Powertool polls and more

The kids over at Powertools are conducting a poll to try and determine the Best American Novel. What wild and crazy guys! Here's the list from which you can select your fave as the consumate piece of American literary magnificence, along with the current standings which their loyal readers have produced:

Huckleberry Finn 25.5%
To Kill A Mockingbird 18.8%
Moby-Dick 14.6%
The Great Gatsby 7.2%
Catch-22 5.2%
Fahrenheit 451 4.5%
My Antonia 4.5%
All the King's Men 3.4%
A Farewell to Arms 2.6%
The Sound and the Fury 2.3%
The Long Goodbye 2.2%
The Scarlet Letter 2.0%
The Sot-Weed Factor 1.2%
The Age of Innocence 1.1%
Pale Fire 1.1%
Invisible Man 1.0%
The Adventures of Augie March 0.7%
Uncle Tom's Cabin 0.6%
Rabbit, Run 0.5%
The Great American Novel 0.4%
Portrait of a Lady 0.3%
Total votes: 4275

Hmmm. Nothing for me to vote for there, although Nelle Harper Lee deserves a higher place in my view.

Why no John Steinbeck, as in The Grapes of Wrath? Or is that too much a picture of what happens to people when unfettered compassionate conservatism is really given a chance?

What about I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings? Or does Maya Angelou hit a little too close to the gonads for all those southern patriots?

OK. If you can't find a book to vote for on Pajamaline, you can always go here, where they're also having a poll. Unfortunately, it demonstrates that at least 860 people participating still haven't read a newspaper.

Oh well.