And we'll set the discussion to start on August 15.

After the book is chosen, and posted (with the start date) in press, does it make sense to close this thread, a la lightbulbs, to keep it used only for it's intended purpose?

After the book is chosen, and posted (with the start date) in press, does it make sense to close this thread, a la lightbulbs, to keep it used only for it's intended purpose?

Then we can't discuss/add suggestions and work out future books. Which is part of its intended purpose.

We've still got a lot of procedural stuff that should get the stuffing knocked out of it for a while yet.

Agreeing with P-C and connie. At this stage, anyway, I think we still have some details to work out.

Can someone point me to a "Lit Crit for Dummies" website or something?

A lit crit website.

I have a copy of Heart of Darkness which has essays on the book from a number of critical perspectives, along with introductory pieces on the different approaches and a critical glossary. It's a good starting point if you don't have a background in literary criticism. I think it was the Norton edition & I see it fairly often in used book stores for a couple bucks. Here are some other critical case studies editions (this Norton is newer) if you don't feel like searching: Moore edition, Murfin edition, Kimbrough/Norton critical edition.

Thanks, joe! And thanks for reminding me of all those college lit books on my bookshelves that I can look through for info.

ok, makes sense to me.

First of all, I hate you all. So many amazing recommendations - how's a guy to choose?

Well, I did my best to research all the books on the list. The bad news is the following books may have to be disqualified since they weren't available in the Montgomery COunty Public Library System (which is a pretty good indication that they're not readily available):

Rides of the Midway by Lee Durkey
Jaran by Kate Elliot

And there was only 1 copy of Available Light by Ellen Currie in my entire library system which probably means it's hard to get as well.

If other people have an easier time locating the above books, then by all means keep them on the list and I'll find some way to get them if I can.

The good news is, although I don't think there's a single book on the rec list that I wouldn't enjoy reading if assigned, I'm leaning towards a few in particular. What I'd appreciate is some sense from the group which one sounds like a great starter book for this club.

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe
The Warden by Anthony Trollope

(And I realize that somehow hayden and Fred Pete voodooed with my brain.)

Not having read the Whitehead and the Coe, I'll compare the other 2.

The Trollope is a lot shorter. As in, ~250-300 pages vs. ~875 for the Dreiser. So, a lot less daunting task.

The Dreiser, OTOH, is more likely to be accessible to this audience. The Trollope assumes a working knowledge of 1850s England, including CofE politics -- not that Trollope is a particularly Difficult author, just that he was a writer of his times, and the times have decidedly changed. Dreiser also assumes a working knowledge of his era, but 1920s America is a little closer to current America.

As American Tragedy is over 800 pages long, I wouldn't put it as a starter. The Intuitionist looks to be the shortest of the selections, and Amazon describes it as "genre-bending," which might be the type of thing to start out with since we can talk about what genres it bends, and from there, eventually read classics in said genres. Also, someone said they were dying to read it.