Ok...this is really nerdy of me, but would anyone else be interested in
starting a Shmeng book club?
There are lots of books I want to read, but don´t have the time and don´t
make the time ´cause not having time is a good excuse. Besides, even if I
did read the books I wanted to chances are I would drive all the idiots
around me nuts by trying to discuss them.
I´m thinking we all agree on a book, spend a month or so reading it and
discuss it via forums (or maybe email if we get too chatty) weekly by
chapter. Is that how a real (ala Oprah) book club works?
So if anyone has any potential books...I was thinking Mary Shelley´s
Frankenstein for one, or Orwell´s 1984, both of which I´ve
always wanted to read. We could also do poetry (realpoetry, not
angsty teen whinings) or plays.
I know no one has time, but even in just 15 minutes a day (c´mon, turn off
the Facts of Life rerun) you too could be more pseudo-intellectual!
Anyone up for it?
____________________ Wind me up and make me crawl to you, tie me up until I call to you.
Comedian
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 01:27 AM
I´m always up for a good reading of Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse.
But please, god, never, ever, ever, A Catcher in the Rye.
Dear god never.
____________________ Make way for the bad guy!
KatB
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 02:23 AM
Great idea, I´m willing to give it a try :-)
A suggestion: John Fowles´ "The Magus" - I read it many years ago and want
to read it again, and I remember missing somebody to discuss it with...
I tried to cut & paste the link to the book from Amazon, but the machine
couldn´t handle it. But it shouldn´t take long to find, even without the
link.
____________________ All stressed out and no one to choke...
Meranda_Jade
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 06:23 AM
I agree, it´s a great idea! Let the reading begin...
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DevilBunny
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 07:39 AM
Count me in... just love reading and this would be a great idea.
Starting pretty heavy, ´cause ´1984´ and ´Frankenstein´ are not exactly the
easiest of books... but good, nontheless.
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Ironboots
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 08:06 AM
What´s so bad about Catcher in the Rye, you phony!
;-)
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Shade
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 08:54 AM
Go to a school district where they asign it every year and ask that
question again.
____________________ It is only through the lack of sex that humanity derives the need for an
all encompassing blind love. And in that moment of extreme horniness with
no relief in sight, in that moment can be found the birth of religion.
-Me
Kira
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 09:55 AM
Some real gems from my public school education *required reading*
Tiger Eyes (by Judy Blume...ok, at least it was in middle school) Summer of My German Soldier Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn both of which I detested.
Once I got into college I realized that in 4 years of high school we never
read a single play, poem, novel, or short story by a female author. Scary.
____________________ Wind me up and make me crawl to you, tie me up until I call to you.
Xaoswolf
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 09:57 AM
I´m up for it, I would just like to request no crime and punnishment, never
read catcher in the rye, but damn did crime and punnishment just suck down
a big one...
____________________ Sometimes I dream about dinosaurs shopping for cargo shorts at the Gap.
Does that make me a bad person?
AloneSoul
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 11:59 AM
Recommenced if you can find it: The Eaters of the Dead.
If you’ve ever seen 13th Warrior, that’s the book which it was based on and
a very good book it is.
I have a lot of reading to do on my course already. But I´d be delighted to
suggested books or comment on the ones I´ve already read.
How about:
Catch 22,
The Brotherhood,
Fingerprints of the Gods,
maybe a couple of volumes of Satre Or Camus,
the complete works of Arthur Conan Doyle is always good fro a laugh,
Gaudi´s biography is very insightful if you like that kind of thing.
That should be a nice, slow start.
The bookclub thing is a nice idea. Good thinking batgirl!
____________________ Light is changing to shadow, and casting a shroud over all we have known.
Merry_Widow
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 12:36 PM
I think a book club would be a great idea. I think the hardest part would
be finding a book for everyone to agree on. But I´m thinking as long as
it´s not Catcher in the Rye, it should be a fairly easy task...
____________________ Okay, dazzle me.
Monolycus
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 02:03 PM
I think that sounds like a great idea, Kira. I used to go to a college
with a Great Books curriculum (for those of you unfamiliar with that, it
just means that we read original works and then sat at a round table three
times a week and discussed/dissected the works in what is supposed to be a
Socratic learning process for all. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it
didn´t.) Getting everybody here to agree on the work we all want to
discuss might be a bugger, as would be keeping us on topic (You generally
get at least one person who feels that just because they didn´t technically
do the reading should be no impediment to their comparing the book to last
week´s episode of the Simpsons at length). Also, if anyone quotes from the
book in question, please remember that different editions (or, in many
cases, translations) are arranged differently and what character A said on
page 136 in your copy doesn´t happen for me until page 175. If we all
agree to read a set number of chapters though, it shouldn´t get too
confusing... (unless a lot of us want to read ahead and discuss things that
not everyone knows anything about yet).
