Sorry for the radio silence, folks. As fate would have it, we’re here scrambling like mad with the great work: the Sistine Chapel of graphic design; the iPod of site functionality, speed, and grace. You know what I’m talking about: the relaunch of BookSwim’s website.

We’re currently scheduled to unveil BookSwim 3.0 in the first week of May. In the meantime, expect a limited return of the Literary Life with silly surveys on Tuesday and blogging on Thursdays. And if this doesn’t quite fill your Literary Life needs, fear not; we’ll return in force after the site relaunch.

Onwards & upwards!

–Chip

Copious kudos are owed to that lovable rapscallion, Oliver Twist, who, by a whopping 57%, is the most beloved Dickensian scamp among our members.

Books have long been the inspiration for film, but ever since Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings first splashed onto screens in 2001, Hollywood has been looking to the bookshelves for inspiration with growing frequency. In fact, it seems that just about every book that’s been a hit in the last few years are all being made into blockbuster hopefuls.

Thus far, in 2009 alone, we’ve seen film adaptations of He’s Just Not That Into You, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Coraline, just to name a few. And there are more on the way!

This week, we want to know which upcoming literary foray into film has you the most excited. Cast your vote and see how your favorite stacks up.

Also, be sure to let us know what question you’d like posed for March’s upcoming Top Ten

Well, we’ve tabulated the votes and by a whopping 52%, the BookSwimmers are most excited for, I kid you not, “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen” (I can’t make this stuff up, folks).

This week, we’re takin’ it back to the old school with a question about Charles Dickens’ most beloved scamps (of which there were many). Dickens wrote sweet and genuine little boys that made all of our hearts go out.

But which is the most apple-cheeked? The most doe-eyed? The most beloved Dickensian scamp?

And while you’re at it, take another moment to vote in this month’s Top Ten, and keep an eye out for tomorrow’s Review of the Week (maybe even write a review and see if you get picked).

Fun fact: Dickens got paid by the page, which is part of why his books contain SO many characters.

In a stunning come-from-behind victory, last week’s Silly Survey, which asked how you felt John Grisham’s new book, The Associate, stands up to previous Grisham The books, our readers voted in a staggering 32% victory that they were just glad it wasn’t another book about pizza (or playing for it, for that matter).

Well, this week, we’re back with the goods here at The Literary Life and we want to know, of the most popular alpha-numerically sequenced mystery/thriller series, which one most has you shivering with antici…

…pation for the next enthralling edition.

Vote to the right or in the sidebar to let us know. Is your pick losing? Feel like venting about your perturbment? Is perturbment even a word? Wanna yell at me ’cause it’s not? Comment below!

Also let us know what you think of the new layout and the Silly Survey in the sidebar, as well as making sure to nominate your favorite cheesy romance for this month’s Top Ten.

Famed author John Grisham is at it again with another book in his famous “The” legal thriller series. He’s written books like The Appeal, The Innocent Man, The Partner, The Broker, The Summons and The Last Juror, just to name a few.

Also, make sure to nominate your favorite cheesy romance novel for this month’s Top Ten.

Last week, you, the BookSwimmers, voted that, of James Patterson’s more notable detectives, you’d be most afraid of having Alex Cross on your tail by 57%. Sorry ladies. Lindsay Boxer doesn’t instill the same level of butt-kicking fear and awe.

What? No Alan Moore? No Neil Gaiman? Not even Frank Miller? Sorry folks. Even we’re not that cool. Maybe next year. Your questions below.

In perhaps our most silly survey yet, last week, you faithful BookSwimmers decided that Walt Whitman looked eerily like that benevolent bringer of bounty, Santa Claus.

Select your answer to the right, debate the injustice of the current score in the comments section below, and clip your nails in the privacy of your own home.

Inauguration day is here and, with it, the results to last week’s Silly Survey. We asked you which presidential biography best prepares Americans for the next 4 years and you, the faithful BookSwimmers, voted overwhelmingly for Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps you felt it imperative to get inside the mind of another representative of the great state of Illinois, or maybe it had something to do with the Emancipation Proclamation. Your reasons are clearly your own, and I dare not speculate further.

Oh, and while you’re at it, take these next few days to vote in this month’s Top Ten, which asks BookSwimmers which book or books will you read to help accomplish your New Year’s resolution.

In last week’s yummy literature poll, you, the BookSwimmers, voted 44% for the win that you would most enjoy eating Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, of Harry Potter fame (a narrow defeat of Green Eggs and Ham, which rallied support from only 39% of you). Now, we here at BookSwim have actually eaten these things, since some marketing genius at Jelly Belly decided it’d be a good idea to make earwax-flavored jelly beans. In fact, you can hear Chip and Eric discuss this experience – and other flavors – in this week’s podcast.

My favorite aspect of this poll is that it will close upon the swearing into office of the 44th President of the United States of America. Oh, and don’t forget to nominate your pick for January’s Top Ten (nominations end on Friday morning).

Yummy, yummy, yummy, I’ve got books in my tummy. Literature has long been a source of interesting new foods, be they silly, plausible or even from a futuristic dystopian society.

Are there any fictional/literary foods that we missed on this week’s list?

Well, based on last week’s poll, our BookSwimmers clearly feel that James Patterson should cool it down a notch, or at least up his life insurance before the next time he sits down with a pen.

P.S. Dig the new format with the poll on the right, all fancy-schmancy-like? Let us know!