Ideas for the book to read for May

I dunno, its short, but i think that Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughter House five would be awesome. It is a fiction in most respects, but really written (in a rather obscure fashion) of Vonnegut's expierience as an american POW in Dresden during the bombing. I adored it, and I'd imagine most of your have read it, but it was excellent none the less.

i think mother night by KV would be more timely.

but also...the book "famine" by todd komarnicki...out of print and hard to find but a goddamn good book.

trainspotting?

jennifer government?

To run with Kali's suggestion, I'd like to suggest "Man's Search for Meaning" by Dr Victor Frankl. It's the kind of book that... you know how Chuck has people (losers? I'm not gonna judge) coming up to him and asking, "How should we live?" Yeah, well, Frankl was a Jew in Nazi Germany, and he went on to develop a school of psychology called logo therapy (logo means symbol in latin), which is basically all about finding meaning in your life using just what's you've got.

It's a fucking amazing book. I read it because Janeane Garafalo (what a Goddess!) recommended in it... BUST magazine, a few years back.

That's my vote!

um..... House of Leaves, i just got it from the library.

or, even better, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. its non-fiction and really fucking good

HOUSE OF LEAVES! HOUSE OF LEAVES MUST BE ON THE LIST! Hey! Never is posting again! I'm glad she's reading HOL (the bast book, ever)!

Labyrinths, by Jorge Borges. He's a weird argentinian short story writer. probably the only book worth a damn that I read in high school.

ok i have THE book...... NAKED LUNCH.

NAKED LUNCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My pick would be some sort of classic, like Kurt Vonnegut. I'm interested in reading another one of his books other than Slaughterhouse Five.

Or a non-fiction book.

Maybe something that has to do with the war, but then I keep getting overwhelmed and burnt out on that topic, so I'm not sure if I want to or not.

Has anyone else read that Jarhead book, is it worth it?

[IMG]http://lookinside-images.amazon.com/Qffs+v35leqrrP7LLJHN/Yi+yTKsCZD05feGT6hHIdn9cT4W/bs3HKmLXw52bGkWnXQlrtD+6U8=[/IMG]

I have to say I disagree on something about war, I read to not hear about that shit. Maybe something written about war by vonnegut, like "mothers night".
I was gonna pick "the wanting seed" up on friday but decided to wait. That's my nomination.

If you want Vonnegut, you should read Cat's Cradle.

I recommend Slaughterhouse-Five.
It's a funny book, its a serious book. I like it a lot.
On a side note...I wrote an essay about going to a cemetery during a service project to clean up the outdated plastic poinsettias...Morbid...yet intriguing.
But three words came to mind when I started thinking about the cemetery.
So it goes.

My idea is that we have a poll not for books, but rather for authors. We then have a seperate poll for the author that wins, where we choose the book we want by that author.

So it's basically a two part thing, but it much more specific, and broader.

Hey, that's a good idea. But, Mark Z. has only written HOL and TWL. And it's WAY better to read HOL before TWL.

I'm in the midst of reading HOL. It's very gripping. I don't know how people call it boring.

And if people chose Mark Z. Danielweski, than it's obvious it's for HOL.

The majority of people could read TWL in like an hour. So it would be deemed pointless.

Less than an hour. AND I'M SUPER GLAD YOU LIKE HOL!

i havent started reading HOL yet, you guys told me it was 700 pages, you didnt tell me most of those pages had like 5 words on them. i was scared until i saw it.

NO! DON'T BE SCARED OF THE BEST BOOK EVER! And it's 709 pages. And it's VERY MUCH SO not most of the pages, it's only one chapter.

Actually, not to scare you, but the words are much smaller than your average book (in the main storyline section of the book), and the book (at least the edition I have) is rather large.

But that doesn't scare me.

I also love how the word house is colored in blue whenever it appears. Which leads me to hypothesize that this word will appear a certain amount of times, rather, six hundred and sixty six times.

Don't tell me if I'm correct or whatever. I'd rather read the book and find EVERYTHING out on my own. Which is what I have done so far, and therefore I can enjoy it to its full extent.

You can find out how many times it is in there. There is an index of every major word. Major being all words that are not articals or words like and.

Hey you know what, the month of May has my birthday. I should have the right to pick the book to read. I shall pick House of Leaves. What-do-ya-think? I'll leave a period of 2 months to read it. MAY & JUNE, and all of august to discuss it.

I agree! HOL! HOL! HOL! EVERYONE SHALL READ HOL AND SEE ALL IT'S WONDERFULLNESS! AH GOD, HOL!

