I would love to join a book club with you esteemed peeps, but I fear I do not have the time.
Also, I would likely humiliate myself with a billion faux pas in every post and somehow turn to objectivism and cultural relativism as my only line of argumentative defence, e.i. reductio ad neener neener.
Fuck off and die.
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Shortytouching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered Userregular
(i'm reading The Sound and The Fury on and off, shank recommended it to me, it's also pretty great)
formal experimentation of the 'leave quotation marks out' type or even stream of consciousness writing have always struck me as jejune and not actually accomplishing much
even in the case with someone like faulkner (i read as i lay dying) where it tells a whole story and every word is useful, it's such a bloody-minded cynical worldview that i want to vomit
for what it's worth, I concur
though this didn't stop me from stealing from faulkner for a collage piece I wrote a little while back
what makes Faulkner work for me is that he's using these techniques to try and put you inside the head of his characters
like, if he's using stream-of-consciousness, it's not his own consciousness that you're getting the stream of. it's the world as it appears to someone else entirely. which is a much more impressive feat to me than just sitting down and making bullshit up
i'm going on a whole american-literature kick at the moment, reading twain and faulkner and mccarthy and all sorts of people, it's been a wild ride
I'd love to keep up with a book club on here. I very rarely find books that I enjoy, and the last few that I have were from various people in this thread talking about them! So count me in.
List a book, I will read it. I will discuss it happily.
Because I am in one of those rare moments where I'm looking at my bookshelf (admittedly filled with mostly fantasy) and I'm going "meh". I need something new to gnaw on.
what makes Faulkner work for me is that he's using these techniques to try and put you inside the head of his characters
like, if he's using stream-of-consciousness, it's not his own consciousness that you're getting the stream of. it's the world as it appears to someone else entirely. which is a much more impressive feat to me than just sitting down and making bullshit up
i'm going on a whole american-literature kick at the moment, reading twain and faulkner and mccarthy and all sorts of people, it's been a wild ride
Yeah, it is impressive.
the problem for me is that the characters are assholes and the world they see is also an asshole
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I'll join the book club, why not
I already have too much to read as is, how much worse can it get
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
edited March 2012
So, @Cilla Black volunteered to help me make this thing happen. We're gonna work out the starting-off point and then ask people to submit their interest to us via PM, I think! Tentatively? Anyway, people who are interested, start mulling over the ONE SINGLE BOOK you think we should start off by reading.
Lost Salient on
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
The shutdown of library.nu is creating a virtual showdown between would-be learners and the publishing industry.
Any thoughts on this?
The key quote out of the whole thing is: "Why doesn't the publishing industry want these consumers? For one thing, the US and European book-buying libraries have been willing pay the prices necessary to keep the industry happy - and not just happy, in many cases obscenely profitable."
I think ultimately it comes down to scholars deciding how interested they are in actual discourse, in which case they should find a way to involve as many people in the conversation as is possible and find a way to share their thoughts and ideas that's not gated behind a money wall. I think the drive to publish and get tenure and build a reputation leads to people looking out for their own self-interest instead of some kind of greater academic community's interest. That's purely an outsider's perspective though, I could be wrong.
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Quoththe RavenMiami, FL FOR REALRegistered Userregular
what makes Faulkner work for me is that he's using these techniques to try and put you inside the head of his characters
like, if he's using stream-of-consciousness, it's not his own consciousness that you're getting the stream of. it's the world as it appears to someone else entirely. which is a much more impressive feat to me than just sitting down and making bullshit up
i'm going on a whole american-literature kick at the moment, reading twain and faulkner and mccarthy and all sorts of people, it's been a wild ride
Yeah, it is impressive.
the problem for me is that the characters are assholes and the world they see is also an asshole
Oh, I have a different category for this
Included in that category: Catcher in the Rye, Perdido Street Station, The Awakening
If you are still interested, please PM me with verification of this interest and one book recommendation. Stuff that is freely available on multiple ebook markets is probably ideal.
