
2 South Of No North (58) 32.2%
3 Hot Water Music (46) 25.6%
4 Portions From A Wine-Stained... (10) 5.6%
Posthumous poetry
1 What Matters Most... (53) 29.4%
2 Betting On The Muse (34) 18.9%
3 The People Look Like Flowers... (17) 9.4%
4 Open All Night (13) 7.2%
5 The Night Torn Mad... (12) 6.7%
6 Bone Palace Ballet (12) 6.7%
7 Come On In! (11) 6.1%
8 Slouching Toward Nirvana (11) 6.1%
9 Sifting Through The Madness... (10) 5.6%
10 The Flash Of Lightning... (7) 3.9%
Other categories
1 The Movie: "Barfly" (46) 25.6%
2 The Captain Is Out To Lunch... (33) 18.3%
3 Screams From The Balcony (24) 13.3%
4 The Pleasures Of The Damned (22) 12.2%
5 Run With The Hunted (20) 11.1%
6 Shakespeare Never Did This (14) 7.8%
7 Living On Luck (8) 4.4%
8 Reach For The Sun (7) 3.9%
9 Beerspit Night And Cursing (6) 3.3%
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I voted for, "The Roominghouse Madrigals." Shows you where my thinking rates here. Hmmm. Let me think about that. *Burp*
Congrats on your next post, #1400, not that I'm counting or anything...;)
Pax
That's really awesome, PS. I am sporadically checking to see the tally's as it fascinates me. :D
Congrats on your next post, #1400, not that I'm counting or anything...;)
Pax
mjp
Founding member
No, I don't think that would be difficult. I'll have to see if I still have the old counting code.
That is IP based filtering. So if your internet connection changed (restarted your modem, etc.), the system may not have you logged. That's expected behavior.
The only other way to track the voting is through cookies and I don't want to drop those on anyone (many people have them disabled anyway).
mjp
Founding member
I have a feeling that the results were more representative of those who have read all or most all of Buk's books back when the count was around 50 or 100. I've a feeling that many of the votes subsequent to about the first 100 or so are from folks who may have only read a handful of his books.
I realize that this would appear to contradict the concept of statistical sample size, but the word "sample" is just as important as "size." Ideally the sample would represent those who have read all of his works so an even representation of each book would be possible. So, it's my feeling that the best sample was when the size was much smaller than ~300.
Just my $0.02.
I realize that this would appear to contradict the concept of statistical sample size, but the word "sample" is just as important as "size." Ideally the sample would represent those who have read all of his works so an even representation of each book would be possible. So, it's my feeling that the best sample was when the size was much smaller than ~300.
Just my $0.02.
And apparently some of those people have only read The Night Torn Mad With Footsteps, The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain and Come on In!
mjp
Founding member
Any conclusions about who voted are speculation, since we don't know who they are. Ideally, yes, you would have to have read all the books to cast a valid vote and create a valid ranking. But that kind of survey is impossible. How could you verify someone actually has read them all? Make them pass a test? You would have to take their word for it, which doesn't give you any more concrete results than you get now.
I could add a pre-vote question, "Have you read all of the books in these lists?" and tally the results of that. I suspect that most people would have to answer 'no' to that though. Even among the first 50 voters. Of course it is just a vote for "favorites," so even if you've only read three Bukowski poetry books, you can still have a favorite. Of that three. ;)
It's just a trivial web site gimmick anyway. Not rocket surgery.
But it reminds me of an article I read yesterday about research and surveys that demonstrates how one set of results can be interpreted in completely different ways.
I could add a pre-vote question, "Have you read all of the books in these lists?" and tally the results of that. I suspect that most people would have to answer 'no' to that though. Even among the first 50 voters. Of course it is just a vote for "favorites," so even if you've only read three Bukowski poetry books, you can still have a favorite. Of that three. ;)
It's just a trivial web site gimmick anyway. Not rocket surgery.
But it reminds me of an article I read yesterday about research and surveys that demonstrates how one set of results can be interpreted in completely different ways.
Of course what you say is correct, but I find it impossible to look at a set of statistics (even basic stats such as percentages of votes) without dissecting and analyzing said data for representativeness, variance, relevance, reliability, and a few other esoteric things that might only be of interest to a hunk of germanium.
But your link is good too; reminds me of the classic stats issue regarding US Presidential election projections from 1932 or somewhere around there. A very large telephone survey was conducted by a newspaper, and the results were landslide conclusive. Problem was, only about 15-20% of households owned a telephone back then.
You can guess the rest.
But your link is good too; reminds me of the classic stats issue regarding US Presidential election projections from 1932 or somewhere around there. A very large telephone survey was conducted by a newspaper, and the results were landslide conclusive. Problem was, only about 15-20% of households owned a telephone back then.
You can guess the rest.
Gerard K H Love
Appreciate your friends
I like that, "rocket surgery".
mjp
Founding member
Nice to see Absence Of The Hero clocking in with 4 votes months before its publication. ;)
But it could be done.
That's an interesting thought, but it would break the voting into two steps (1: choose the books you've read, 2: choose favorites from that pool), and complicating the poll would decrease the participation.
But it could be done.
mjp
Founding member
Oh, that.
Um, I'm not sure why it was left out. I would like to say there was a reason, or come up with a good excuse, but I have none. Oh wait! Sometimes the secretary gets bored and just types in whatever she wants to. How's that?
I will add it. That really stacks the odds against it, so if you like it, root for it! The underdog!
---
Later that same day...
Fixed. And a couple of little errors in the checklist were fixed too.
Um, I'm not sure why it was left out. I would like to say there was a reason, or come up with a good excuse, but I have none. Oh wait! Sometimes the secretary gets bored and just types in whatever she wants to. How's that?
I will add it. That really stacks the odds against it, so if you like it, root for it! The underdog!
---
Later that same day...
Fixed. And a couple of little errors in the checklist were fixed too.
mjp
Founding member
Because some people just click when they see checkboxes. They can't help themselves. They don't care what the checkboxes are for.
It could be made more accurate, but it would be a lot of work, and it's only meant to be a...I don't know what. Ha. A reasonable approximation of people's preferences. How about that.
It could be made more accurate, but it would be a lot of work, and it's only meant to be a...I don't know what. Ha. A reasonable approximation of people's preferences. How about that.