![[SA]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivnHmuljS5JifTHnyfjoH_evxzLaiwAXPEX-Nc2T6daRXSWHh65uLjUXKbVR64ODzxSOFAbRgACVVchEjbHIUX9l2wOXo8eNW7sE9BvfY5GuTucenKXSHiaF-MBYPzax640z0ufE-q2rw/s150/Spoiler+Alert+Cover.png)
Speaking of the book club, it's almost my time to pick a book. It's been agreed that it can't be anything that one of us has already read, so I'm looking for suggestions.
Unfortunately, it has to be something that the local library has at least three copies of which pretty much means it needs to be something relatively new (past 2-3 years) and popular (like a book club pick), preferably already in paperback for those of us buying the book. Also, I don't think they'd go for a short story collection and I don't think I'd go for a memoir.
Books I'm considering:
The Confessions of Max Tivoli
Pros: Might be good or at least not suck
Cons: Don't know if I can handle another narrator with an alternative lifecycle
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Pros: Probably good, I actually want to read it
Cons: Not yet in paperback, not enough at library
Okay, I now realize those are the only two I'm really considering and one isn't even really possible. There are plenty of others, but none really meet the library requirement. You can check here. If there are less than three copies available, it's probably not going to work. It's amazing, even some of the biggest books of the last two years only have one or two copies in the entire system.
I would actually really like to read a classic, but none that I haven't read and are readily available really come to mind. Sigh.
So start suggesting already.
6.27.2008
Exhibit 10.16
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
the omnivore's dilemma
i know it's not novel-tastic, but michael pollan is a gifted writer in his own right.
The only book I can think about these days is Pale Fire and while it might be "heady" it's also brief and hilarious and one of the top novels of the 20th century.
Other great classics would be Cather's The Professor's House or Ford's The Good Soldier, but I've a feeling you've read both of those. I liked C. Bronte's Villette but it's long.
As far as newer stuff, I just downloaded the audiobook of McEwan's On Chesil Beach, the New Yorker excerpt to which I remember liking a great deal. I was going to suggest the Diaz before you did. I doubt Lincoln has three copies of the new Murakami memoir, if it's even out.
And then all the others: the new D. Johnson? Chabon? Clarke's Arsonist's Guide? I'll point you to The Believer Book Award and maybe the Booker prize winners.
"I've never seen anyone play the kazoo and frown or cry at the same time." This is a quote from the Today show that I heard just as I was going to click "Submit". It's been a long, long week of soft news.
"The rest are made in China, but that's okay.
Despite lacking novelicity, The Omnivore's Dilemma would be a nice change. I'll kick the idea around the coffee machine and see what people think.
(Incidentally, I hate myself for being able to say things like that and not be joking.)
God knows I love most of the books you've mentioned there D. (except the Bronte which I haven't read) but they're out for that reason. Still, everyone should read The Good Soldier.
The Arsonist's Guide... is another good suggestions. It also made me remember Special Topics in Calamity Physics which is another possibility.
Dave - I'm reading Pale Fire now! And also The Historian - which I think is a pretty fun read.
Of course there's always "the nuclear option" of suggesting infinite jest and making it a once a year book club. And I loved Special Topics too.
Or The Magus, which, since it is set on a Greek Island mostly, is awesome summer reading.
And Oscar Wao. Oscar Wow!
As an avid reader of this blog, its content in which I know zero about, I proudly suggest: "Where the Red Fern Grows." Big Dan and Little Ann sure can hold a plot line.
Good god, just reading the dogs' names makes me want to cry.
Post a Comment