If you aren't mentioned, but are still interested, then just follow the same instructions. A week from today is the cutoff day, we will finalize stuff very shortly after that and post it up. Me and @Lost Salient are still working out how best to organize a book list for people to vote on from suggestions, and if you guys have any suggestions for that, please also don't hesitate to say. This is going to be fun you guys!
Oh when I say "freely available" I didn't literally mean free. That would narrow our selection way too much. Just that if people want to grab books on their various devices, it would make things easier. Right now we've had a couple people express that they'd prefer to avoid fantasy and science fiction for the books, but for right now, just suggest something your interested in. Just keep that in mind, I suppose.
All this ME stuff has me jonesing to read the Foundation books again
man. i was gonna write about stanislaw lem but it seems like isaac asimov is just comin' up from the rear, considering nemesis and foundation an' i robot and such
Oh man, Solaris would be fabulous too
Human/non-human communication as a theme has always fascinated me
yeah
this is what my essay is about, somewhat
you should read the larry niven story 'the fourth profession'
The description is intriguing! Having a hard time finding a copy/e-copy but I'll persevere
Agreed, and ultimately voting is going to decide what we choose month to month, but for the first month we could go with something different than fantasy/sci-fi.
I'd ike to go back and forth between classics and our usual sci-fi/fantasy. Though I prefer the latter, I'd like to get more knowledgeable about the former, and read some of those classics I never got around to.
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Maybe we could say once we've read something of a genre, no more books from that genre for 3 months, or x number of months or whatever.
As for book ideas, I am paralysed by the fear of making a suggestion that is deemed crap, so I can't think of anything right now.
even though I worked in a bookstore for more than a year and my job was recommending books to people, I get nervous about recommending stuff to people with good taste. with customers, most people just wanted something to read that was like twilight. no one ever bought 2666, even though it was on my staff recommendation display forever
and I am made more nervous by the fact I'll be suggesting a book I haven't read, so can't vouch for it personally!
How bout starting a pm thread for the recommendations of books from interested parties, so we can see each others suggestions, instea of each person sending out suggestions to Cilla or lost salient?
Also I'm kinda burnt out on fantasy/scifi stuff, so I agree with the no stuff in those genres sentiment. I propose we just do effin magical realism all day errday
how do people feel about historical non-fiction? looks like that is most of my to-read stuff, but I don't know how well that genre lends itself to discussion!
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
I think that the most important thing shouldn't be strictly 'is it the right genre,' but should be whether or not you think we could have a good discussion about the book.
And lost, as far as a big PM thread for sharing recommendations goes, I think the issue would be compiling recommendations and voting on them if we make it a big open discussion right off the bat. If we have to make a list of people and their book choices first, and then we can just send out a big "here's what we're picking from" list like a poll.
Of course, I am presently running on four hours of sleep, so I could be wrong.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
There's a bunch of historical non-fiction I still want to read, like Blood Works and The Poisoner's Handbook, so I'm open to the idea. But at the same time, it would be nice with an easy read right now, as I'm a bit swamped with work and studies. But that may not be the point of a book club! I don't know, I've never been in one before!
Legba on
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Quoththe RavenMiami, FL FOR REALRegistered Userregular
I'm down for anything, but I'm really interested in psychological kinda stuff right now. I'll try and find a book for the recommendation list later tonight when I'm not busy though.
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
There's a bunch of historical non-fiction I still want to read, like Blood Works and The Poisoner's Handbook, so I'm open to the idea. But at the same time, it would be nice with an easy read right now, as I'm a bit swamped with work and studies. But that may not be the point of a book club! I don't know, I've never been in one before!
I haven't read Blood Work yet (if we're talking about the same book) but The Poisoner's Handbook is not a tough read.
Also I for one will not be voting for In Search of Lost Time, but that's a personal preference.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
Based on "Oh my god it's how long?"
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Posts
(Except I'll totally tattoo 'can't read good' on your butt if you don't finish)
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
Satans..... hints.....
