[Ich bin gael]

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

[luxinterior]

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

[noumenal]

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.

[Alex's Trip]

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.

[Ich bin gael]

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....

[Пятхъдесят Шест]

Sign me up!

[HaydenAsche]

I'll join.

[Ich bin gael]

Originally Posted by Alex's Trip

I'm 15, have tried reading Fydor Dostoyevsky and failed.

I tried reading Proust when I was 16 (i.e. last year ). That didn't go very well 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....

[noumenal]

I'm not reading A Separate Peace again.

[finding nobody]

i will join

[SpectralJulianIsNotDead]

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

[Alex's Trip]

Originally Posted by Ich bin gael

I tried reading Proust when I was 16 (i.e. last year ago). That didn't go too well 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 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...

[krastian]

Originally Posted by noumenal

I'm not reading A Separate Peace again.

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

[noumenal]

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.

[Ich bin gael]

You can be the leader if you want.

[Alex's Trip]

Originally Posted by noumenal

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.

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

[golden child]

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?

[noumenal]

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.

[golden child]

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)

[truncated]

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.