Great Idea.

JENNIFER. GOVERNMENT.

i've read hol twice. although it isn't a boring book, I don't think I can read it a third time in one year.

jenniwha?
govawho?

go find the thread titled, "A Book You Must Read".

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by pan [/i]
[B]i've read hol twice. although it isn't a boring book, I don't think I can read it a third time in one year.
[/B][/QUOTE]

You read it twice? I agree, I, being HOL's biggest fan on the forum, wouldn't be able to read it three times in one year. It's just too much. Did you like HOL though? (probebly, you did read it twice)

I think that THE HOTTEST STATE by Ethan Hawke (Yes, the actor) would be a very interesting read.

As that is probebly true, Zaki (the controler of Book Club) has already declared House of Leaves being May's and June's book to read for his birthday is in May and he thinks he should read HOL for his birthday.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by insomnomaniac [/i]
[B]JENNIFER. GOVERNMENT. [/B][/QUOTE]

I'm down with this idea.

did you get the book yet?

Well, it's ordered, or at least I've decided to order it, along with my pre-sale Fugitives and Refugees. I figure if it's good enough for Dennis to make news of it, good enough for lots of people here to rant about it, it's good enough for me to buy it.

ORDER HOL! IT'S THE BOOK FOR MAY AND JUNE!

I already have it, and I was about 50 pages into it, but I got sidetracked by other books I wanted to read. No worries though, big guy, I'll get to it soon enough. Before Book Club anyway.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by arduousdispatch [/i]
[B]I think that THE HOTTEST STATE by Ethan Hawke (Yes, the actor) would be a very interesting read. [/B][/QUOTE]

good choice, it's something i want to read eventually

eww, is that any good at all?

so are we not voting on the book for march? if not I can't participate. I wish Zaki a happy birthday but majority rules. Maybe we could vote on an alternative book for those of us that have read HOL too recently.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by pan [/i]
[B]so are we not voting on the book for march? if not I can't participate. I wish Zaki a happy birthday but majority rules. Maybe we could vote on an alternative book for those of us that have read HOL too recently. [/B][/QUOTE]

March already passed. We're talking about May and June.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Mythos2112 [/i]
[B] For something quite different I recommend Jose Saramago's [I]Blindness[/I]. Glad I found this forum/ hope to contribute well in the future. [/B][/QUOTE]

How is that? I have it sitting on my dresser at home waiting for me, but I've yet to get more than a few pages into it. Mind blowing? Eye opening?
And as far as books we've read, Amy Hempel's [I]Reasons to Live[/I] is the only thing, but only a few people actually did and not many have commented on it as far as I know. It's a quick read so if you want to pound it down and then contribute, you're more than welcome. Next month we'll be reading American Psycho. Just to fill you in.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by XChuck [/i]
[B]March already passed. We're talking about May and June. [/B][/QUOTE]

do I come to your work and slap the dick out of your mouth?

I think you know what I meant.

btw, you get the disturbing avatar of the week award.

Zaki, I would like to suggest we read Vladimir Nabakov's "Lolita" for May. I remember when... this would have been late 1999, I was working at a Borders Bookstore not far from my Mom's house. And the New York Times released a list to coincide with the end of the millenium, about the "100 Most Important Novels Published In the Last 100 Years" or something.

Number one was Lolita. I've not read it in a few years, but the language in it is unlike anything I've ever come across. The rolling, rocking trips off the tip of your tongue like a staircase made of her syllables... yadda yadda.

But it's a fucking amazing book (I even have the unabridged audio version, drop-dead perfectly read by actor Jeremy Irons, somewhere around here), and I think Cultists would like it.

Plus it would give us something of a little different flavor.

So, maybe?

put up Electric Jesus Corpse by Carlton Mellick III....... because I am going to start on it tomorrow and all of this should revolve around me.

how about "jesus' son"?

so we are voting?

Georges Perec - Life: A User's Manual (en francaise, La Vie: Mode de l'emploi) Excellent reading. Worth a discussion.

O'Toole - Confederacy of Dunces. Classic antidisestablishmentarianism.

Fast Food Nation. Can't remember the author's name, but not since Upton Sinclair has any author made me want to avoid the golden arches.

No poll for May. I'll pick a book. Then I'll focus on making that bookclub site which needs to be completed by June/July.

Fan/Hate mail > pm me.

I have one vote for Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting.
And one vote for Nick Hornby's High Fidelity.

though I still really like Slaughterhouse-Five

[u]Cheese Monkeys[/u]