The Scrabbled Book Club
As mentioned in the Harold Bloom thread, would anyone be into doing a book club? If so, how should we set it up? Is there anything I should set up within the page to facilitate it or are we fine with the basic post/comment/tag system we have now? Anyone have any suggestions for a good first book?
Comments
yes, absolutely. maybe you should research some of the internet-based book clubs and see how they handle things (like you wouldn’t anyway). i am in a philly one but haven’t actually participated in it.
i just got Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon free with my McSweeney’s subscription and haven’t cracked it open yet…
As I said in the other thread, I would totally be into this.
I would be down for this as well.
Me too, me too!
Make Paris revive Lustrabimus, or whatever it was called.
And the first book should be The Drunkards Walk.
I’ll play
What’s Drunkard’s Walk? What’s Maps and Legends? Make your cases! I should write a quick function to let us conduct polls.
Evan said:Make Paris revive Lustrabimus, or whatever it was called.
And the first book should be The Drunkards Walk.
Unfortunately, I was outdone by Goodreads.com
I won’t join the book club until I see a complete 10-track Scrabbled cover album (NMH or Magnetic Fields or both).
i’m gonna go for reading thirty books this year, but i won’t be al upset if i can’t
come with me on this quest
via McSweeney’s:
Michael Chabon’s sparkling first book of nonfiction is a love song in sixteen parts — a series of linked essays in praise of reading and writing, with subjects running from ghost stories to comic books, Sherlock Holmes to Cormac McCarthy. Throughout, Chabon energetically argues for a return to the thrilling, chilling origins of storytelling, rejecting the false walls around “serious” literature in favor of an wide-ranging affection.
also, the dust jacket is 3 removable pieces of artwork which is pretty cool in itself.
mandy said:yes, absolutely. maybe you should research some of the internet-based book clubs and see how they handle things (like you wouldn’t anyway). i am in a philly one but haven’t actually participated in it.
i just got Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon free with my McSweeney’s subscription and haven’t cracked it open yet…
Wow…I have all of his books but haven’t finished one since Kavalier and Clay…I didn’t even know he had a new one out.
McSweeneys always does great things with the design of their books.
I’m cool with a book club, cause I haven’t read a book in a few months because of uhhh…X Box. :(
Christina and I both got the new Wally Lamb book for Christmas. It’s a tome. That is my case.
Drunkards walk is about how the laws of randomness apply and are misapplied to real world situations, such as stock trader performance, vodka quality, and gambling, to name three.
drunkard’s walk/path is the name of a quilt pattern.
I want to join the club and second Mandy’s suggestion for Maps and Legends. I have only seen the cover of the book wrapped in plastic but that’s enough for me to be into it.
of course, i’d do a book club, but i’m pretty selective about what i read – meaning the order i read it in. isn’t maps and legends a collection of essays rather than a novel?
christina said:of course, i’d do a book club, but i’m pretty selective about what i read – meaning the order i read it in. isn’t maps and legends a collection of essays rather than a novel?
yep, i think so. but no one specified that it had to be a novel.
you’re right. i know about the collection and they all kinda go together into one work of nonfiction, but we might spend more time discussing one story rather than another. i just think for our first book, we should stick with a work of fiction.
we talk about our own nonfiction anyway.
Yeah, I really think it should be a novel; something with characters we can really dig into.
I’m not reading any wally lamb depressing crap.
I vote for Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore, i.e. the best book ever. It tells the story of Jesus’s best friend who follows him on his journeys between the ages of 5 and 30, which is skipped in bible. It is hilarious, moving and just wonderful to read.
I am all about the book club!
I like the idea of a book club.
Hopefully John isn’t aware Anathem exists, otherwise he’ll all demand that we read a goddamn 1000 page Neal Stephenson novel of speculative sci-fi about philosophical arguments. I shudder at the thought.
No thanks.
Also, the Jesus book doesn’t sound especially appealing to me at all, but if that’s what everyone wants, by all means. I think I have to write a nomination and multi-voting system to decide on this.
Justin said:this should happen simply because i’ve already read it.I like the idea of a book club.
Hopefully John isn’t aware Anathem exists, otherwise he’ll all demand that we read a goddamn 1000 page Neal Stephenson novel of speculative sci-fi about philosophical arguments. I shudder at the thought.
Was it any good?
It was all right. Not my favorite of his. A lot of people bitched about him “making up words” but I think those people just have no clue about language (most of them were either repurposed English words, or had easily identifiable roots; very few of them were utterly-made-up-nonsense). Interesting ideas about intellectual elitism vs the common people, science/religion role reversal.. shit like that. And then there were weird physics things. And ninjas. He always manages to get ninjas in.
Thank you, Maggie!
This discussion has been very informative.
THE BOOK CLUB IS OVER AND HAS BEEN DISSOLVED.
OH SNAP
so, how’s the book club coming along?
I got partway through a tabbed interface with the Obama posts and book club posts (with polls) and then freelance took over my life. After this week, I hope to get some more work done on it.
booooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Yeah, well. Real life calls. And by “real life” I mean “beer pong tournaments.”
I hate my life.
hey, i don’t wanna be part of your dumb book club.
What’s the matter? Can’t keep up with us?
ha! buh! duh! that’s funny! you guys can’t keep up with me.