Womack ,'The Message'
This thread is a focused discussion group. Please see the first post below for the current topic and upcoming book discussions. While natter will inevitably happen, we encourage you to treat this like a virtual book club and try to keep your posts in that spirit.
By consensus, this thread is reopened specifically to discuss Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It will be closed again once that discussion has run its course.
***SPOILER ALERT***
Question about Mary Reilly - Do you think we should read the original Jekyll/Hyde story before reading the re-telling? Is it something we might want to try as a pairing?
I see that as a pairing. I see Paradise Lost and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as a pairing, too.
For randomizing purposes we could trust a human to pull a name out of a hat.
Yes.
For randomizing purposes we could trust a human to pull a name out of a hat.
How retro. I like it.
Tim Winton-- Ooh, I worshipped Cloudstreet, his previous novel. Brilliant writer. Plus, Australian!
Question about Mary Reilly - Do you think we should read the original Jekyll/Hyde story before reading the re-telling? Is it something we might want to try as a pairing?
I don't think it's necessary, but it might be fun to compare and contrast the pairing. (This from someone who -- cough -- never read the original but loooved the book written from its mythology.)
I'm up for Wolfram picking the first book, and randomizing the pick from there on out is fine with me, too, although (and I think someone already said this) the list should probably be whittled down first.
I'm with Heather on the excitement. And the going to smoke, actually.
ETA P-C, does that mean you're emailing it to me? Wheee!
Okay. I may be a little out of line, or against the grain, or whatever with this suggestion, but I REALLY like it.
I think we shouldn't make a pool of books and then randomly choose books. Instead, we should make a pool of participants in the Book Club who might be interested in suggesting books, and randomly choose THEM (without duplication, or at least with no chance of choosing two books too near each other), to pick books themselves. A book suggestion list on the side is great, I've enjoyed reading these recs and stuff, and they could be helpful in the picking process for whoever's in the hotseat.
I think this might maximize breadth of genre, among other things. And somebody out there could make a simple web page to keep track of the current participants, with easy ability to add and remove themselves from the list as necessary. And it will help prevent people with lots of books they want to recommend from having too much of a say in the list of books.
(All that said, I've got no recs. I wanna read new stuff. But I would also love to re-read Remains of the Day.)
How retro.
Isn't it though?
Personally, I like the idea of us each nominating one book and drawing from those names. If several people want a particular one it's chances are higher of being selected, but all the books have a shot.
I like Nova's idea, too. Select the selector. Everyone gets a turn.
Tim Winton-- Ooh, I worshipped Cloudstreet, his previous novel. Brilliant writer. Plus, Australian!
Cloudstreet also won the Miles Franklin, back in '92.
I see that as a pairing. I see Paradise Lost and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as a pairing, too.
Why, what's the connection? We could also have Red Tent and the Bible as a pairing. Seriously though, Red Tent sounds very interesting.
Maybe we can keep the recs open for the next 24 hours, then someone can compile the books with a short pimp from the reccor (possibly a three sentence maximum) and we can whittle down the list to 10 using Mr. Poll or something.
Either way. Though I am leaning toward Nova's. How would new people enter? Or would new people just go to the end.
I also wanted to mention for future recs- graphic novels would also be cool. I've been dying to read Persepolis