You guys wanna start a book club?
 

How 'bouts it eh? Book club because reading if fun and reading is fundmental. Dig?

What books? How much time would we have to read each one? My vacation has begun and I have nothing to do.

I suggested this sort of sarcastically in this thread:

http://216.70.73.169/gossip/showthread.php?t=1839

But I think it's a great idea. I'm a little skeptical that anyone would actually do it though.

That'd be cool. The only problems I see is the age differences. I'm 15, have tried reading Fydor Dostoyevsky and failed. I'd join...but I got lots of reading to do for summer homework that has been given to me by my teachers next year: A Seperate Peace, the Good Earth, and Silas Marner. On top of that I have to do an essay on Johan Gutenberg, and I may be taking chemistry as a summer course. Hurray!

but yeah, book club...sounds good.

We'd have a month to read each book. I'm not sure which books yet... I thought we'd choose as a group once we have enough members....

Sign me up!

I'll join.

:p:p


I tried reading Proust when I was 16 (i.e. last year ). That didn't go very well :p But Dostoevsky isn't too hard man! And you could always get one of those companion books in case you get lost. I've read Crime and Punishment, I have The Idiot but I haven't read it yet....

I'm not reading A Separate Peace again. :)

i will join

The first book should be Xavier Herbert's Poor Fellow My Country.

I only read a couple pages and then was distracted by Animal Farm for school. Yuck. I did not like that book at all. And then after that I forgot to pick it up again and try and then got summer books. I'm about 70 pages into A Seperate Peace.

I'll join, maybe...

Ha. I'd rather read that over Silas Marner! That was death.

If you guys really want to do this, we need to do the following things:

1. Appoint someone to be the organizer.

2. PM this person saying you want to join.

3. Decide on some groundrules.

4. Pick the first book (and all subsequent books) by doing an old-fashioned PM poll (so non-members can't vote) of nominated books.

You can be the leader if you want.

I say ground rules first. I don't want to join something if I don't know how it is going to work.

im reading a separate peace for school. its not that great.

but im down with the is club, maybe we could have a thread for discussion or something of the sort?

I guess groundrules would be like:

Depending on the book, maybe one chapter per week. Something like that. Then you'd have to designate a time and place (chat room) to discuss shit. I think it would be silly to require anything of people, though. I can't really think of anything else right now.

Wait around and see if there's any interest in this.

some books im interested in reading, these are books i own but havent read yet and will be reading soon regardles...

tropic of cancer - henry miller
the idiot - fydor dostoyevsky (too long?)
notes from the underground - fydor dostoyesvsky
anything by kafka
anna karenin - tolstoy
democracy in america - alexis de tocqueville
a farewell to arms - ernest hemingway
a modern instance - william d howells
the republic - plato
neuromancer - william gibson
battlefield earth - l ron hubbard (long)

It's an intriguing idea, and I'd be up for it, because I'm ordinarily reading most of the time anyhow.

However, and pardon my rant here, if the book list is going to consist mostly of the canon, or of books that people choose to read generally because they look good under your arm at the coffeeshop, then...meh.

While I'im all for the thought-provoking, experimental novel, I desperately wish people would discard this notion that good literature by definition has to be obscure, difficult to read, etc. I realize this is not necessarily the attitude anyone is taking with their suggestions, but a lot of seemingly superficial novels are overlooked because of their mass appeal or accessibility.

I've found authors like Stephen King, John Irving, or Salman Rushdie infinitely more 'educational' and provocative than people like Hemingway. I suppose it depends on what your motivation is (I suppose I'm something of a deconstructionist), but, children, I implore you, don't swallow the forcefed bullshit of academia.

Again, I see the merits of reading books of the 'artistic' ilk - if nothing else, they're good for a knowledge base. But, coming from a jaded Literature major, literary dissection is something that, while ridiculously easy to do, is often overdone.

I can't believe I paid money to sit in a classroom and listen to a group of naive, pompous fucks expounding upon the symbolism of monkey heads in "Woman Warrior" and stroking each other's cerebral cocks. Because frankly, if you need someone else to point these things out to you, you're a lost cause anyhow, and you should put the book down before you even bother to begin it.

My point? If we can read books that do not for the most part exist to be conversational pieces on grassy knolls outside the university coffeeshop, I'm in.

I think it's a great idea. So long as there's actually a decent number of people prepared to discuss afterwards.

I'm tentatively interested, because I have enjoyed the pleasures of a book club before.

I share Truncated's concerns, to some degree, but would also like to say that I suspect it'll be easier to get people to read Kundera than Stephen King. Something no-one has read would be quite difficult to find, but I would rather not have to suffer the ilk of either authors I have suggested here.

Perhaps we could start with Genesis, and work our way up from there?

I know you didn't just knock Stephen King.

I have had similar hallucinations regarding cheese villification on this board as well.

It must be me.

Read veneration where you feel it is wanted. I'm just waiting for the takers on the Kundera-bait to be honest.

I suppose I'm ambivalent toward Kundera, though I've only read "Unbearable Lightness."

I found him unnecessarily convoluted at times, and was basically unimpressed.

However, I'm open-minded. If someone can suggest a novel of his that will change my mind, I'd give it a go.

*Edit/disclaimer: Yes, I shorten album and book titles when writing them out. No, I do not use the appropriate ellipses or brackets. So piss off.

count me in. the library here is not so good, but i know they order stuff if i ask, it takes some time though.

I get pissed off with him because every idiot and their dog keeps telling me I should read him... he's gone into that category of 'intellectual books for people who aren't very clever' (cf - On the Road). He's a distinctly average writer.

Now, can I get seconded in my proposition that people read something by Genet?

King sets great mood, can I join? Reading Thomas Pynchon, first time; shocking...

I'm in. Sounds cool.

Sounds like it could be interesting. Reading a book a month then discussing. Cool, I'm in. As long as I can get copies of the books we're assigned, it'll be a sinch.

I'll second that, at least.


Are we talking Jean Genet? I've never read him, so I'd be up for that. Play or novel?

Either's good. I haven't read all of the books, and I wasn't aware there were plays. He is possibly a little difficult to get hold of (in the UK at least), so perhaps not ideal for an international book club, but I would certainly recommend you, trunky-wunky, reading lady of the flowers.

Books that are easily available: Finnegan's Wake. How about reading that kids? Eh? Eh?

ive read finnegans wake
dumbest book ever

see post #21 for more info

I take issue with use of the word 'dumbest' - perhaps you're confusing the word 'dumbest' with 'best'?

But no, all joking aside, it's a terrible idea, I love that book more than any other, but it is utterly ridiculous to expect other people to enjoy what is the most deeply unreadable book I can think of (with Derrida's 'Glas' and 'of Grammatology' coming in in 2nd and 3rd place respectively)

I would love to join a book club.

there are many ways to do it. you could have a circle, where you pass 6 books around 6 people, and just go around...
lots of ideas.

Haha. I read Woman Warrior, errr, I read the first 1/3rd and skimmed the rest. My main comment on the book was that I understood what she meant in the first part because my aunt comitted suicide. It seemed very Oprah Book-clubish to me though, so I gave my copy to my Mom and she liked it.

The problem with that list is about half those books a lot of people have read or will read anyways.

If Genet is difficult to obtain for you UK folks, an alternative I would suggest is something by Naguib Mahfouz (ignore any postmodern tags that may be applied to him). Culturally educational, excellent prose style, and entertaining. Just a thought, though I'd opt for Genet first.

Hack.

Your cruelty is astounding.