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yes

14 (82.4%)

no

3 (17.6%)

Total Members Voted: 16

Voting closed: July 12, 2005, 09:51:44 pm

[side_show]

Summer is the time for reading.

And most of us are literate.

I propose we start a book club.

I would happily be the organizing force behind the book club, and suggest that we post proposed books here, and then, say at the end of July, I'll throw all suggestions into a hat and draw out the first book for our reading pleasure.

Suggestions, thoughts, curmudgeonry?

[AugustWest]

I'm in.

[slink]

I'll say I'm in. I don't know what time I can dedicate to such a thing, mainly in terms of not ploughing through books I'm not into. But those I am, I will join in for, and be involved.

What with not being able to sleep due to insane temperatures, it is indeed a time for reading.

[AlohaDawg]

I can read. I'll give it a try.

[wombat]

I like to rant about books.  I suppose that counts for something.

[Bozack]

I'm definitely in.
Are we going to have any big rules re: selection? F'rinstance, can we read a book that one or more of the book club members have already read, or will we just read books that are new for all of us?

[Limmo]

Yes.

[arkabee]

i am illerate but would like to feel apart of your group.

edit-
i'm sorry,
should have been "you're".

[St_Zartan]

ARKABEE:



Also : I will join this Book Club.

[jough]

I will join if I can have input into the book we choose to read.  For instance, the contemporary novel is DEAD to me, so if you're just going to all read "Snow Falling on Cedars" or the fuck*ng "DaVinci Code" then you can just cram this book club straight up thine arse.

Oh yeah, I'm IN.

[CortJstr]

While I'll most likely read the threads I'm a pretty slow reader and tend to shy away from book clubby books. My SO has been in one at Teaism for well over a year now and the only book they've read that sounded even vaguely interesting to me was Tipping Point.

[side_show]

Cool,

I propose a few rules, which are totally up for discussion:  

1) Fiction and any genres within this catagory only (ie, no plays, biographies, comics, children's books, penthouse forum, etc. -  while other formats are often very cool, in my experience they are not as readily and equally available across the board as your standard novel might be).  If we exhaust fiction we can open the flood gates.

2) No mass market fiction.  Danielle Steel, John Grisham, and anything else you could buy at an airport is out.

3) Once a book is selected we have a month in which to read it, but a response such as "I couldn't finish it because: I hated it/just gave birth/started a new job, etc" must be taken at face value.

Does this sound sane?

[V-Adore]

Sounds sane to me. And yes, I'm also in.

[side_show]

I will join if I can have input into the book we choose to read.  For instance, the contemporary novel is DEAD to me, so if you're just going to all read "Snow Falling on Cedars" or the fuck*ng "DaVinci Code" then you can just cram this book club straight up thine arse.

Oh yeah, I'm IN.

So are contemporary novels totally out for you or are you talking about the mass market/best seller list-type stuff only?  I never, ever want to read the DaVinci code, but I'd like to see a mix of classics and contemporary stuff.  I have a pretty strong penchant for the non-conventional be it printed 100 years ago or two weeks ago.

I think this raises and important point that it's fair that each of us should have the option to opt out when a book is chosen if we need to.  While I'm pretty well open to reading anything, and will take a go at any author once, I know I'd have a hard time reading Hemingway (for example).

Since everyone is a little shy to list off titles/authors, I'll go first.  Some of these are sort of embarassing, but if you see anything that might float your boat, please seconde it.

I will now turn my head to the right, and list off books on my bookshelf which I have yet to read, but want to read, as a means of making suggestions:

Albert Camus/The Plague
William Burroughs/Naked Lunch
Leonard Cohen/Beautiful Losers
Tompson Highway/Kiss of the Fur Queen
F. Scott Fitzgerald/The Great Gatsby (actually I read this in Gr. 9, but it's been a long long time)
Henry Miller/Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn
Mordecai Richler/Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Salman Rushdie/Satanic Verses
John Steinbach/Grapes of Wrath
JD Salinger/Franny and Zooey
Hunter S. Thompson/Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

I will again turn my head to the right and list off books which I have read, which I would happily read again:

Margaret Atwood/Handmaiden's Tale
Joseph Conrad/Heart of Darkness
Douglas Coupland/Microserfs or Generation X
Michael Cunningham/The Hours
Katherine Dunn/Geek Love
Bret Easton Ellis/American Psycho
Timothy Findlay/The Wars
Alasdair Gray/Something Leather
John Lancaster The Debt of Pleasure
William Golding/Lord of the Flies
Mark Haddon/the curious incident of the dog in the night-time
Aldous Huxley/Brave New World
Anne Marie MacDonald/The Way the Crow Flies
Sylvia Plath/The Bell Jar
Alice Sebold/The Lovely Bones
Miriam Toews/a complicated kindness

Authors I would like to read more/anything by:

Chuck Palahniuk - haven't read anything by him, but want to.
Timothy Findlay - I've read all of his stuff but would read it again
Margaret Atwood - I've read most of her stuff, but am open to re-reads
Katherine Dunn - I've just re-read Geek Love, and want to read other stuff by her.
Miriam Toews - I've only read a complicated kindness but have always wanted to read her other stuff.

Any of this sound good?  Please for the love of god, all of you post your lists too so we can figure out what sort of things actually exicite us!

[AugustWest]

From your list the one book that jumps out at me that seems given to reading group discussion is The Plague.  I read it about 20 years ago and enjoyed it.  It seems like the sort of book that is accesible enough to get through without having to pull a Costanza, yet meaty enough to give us something to discuss.

Of course, I cannot comment on the large portion of your list that I have not read.

Finally, I have to push two books from your non-read list.  Today (July 13, 2005) you should read both Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Franny and Zooey.  You could easily read both in a day and the investment of that time would pay off most handsomely.