Book Club

Future of the Book Club

PGoutis01 — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:11:14 -0500

The last few months have been kind of slow as far as participation in the Book Club discussions. I kind of anticipated this with LitReactor starting up.

So, I'm putting the Book Club here on hold for now.

I'll be running LitReactor's Book Club - so participate in that one if you miss the discussions here. It'll be a good time - I promise!

Donald Ray Pollock's Devil All the Time will be moved to LitReactor and be February's book selection there.

If anybody has any questions - feel free to PM me about them.

My Top Ten Most Neglected Fiction Classics

xec8 — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:14:50 -0500

1. The Blue Room (Georges Simenon): Simenon wrote over 400 novels, and although he was not taken seriously during his lifetime, he is now acknowledged as an important Belgian author whose talent lay in creating deeply psychological characters using the simplest language possible. Lauded by Andre Gide as a great writer, Simenon was, to put it simplistically, crime fiction’s response to Camus: his stories are filled with the dread of existence, the futility of human action and the insanity of urban life. The Blue Room is my favorite of his; it tells a simple tale in a complicated way, proving that flashbacks should not be as taboo as we are told, and showing just how effective it can be to have most of the novel’s action take place in a single setting. This is a dark novel, but a beautiful one. read more »

List of Past Book Club Books

PGoutis01 — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:42:48 -0500

So to end all of the confusion of what we have read and what we haven't read - I've organized this list. These are all the books that we have discussed in the past. And they are links to the original discussions - so I encourage you to check out the books and add to the discussions.

If anybody finds any mistakes in this list or has any suggestions - feel free to post them here. Please click on all the links and check them out for me. I will be adding the books to this list after I move them to the Official Cult Book Club Forum (after the discussion is over).

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Angel Dust Apocalypse by Jeremy Robert Johnson read more »

And So It Goes Kurt Vonnegut: A Life

Lazlo Of The Dead — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:56:07 -0500

I just finished And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut a Life by Charles Shields. This could easily be one of the most jilted half-assed biographies I've ever read. Shields opens the book with his desperation to get Vonnegut to allow him to be his biographer and allow him to write his book. Kurt initially refuses the request and then eventually allows it. Shortly after, Kurt Vonnegut passed away.

The major problem in this book though is that Shields appears to hate Kurt Vonnegut. He seems like a man who had only read Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-5 in high school and then had to suffer through the rest of his work after getting the job.

Sourcing is a huge issue in this work. It seems like Shields' main source of quotes seem to come from his ex-wife or his daughter Nannette, who clearly had issues with her father. The effect it creates is Sheilds comes acrossed looking like a jilted lover himself. read more »

It's forever alone month and I am reading...

Irina Marina — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:22:53 -0500

Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre.

Also on volume 7/15 of The Arabian Nights and 2/7 of In Search of the Lost Time.

Ready Player One

jimmy the jazz — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:35:47 -0500

anyone else into this book totally geeky but dam fine for it. I see he's signed it up a movie and has written scripts before so am at least glad he went the way of writing the book first not just pitching a script. anyone else love to spend some time in the OASIS?

First Edition, First Printing Question

zandre — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:44:55 -0500

Hey everyone,

I need a little bit of help from some of you that know these things much better than I do. I would like to get some first edition, first printings of some of Chuck's novels. I have read about the number line and what not to identify first printings but have a question.

I was just wondering do the ten numbers have to be in order for it to be a first printing (ie. 1234567890)? Or does it just need to have all ten numbers?

Thanks in advance!

Upcoming books you are psyched for?

Bug — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:16:41 -0500

For me:

Daniel Fights a Hurricane: A Novel by Shane Jones

The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan read more »

Recommendations Please

zandre — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:14:01 -0500

Hey everyone,

I am one of those people that goes in and out of reading phases. I'll go on a reading binge of sorts than not pick up a book for a while. Anyways, I'm looking for some recommendations.

I have read all of Chuck's fiction with the exception of Pygmy & Tell All. My favorites out of those were Survivor, Lullaby, Choke, Diary, Fight Club. The only ones I didn't enjoy all that much were Snuff and Haunted. I've also really enjoyed the Vonnegut I've read which are Mother Night, Sirens of Titan, an Slaughterhouse-Five. Brave New World, The Green Mile, and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest are some of my other favorites.

Hopefully that will give you a general idea of the types of books I enjoy and you can recommend accordingly.

Thanks.

1Q84

Lazlo Of The Dead — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:38:35 -0500

Anyone else feel this book was over-hyped and just not very great? I generally like Murakami, but this book went on for too long and just felt long in that "oh god really again more of this?" type way.