No new nominations, guys? In that case, let’s vote on the options we had last time, plus a couple of extra things I’m throwing in the mix. Voting closes at the end of next Tuesday. So, what shall we read?

-From Hell, Alan Moore

-The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami 

-Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson

I wore out my Rent soundtrack once upon a time, but can we all agree that maybe New York needs a new touchstone musical, rather than a revival of the show? In the Heights wasn’t transgressive enough, however much I loved Passing Strange it was a little too artsy in its transgressiveness (and too international for its dreams to seem attainable). We need something, though. Rent‘s beyond canon, into cliche, and it’s time for it to get shoved off its pedestal.