January - March 2026 Nominations and voting

Believe it or not, it is time to start planning for next year.

Nomination gives a point to the author. Seconding, thirding and so on and all other kinds of support add a point as well. The 3 authors with the most points win in the order of the number of votes they got (unless one or more of the 3 has an anniversary or something - in which case I will try to match them to their month). Ties that produce more than 3 authors overall at the top will be broken with an admin half-vote and everyone who is in a tie but does not make it into this selection, gets half a point for next time.

Anyone is eligible to be nominated except for the authors we had read the last 24 months: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Monthly_Author_Reads#Recent_Picks . It is preferred that the author has at least some works in English (original or translated) -- most of the participants read in English (even if some may be able to also use other languages) :)

Just to make everyone's life easier (so you do not need to click on the wiki if you do not want to), here is the list of ineligible authors this time around:

Elizabeth Gaskell
George Bernard Shaw
Sir Walter Scott
Wilkie Collins
Maggie O'Farrell
Margaret Atwood
Émile Zola
James Baldwin
Jane Gardam
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Robert Louis Stevenson
George Eliot
John Le Carré
James McBride
Pearl S. Buck
Henry James
Elizabeth Taylor
E. M. Forster
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Kazuo Ishiguro
José Saramago
Alexandre Dumas, père
Thomas Hardy
Jung Chang

Deadline - December 1, 2025, whatever time I get around to counting :)

It’s a daunting task figuring out who I want to read as the first author of the new year! I’m going to have to rifle through my TBR pile a bit.

I suggest Georges Simenon.

Just putting that back on top of thread lists. :) please nominate some authors. Pretty please? :)

>1 AnnieMod: John Banville

How about F. Scott Fitzgerald?

I went through my TBR and these are the authors I frequently start my year with so here's a small list of options.
Leo Tolstoy
Junichiro Tanizaki
Ursula K. Le Guin
John Wyndham
Marguerite Yourcenar

I'll nominate

George Orwell
Josephine Tey
Rebecca Makkai
Niall Williams

I will second F Scott Fitzgerald, Tolstoy, Wyndham and Orwell.

Dawn Powell 2nd Orwell

Dawn Powell 2nd Orwell

I'll also nominate J S Fletcher and G A Henty.

Nominating Ismail Kadare and George Gissing.

I will second Orwell, George Gissing and Marguerite Yourcenar

>13 SassyLassy: I will second Kadare.

I will third John Wyndham. I would love to read more of his books.

Results:

4: George Orwell - kac522, john257hopper, cindydavid4, MissWatson
3: John Wyndham - lilisin, john257hopper, lochiegirl64
2: Ismail Kadare - SassyLassy, john257hopper

2: F. Scott Fitzgerald - MissWatson, john257hopper
2: Leo Tolstoy - lilisin, john257hopper
2: Marguerite Yourcenar - lilisin, MissWatson
2: George Gissing - SassyLassy, MissWatson

1: Georges Simenon - MissWatson
1: John Banville - kjuliff
1: Junichiro Tanizaki - lilisin
1: Ursula K. Le Guin - lilisin
1: Josephine Tey - kac522
1: Rebecca Makkai - kac522
1: Niall Williams - kac522
1: Dawn Powell - cindydavid4
1: J S Fletcher - john257hopper
1: G A Henty - john257hopper

Which means:
January: George Orwell
February: John Wyndham
March: Ismail Kadare

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Leo Tolstoy, Marguerite Yourcenar and George Gissing get 1/2 point each for next time (stay tuned in February for the next nominations and voting window.

Threads will be up later this week.

>17 AnnieMod: Thanks, Annie!

Threads are up:

January: https://www.librarything.com/topic/376523

February: https://www.librarything.com/topic/376524

March: https://www.librarything.com/topic/376525