I, too, would have plenty of books to suggest that I feel are
discussion-worthy. Off the top of my head are:
Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dosteovsky
Moby-Dick, or the Whale by Herman Melville
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
the dialogues of Plato
Hamlet, MacBeth or King Lear by Shakespeare
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
...and I will stop here or I will be here all day.
____________________ "I believe that woman is planning to shoot me again."
MorteAscendo
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posted on 3/9/2002 at 04:07 PM
Ok...Well..there is a crazy yet beautiful book called "Swan Song" by
Robert R. McCammon. I would read that fifty million times...it is a
multi-character book...and the back ground is after a nuke war...rose the
ultiment evil called "Friend" and he is after a little girl named Swan who
posses the power to bring life back to earth. Also other main characters.
And there is a huge Good and Evil Battle in the end...it is 2 books in one
and between the gap it is like a 7 year hiadus....i want to tell more...but
even if you dont pick this book you should read it...it was frickin
unbeliveable book...OR!!! another book by the same author called "The
Wolfs Hour". it is about this guy who get s bit by a Warewolf during
WW2...and he slaughter Nazis...theres more to it..but it was fuckin
hillarious....OR!! (lol) another but the samne author called "Gone South"
is a bout 2 bounty Hunters..one a Elvis Impersonator and a guy who has a
Siamese twin in his belly..and when the guy taps on his belt buckle the
twin pulls out a Derringer and shoots straight ahead...lol...OR!!!
hahaha..im kidding..anyway...i havent read them all..but i want
too...ok..im done!!
-Morte ops:
____________________ "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue. I'm a schizophrenic, and so am I".
My suggestion is terry pratchet...a tasty mix of tweaky, quirky, comical
satyre and literary genious combined with just plain out good goddamned
writing skills.
He co wrote a book with neil gaiman called "good omens: the nice and
accurate prophecies of agnes nutter, witch"
I´m a HUGE poppy z brite fan (michael scored me an autographed hardcover
copy of "plastic jesus" off ebay for twenty bucks! WOOOO!) and I´m
currently making my way through as many dean koontz books that I can get my
hands on.
I read A LOT. A LOT. I ran out of poppy´s books, and I´m running out of
dean´s books, and I had already finnished with most of king´s GOOD books
in highschool, so I"m probably going to be moving on to neil gaiman
next.
I stick to horror compilations...you get to taste a variety of writers and
their different takes on horror.
999 was AWESOME...and the "new best horror" line is also fucking
fantastic.
Anton lavey if you´re in for a little sharp witticism and hairbrained well
thought out philosophy.
I like the idea, there should be one public post a month, or a section of
it´s own so we can do this...I think it´s a FABULOUS idea kira
____________________ Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas.
Devin
Administrator
Posts: 317 Registered: 31/12/1969 Status: Online
posted on 3/9/2002 at 10:11 PM
I´d have to agree with the Frankenstein thing - just so people can see how
much better a 17 year old girl can write than they can
But if we´re looking for suggestions, I´d nominate "A Clockwork Orange".
Doesn´t get much gother than that, and there´s plenty to discuss. (Plus you
can´t cheat and watch the movie and know what you´re talking about)
____________________ So Sayeth Me
Comedian
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posted on 4/9/2002 at 02:04 AM
I thought there was some conspiracy blip about how the girl that wrote
frankenstein actually had the transcript dropped on her lap by a cloaked
figure in a disreputable bar...
How about some cheery stuff, though?
James Thurber, P.G. Wodehouse, or Jack London?
And though some of you may scoff at Jack London- read Call of the
Wild before you try to bring him down.
____________________ Make way for the bad guy!
KatB
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posted on 4/9/2002 at 02:30 AM
Yeah, excellent authours as well as Pratchet (Gaaawd, yes, Good Omens is
the funniest book ever, _everybody_ muuuust read!!!) BUT what is there to
discuss?
To make the most of a project like this, I reckon we ought to go for
something with psychological layers, if that made sence to anyone... Issues
where different people can air different views and/or conceptions. Without
being ridiculed or needing to show off, pleeeze!
I agree on Frankenstein and A Clockwork Orange, and repeat my plea for John
Fowles´ The Magus - it´s a compelling book, with an incredible plot, it´s
like everytime you feel you´ve figured it all out you realise you weren´t
even close...
8)
____________________ All stressed out and no one to choke...
/>
IamSquid
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posted on 5/9/2002 at 02:59 AM
I like the idea. The problem is my reading list is SO goddman heavy (I
generally read 3 books at a time and buy 5 in the process).
Frankenstein was a terrific book but I´ve already read it. I´ve read a
book called The Magus but it was written by Francis Barret and wasn´t a
novel.
I reccomend The Hitchhiker´s guide to the Galaxy (I admit, I´ve never
finnished it).
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die so i could watch, and then me die.
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KatB
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posted on 5/9/2002 at 04:34 AM
Funny, but what to discuss?????????
And no, it´s not the same book. :roll:
____________________ All stressed out and no one to choke...