Also, I would likely humiliate myself with a billion faux pas in every post and somehow turn to objectivism and cultural relativism as my only line of argumentative defence, e.i. reductio ad neener neener.
for what it's worth, I concur
though this didn't stop me from stealing from faulkner for a collage piece I wrote a little while back
say what you will about his literary importance
dude had chops
I'm just imagining a meaty assortment now, like a continental meat platter, @Shorty.
like, if he's using stream-of-consciousness, it's not his own consciousness that you're getting the stream of. it's the world as it appears to someone else entirely. which is a much more impressive feat to me than just sitting down and making bullshit up
i'm going on a whole american-literature kick at the moment, reading twain and faulkner and mccarthy and all sorts of people, it's been a wild ride
have a little respect
clearly it would have to be barbecue
pulled Faulkner on a roll with some 'slaw
Because I am in one of those rare moments where I'm looking at my bookshelf (admittedly filled with mostly fantasy) and I'm going "meh". I need something new to gnaw on.
Yeah, it is impressive.
the problem for me is that the characters are assholes and the world they see is also an asshole
I already have too much to read as is, how much worse can it get
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
The key quote out of the whole thing is: "Why doesn't the publishing industry want these consumers? For one thing, the US and European book-buying libraries have been willing pay the prices necessary to keep the industry happy - and not just happy, in many cases obscenely profitable."
I think ultimately it comes down to scholars deciding how interested they are in actual discourse, in which case they should find a way to involve as many people in the conversation as is possible and find a way to share their thoughts and ideas that's not gated behind a money wall. I think the drive to publish and get tenure and build a reputation leads to people looking out for their own self-interest instead of some kind of greater academic community's interest. That's purely an outsider's perspective though, I could be wrong.
Oh, I have a different category for this
Included in that category: Catcher in the Rye, Perdido Street Station, The Awakening
The follow awesome people have expressed their interest in the book club.
@Zonugal
@Janson
@lostwords
@Oghulk
@Blake T
@Crimson King
@bowtiedseal
@RubberAC
@smof
@Legba
@zen-
@Solar
@Syphyre
@Straightzi
If you are still interested, please PM me with verification of this interest and one book recommendation. Stuff that is freely available on multiple ebook markets is probably ideal.
If you aren't mentioned, but are still interested, then just follow the same instructions. A week from today is the cutoff day, we will finalize stuff very shortly after that and post it up. Me and @Lost Salient are still working out how best to organize a book list for people to vote on from suggestions, and if you guys have any suggestions for that, please also don't hesitate to say. This is going to be fun you guys!
The description is intriguing! Having a hard time finding a copy/e-copy but I'll persevere
They're pretty decent teen lit and they're basically Baby's First Dystopian Fiction
I'm not surprised they're popular
But I need to further narrow down my suggestions for it
Some people prefer sci-fi and fantasy, and others prefer other stuff
If we mixed things up, then people could get introduced to stuff they would never have read in the past, and that's good
I wonder what people will suggest though
It's really interesting! Also kinda scary just how much power the Stasi wielded.
As for book ideas, I am paralysed by the fear of making a suggestion that is deemed crap, so I can't think of anything right now.
and I am made more nervous by the fact I'll be suggesting a book I haven't read, so can't vouch for it personally!
Also I'm kinda burnt out on fantasy/scifi stuff, so I agree with the no stuff in those genres sentiment. I propose we just do effin magical realism all day errday
And lost, as far as a big PM thread for sharing recommendations goes, I think the issue would be compiling recommendations and voting on them if we make it a big open discussion right off the bat. If we have to make a list of people and their book choices first, and then we can just send out a big "here's what we're picking from" list like a poll.
Of course, I am presently running on four hours of sleep, so I could be wrong.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
Historical alternate world fiction, bam
I haven't read Blood Work yet (if we're talking about the same book) but The Poisoner's Handbook is not a tough read.
Also I for one will not be voting for In Search of Lost Time, but that's a personal preference.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN