Count of Monte Cristo: BEGIN!

Kusuguttai

Well holy shit! That was an exciting 29 chapters!

THINGS HAPPENED!!


(okay I'm sorry guys, I didn't read it, so I have no idea what happened. Next time for sure though!)

Mystery!
Intrigue!
Revenge!
Napoleon!

The first book for Ye Olde D&D Booke Club has been decided! Alexander Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo!


For the Unabridged People: Your reading "assignment" is to read to, and stop at, (only if you wish! this is where the discussion will be taking place, so spoiler anything after chapter 59 next friday) chapter 59, which I have no idea the name of the chapter, I don't have my book on me shit guys I'm sorry this will be updated again later.

For the guy who got the abridged version: I am sorry I'm not sure how many chapters are in your book. Read 130 pages, and finish whatever chapter that is. PM me where you are in the book so I can tell you whether or not to use spoilers.


and, of course this is

OPEN TO ANYONE AT ALL TIMES

Zsetrek

Can we vote for more than one book?

Are we preferring cheap classics?

Kusuguttai

Well, I have PM'd the Cat about turning this into a poll so you can see the options Senj and I have come up with. You can start your votes for the other option right now if you truly wish.

I'd really prefer it if you only voted for one book

Senjutsu

We're preferring classics for cheapness and so forth.

The other alternative to all shooting to finish the book in the same time frame would be either to just have a free-wheeling discussion as we go, or do it Parsha style, where you try to read a set chunk (like X chapters) in a week or other time frame, and then discuss that section at the end.

Kusuguttai

I'd prefer setting a goal for each week. Of course I will set up different lengths for unabridge/bridged versions, so there shouldn't be a problem if you prefer one over the other.

Dynagrip

I'd like to avoid standard high school English fare, but that's probably a given. Also, no Faulkner.

Kusuguttai

Well I had to read two of the options for high school, but that doesn't stop them from being great.
I hope that the four I put up are to the general tastes of the people here. If not, sorry. There is the other option, and I would love to read any books you guys would suggest.

LaOs

I'm in. However, I work until usually around this time of day during the week, so my comments might be slow. Is that all right? It should say with my post what time this is for you all.

The Cat

Les Mis'd be cool, I need peer pressure to stick with most of the classics :P

otherwise, there's plenty of stuff on project gutenberg that everyone can get at. Dracula, Frankenstein, Mark Twain's stuff etc...

Senjutsu

LaOs wrote:

I'm in. However, I work until usually around this time of day during the week, so my comments might be slow. Is that all right? It should say with my post what time this is for you all.

I don't imagine that would be a problem.

LaOs

I totally voted for The Counte, but I would like to read, for sure, like three on that list.

Senjutsu wrote:

LaOs wrote:

I'm in. However, I work until usually around this time of day during the week, so my comments might be slow. Is that all right? It should say with my post what time this is for you all.

I don't imagine that would be a problem.

Good. Thanks.

Kusuguttai

Thanks for the poll Cat!

Les Mis is a slow start but it really pays off in my opinion. It is one of my favorite books.

Zsetrek

Can we please have an option for something Russian? I'd love to give Dostoyevky a go, or maybe finish a Tolstoy for a change.

Some other suggestions:
The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell - I started reading it, and loved it.
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - I have it sitting on my shelf, have heard great things about it.

Kusuguttai

Zsetrek, please read the entirety of the OP.
There is a way for you to suggest, quite literally, any other book ever written if you so choose.

Zsetrek

Just judging feedback. I can read fine. If everyone else wants to vote for something on the list, I'd rather vote for one of them than waste my vote suggesting a book.

IloroKamou

Anything originally written in french would be fantastic. Hence my vote for Les Miserables.

Senjutsu

I imagine if this ends up working, we'll want to do it again. I wouldn't mind reading Doestoevsky at some point, later on.

Kusuguttai

Well the whole point of the Other vote is so you can say "Hey guys, I've also heard good things about this book, maybe we should read it instead?"

But I mean, I guess I am not adverse to just merely suggesting other titles without the voting process.

edit: and as Senj pointed out, if this works, we'll start again with a fresh list of books.

Target Practice

Kusugattai wrote:

I'd prefer setting a goal for each week. Of course I will set up different lengths for unabridge/bridged versions, so there shouldn't be a problem if you prefer one over the other.

Feh. If the only way you can read a book is abridged, you may as well not read it at all.

Anyway, I think Puddn'head Wilson would be a better Twain choice.

Also, can I suggest that, if this is successful, then in some months we have different genres or something?

Like one month we could pick a science fiction novel, and another a mystery novel, etc. I realize the issue there is price, but any book that's in print as a mass-market isn't going to be more than say, seven bucks.

Senjutsu

IloroKamou wrote:

Anything originally written in french would be fantastic. Hence my vote for Les Miserables.

By my count, 3/4 of the books up there were French originally, oddly enough.

Kusuguttai

Target Practice wrote:

Kusugattai wrote:

I'd prefer setting a goal for each week. Of course I will set up different lengths for unabridge/bridged versions, so there shouldn't be a problem if you prefer one over the other.

Feh. If the only way you can read a book is abridged, you may as well not read it at all.

Anyway, I think Puddn'head Wilson would be a better Twain choice.

I am trying to be sensitive to people with time issues. Not many people have the time to read a 1400 page book in a month.

And Pudd'nhead Wilson has been, at least I thought, pretty widely read. Like I said, we're all open to suggestions.

MutePrez

Senjutsu wrote:

IloroKamou wrote:

Anything originally written in french would be fantastic. Hence my vote for Les Miserables.

By my count, 3/4 of the books up there were French originally, oddly enough.

I think I have french copies of Les Mis lying around. So that'd be cool.

Target Practice

Kusugattai wrote:

Target Practice wrote:

Kusugattai wrote:

I'd prefer setting a goal for each week. Of course I will set up different lengths for unabridge/bridged versions, so there shouldn't be a problem if you prefer one over the other.

Feh. If the only way you can read a book is abridged, you may as well not read it at all.

Anyway, I think Puddn'head Wilson would be a better Twain choice.

I am trying to be sensitive to people with time issues. Not many people have the time to read a 1400 page book in a month.

And Pudd'nhead Wilson has been, at least I thought, pretty widely read. Like I said, we're all open to suggestions.

You think Puddn'head Wilson is more widely read than Connecticut Yankee? O_o

Hell, if we're going for relatively obscure works, you could pick The Innocents Abroad or something.

Also, that's why 1400-page books are usually not selected for book club purposes.

DevoutlyApathetic

I voted for the Musketeers but am cool with the Count as well.

In French....heh.

Kusuguttai

Target Practice: The whole genre thing is a good idea, but I'm not sure. What I really want to do is a "Classic Literature Tour" kind of thing, where we all read the classic stuff we haven't had the chance to read and then discuss it. Of course, there are plenty of "classics" that encompass all the genres. You have Ender's Game, 1984, A Clockwork Orange, Lord of the Rings, L'Morte De Arthur, the Once and Future King, etc.

Also, in my area at least, Puddn'head is required High School reading, therefore it is more widely read. Every single person I've met had to read Puddn'head.

Also, if you aren't going to contribute anything but needless criticisms, just don't participate. Everyone else seems pretty happy with the book choices, and all of them, except for A Connecticut Yankee, is at the least over 800 pages in length unabridged, which is why I have the bridged option. I'm trying to get people to be able to read these books even with time constraints.

Target Practice

Kusugattai wrote:

Target Practice: The whole genre thing is a good idea, but I'm not sure. What I really want to do is a "Classic Literature Tour" kind of thing, where we all read the classic stuff we haven't had the chance to read and then discuss it. Of course, there are plenty of "classics" that encompass all the genres. You have Ender's Game, 1984, A Clockwork Orange, Lord of the Rings, L'Morte De Arthur, the Once and Future King, etc.

Also, in my area at least, Puddn'head is required High School reading, therefore it is more widely read. Every single person I've met had to read Puddn'head.

*shrug* In my school, the only Twain we ever read was some of his short stories.

And I was in the honors classes.

...which I guess doesn't mean much; the regular classes read 1984 and Animal Farm and I never did. Of course, I did have to read Brave New World.

Kusuguttai

How odd. I was not in any honor's english classes and I had to read four books a year, for four years, and write a literary criticism on all of them. Pudd'nhead, and the unabridged versions of both Les Miserables and Count of Monte Cristo were on the list.

edit: Totally getting off topic. Target Practice, if you want to make a different suggestion for this round of the book club then please use the "other" option voting system.

Target Practice

Kusugattai wrote:

How odd. I was not in any honor's english classes and I had to read four books a year, for four years, and write a literary criticism on all of them. Pudd'nhead, and the unabridged versions of both Les Miserables and Count of Monte Cristo were on the list.

...

Why would you read French novels in an English class?

Kusuguttai

Target Practice wrote:

Kusugattai wrote:

How odd. I was not in any honor's english classes and I had to read four books a year, for four years, and write a literary criticism on all of them. Pudd'nhead, and the unabridged versions of both Les Miserables and Count of Monte Cristo were on the list.

...

Why would you read French novels in an English class?

Do you not realize that English classes cover literature not English / American literature?

Well, unless they are English Lit or American Lit classes, both of which I took.
My first two English classes dealt with all sorts of literature. Like I said however, take this to chat please, this is the last response I'll be giving you here unless it's a !vote for a different book.

Hacksaw

The Three Musketeers. I'm a sucker for Dumas.

Kusuguttai

Hacksaw wrote:

The Three Musketeers. I'm a sucker for Dumas.

*cough* Count of Monte Cristo *cough*

deadonthestreet

Being as this is a thread about books...

It shouldn't be "ye" in the title, it should be "the." The "Ye olde whatever," you always see doesn't actually have a Y in it, or rather it shouldn't. It ought to be a "thorn" a now-extinct letter. As it stands the title of the thread is now "You old book thread."

Anyway, "ye" as "the" is technically incorrect. It is just a common typeface replacement. At the very least is should be pronounced "the" rather than "yee."

I know this is wildly irrelevant, but it alwas bugs me, and you all being literaty people I thought I'd share this little known fact with you.

Zsetrek

Because I am a difficult motherfucker:



!vote - The Quiet American by Graham Greene.

It's short, (knowing Greene) pithy, very highly regarded, and will probably spark some debate.

I think it's a good idea to start with something that isn't a massive tome, and something that's a bit more contemporary. Everyone will be able to finish this, no problems, and Grene is anything but stodgy.

Amazon entry here.
Wiki entry here.

LaOs

deadonthestreet wrote:

Being as this is a thread about books...

It shouldn't be "ye" in the title, it should be "the." The "Ye olde whatever," you always see doesn't actually have a Y in it, or rather it shouldn't. It ought to be a "thorn" a now-extinct letter. As it stands the title of the thread is now "You old book thread."

Anyway, "ye" as "the" is technically incorrect. It is just a common typeface replacement. At the very least is should be pronounced "the" rather than "yee."

I know this is wildly irrelevant, but it alwas bugs me, and you all being literaty people I thought I'd share this little known fact with you.

I agree, but don't care at the same time :P

Kusuguttai

This isn't really a thread about books.
Also GTFO COCKS DICKS LOL

Hacksaw

Kusugattai wrote:

Hacksaw wrote:

The Three Musketeers. I'm a sucker for Dumas.

*cough* Count of Monte Cristo *cough*

I know.

Kusuguttai

Hacksaw wrote:

Kusugattai wrote:

Hacksaw wrote:

The Three Musketeers. I'm a sucker for Dumas.

*cough* Count of Monte Cristo *cough*

I know.

Okay, just checking :P. I only voted for Count because I already own it and have been meaning to read it again.

urbman

i voted for the count because i have seen both movies and never read the book.

Kusuguttai

urbman wrote:

i voted for the count because i have seen both movies and never read the book.

The newer movie deviates so much from the book, yet still manages to be pretty cool. The book is still loads better.

Kusuguttai

This is a shameless, promotionary bump.

Aroused Bull

People, Mousquetaires > Monte Cristo. I don't know why the other two are on the poll since they're not even the same sort of book, and thus almost impossible to rate against one another.