# One novel to 10 strangers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934 "2010-01-06T19:05:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/1 "2010-01-06T19:05:09Z")
What novel would you give to 10 random strangers that would have the best chance of all of them reading it, finishing it and liking it? I’d choose Kurt Vonnegut’s **Breakfast of Champions**. It’s fun, funny, touching, surprising, easy-to-read and illustrated. And not very long ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/2 "2010-01-06T19:23:45Z")
Stephen King’s The Stand or Scott Smith’s A Simple Plan. ---
**Author:** ![Pandoranoid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce73a5/32.png) [@Pandoranoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pandoranoid)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/3 "2010-01-06T19:35:35Z")
Probably something really crappy. ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’. If nonfiction were allowed I’d do the latest equivalent of ‘Thinner Thighs in 30 Days’. If I had just a smidge more faith in the taste of the general populace, I might try some Douglas Adams (funny), Orwell (short and easy to read), and maybe ‘Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel (short, and it was a bestseller, after all). And again, if nonfiction were allowed, I’d throw in a collection of Lewis Thomas essays and the latest by Malcolm Gladwell. If I could do poetry it would be Billy Collins-even people who hate poetry (99% of everyone, by my uber-scientific count) like him. He’s actually outsold Jewel! I think. I mean if you’re just talking about her shitty poetry and don’t count her shitty music. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/4 "2010-01-06T19:46:57Z")
Chris Moore’s **Lamb**. Funny, thought-provoking, borderline (and not-so-borderline) blasphemous, and it has kung-fu and bunnies! ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/5 "2010-01-06T20:16:43Z")
**Replay** , Ken Grimwood. If I can get them through the first twenty pages or so, no way they’d put it down. Plus, it’s pretty accessible as far as Sci Fi goes, and the plot elements are universal: Who hasn’t thought about going back in their own timeline with knowledge retention and changing things? ---
**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/6 "2010-01-06T20:22:35Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > **Replay** , Ken Grimwood. If I can get them through the first twenty pages or so, no way they’d put it down. Plus, it’s pretty accessible as far as Sci Fi goes, and the plot elements are universal: > > Who hasn’t thought about going back in their own timeline with knowledge retention and changing things? Isn’t that the one where a character hires Lucas and/or Speilberg to direct a movie before they’re famous? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/7 "2010-01-06T20:37:06Z")
> [@Lethal\_Babydoll](#): > > Isn’t that the one where a character hires Lucas and/or Speilberg to direct a movie before they’re famous? Yes. (So much for me using spoiler tags). ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/8 "2010-01-06T20:43:47Z")
> [@Lethal\_Babydoll](#): > > Isn’t that the one where a character hires Lucas and/or Speilberg to direct a movie before they’re famous? Of course not. He’s not a fool. He hires Spielberg to direct and Lucas to do the special effects. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/9 "2010-01-06T21:58:31Z")
**Jennifer Government** by Max Barry. I keep a lending copy in my car 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/10 "2010-01-06T23:58:14Z")
> [@Pandoranoid](#): > > Probably something really crappy. ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’. If nonfiction were allowed I’d do the latest equivalent of ‘Thinner Thighs in 30 Days’. > If I had just a smidge more faith in the taste of the general populace, I might try some Douglas Adams (funny), Orwell (short and easy to read), and maybe ‘Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel (short, and it was a bestseller, after all). And again, if nonfiction were allowed, I’d throw in a collection of Lewis Thomas essays and the latest by Malcolm Gladwell. If I could do poetry it would be Billy Collins-even people who hate poetry (99% of everyone, by my uber-scientific count) like him. He’s actually outsold Jewel! I think. I mean if you’re just talking about her shitty poetry and don’t count her shitty music. Apparently, you and I have the same opinion of “10 random strangers.” I’d pick one of the pieces of dreck from Oprah’s Book Club. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/11 "2010-01-07T00:25:21Z")
Green Eggs and Ham. It’s not the deepest thing out there but I’m betting all ten of them would read it. ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-novel-to-10-strangers/523934/12 "2010-01-07T17:49:58Z")
Christopher Moore is the author I most often give as gifts, so I’d pick the You Suck trilogy. He makes me laugh out loud at work, reinforcing my weird cred.