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[Eurytus]

Sorry but I totally disagree with this. To suggest that Birdsong would have a “hard core” of fans who would vote for each multiple times in the same way as LOTR is not realistic. The only book in the list that may have a similar cross-section of fans and which might encourage multiple voting is Harry Potter.

LOTR will encourage geek voting in the same way as Star Wars would in any movie poll. Does anyone realistically think that Star Wars is the best movie ever made? And yet it often wins these polls.

Like it or not, LOTR attracts the sort of hard-core geeks who will rig the vote. You only have to peruse Tolkien sites to see this. Every time there is any vote certain sites effectively issue a call to arms. “Come on Tolkien fans we can’t have Harry Potter win this vote” etc etc.

And if LotR does win, this will mean that it is, at this point in time, the nation's favourite book, in terms of the number of people who regard it as their favourite

You cannot say that it is the favourite in terms of number of people who regard it as their favourite if multiple voting is allowed. Sorry but the poll will show nothing beyond the ludicrous lengths LOTR fans will go to in order to ensure their ‘baby’ wins.