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Book Club Recommended Literature

#1 User is offline   slothy 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 04:30

Dear All Literati,

It is so long since i started a thread (and many i am sure wish it were longer :) and i have been told for some reason my posts seem to curtial threads prematurely :( ) that i thought i would do so toot de sweet.

In a post-work meeting last week fuelled by an excessive amount of Bulgarian vodka without necessary absorbent solids (on that note, if anyone saw the graffitti 'Aardvarks suck: Hillary C didnt vote for Bush Either ' sprayed over my local town hall in the early hours of the next morning and were offended i sincerely apologise) we decided to start a book club.

Basically, each person puts forward 4 books each month. Then the group selects 4 (i think) that will get purchased for the 'library'.

The books have to be 'Modern Classics' : that is books that have received (many) good reviews (not just off the authors granny) , popular acclaim , a wide audience and published this millenium.

I have got 3 .... i want some recommendations for a 4th.

Of course, the books must be in English :) Although u may think that a particular book written in Hottentot or some Venetian dialect is worthy of literary merit and should be read pls wait till some unemployed translator has time to massacre the text and produce an English transcription that bears little resemblance to its original.

There is no specific genre as such. Books by Harold Robbins and Dr Seuss Spin-offs will be ignored. Any book which has a main character called Alex who is a swashbuckling superstar that saves the world from bushy(sic)-eyebrowed evil dictators and has every woman slavering all over him will be given favourable consideration.

Alex
gaudium est miseris socios habuisse penarum - Misery loves company.
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#2 User is offline   helene_t 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 04:56

Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes.

The good-hearted moron Charley gets a brain surgery and becomes a genius, but at the same time he loses parts of his good-heartedness and becomes somewhat cynic as he realized that all the people whom he perceived as his friends were actually making nasty jokes about him all the time.
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#3 User is offline   luke warm 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 05:02

shogun
lonesome dove
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#4 User is offline   zasanya 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 11:41

The Man-Irving Wallace
Sirens of Titan-Kurt Vannegoot Jr.
Summer Lighning-P G Wodehouse
Aniruddha
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
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#5 User is offline   hrothgar 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 11:48

What do you mean by "Published this Millenium"?

Do you mean since January 1st, 2002 or within the last 1,000 years. If the later holds true, I'd recommend the following (in order of preference)

1. Last Call: Tim Powers
2. Use of Weapons: Iain M. Banks
3. The Last Coin: James Blaylock
4. Silverlock: John Meyers Meyers
Alderaan delenda est
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#6 User is offline   jdonn 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 13:26

hrothgar, on Dec 6 2007, 12:48 PM, said:

What do you mean by "Published this Millenium"?

Do you mean since January 1st, 2002 ...

Don't you mean January 1st, 2001? I thought the 'debate' was whether 1999 or 2000 was the last year of the prior millenium, I didn't realize 2001 was also a possibility.

I'm not trying to mock a mild error, is there really something I don't know about that?
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#7 User is offline   gwnn 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 13:58

I thought All Quiet on the Western Front was very good.
... and I can prove it with my usual, flawless logic.
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#8 User is offline   hrothgar 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 14:07

jdonn, on Dec 6 2007, 10:26 PM, said:

hrothgar, on Dec 6 2007, 12:48 PM, said:

What do you mean by "Published this Millenium"?

Do you mean since January 1st, 2002 ...

Don't you mean January 1st, 2001? I thought the 'debate' was whether 1999 or 2000 was the last year of the prior millenium, I didn't realize 2001 was also a possibility.

I'm not trying to mock a mild error, is there really something I don't know about that?

you're correct
should have been 2001
Alderaan delenda est
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#9 User is offline   slothy 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 14:29

gwnn, on Dec 6 2007, 02:58 PM, said:

I thought All Quiet on the Western Front was very good.

Unless Erich Maria Remarque has reincarnated himself and released an xth edition of his famous novel i think the debate between Josh and Richard has been extended to ridiculous proportions

:)

:)


Rich, I meant since 2001 give or take a couple of years
gaudium est miseris socios habuisse penarum - Misery loves company.
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#10 User is offline   hrothgar 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 14:37

slothy, on Dec 6 2007, 11:29 PM, said:

Rich, I meant since 2001 give or take a couple of years

Slim pickings over the past 6 years.

I think that my favorite "new" book was "Declare" by Tim Powers.
"Perdido Street Station" by China Mieville was also pretty good
Alderaan delenda est
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#11 User is offline   mike777 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 15:45

The Road by Cormac McCarthy if you mean in the last 12 months. :)


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#12 User is offline   mike777 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 15:58

Fortune's Formula, William Poundstone. 2005.
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#13 User is offline   helene_t 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 17:29

I doubt that anything worth reading has been published this millennium, except for what has been posted on BBF and Justin's blog.
The world would be such a happy place, if only everyone played Acol :) --- TramTicket
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#14 User is offline   Echognome 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 17:44

A fun and interesting read is World Without End, which is the long-awaited sequel to Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. I would definitely recommend reading Pillars of the Earth first, but the sequel just came out.
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#15 User is offline   gagne99 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 18:40

Atonement by Ian McEwan. Brilliant writing and compelling story.
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#16 User is offline   mycroft 

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Posted 2007-December-06, 19:03

So I guess A Clockwork Orange is out of date, eh?

- main character called Alex - check.
- swashbuckling superstar - check (for proper distorted versions of...)
- that saves the world - well, changes it significantly for the better (FPDVO)
- from bushy(sic)-eyebrowed evil dictators - well, sort of, yeah
- and has every woman slavering all over him - okay, maybe the other way around. Nobody'd notice, right?

Ah well, worth a try.
Michael.
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#17 User is offline   cjames 

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Posted 2007-December-07, 08:59

The Kite Runner
Squeeze me
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#18 User is offline   rona_ 

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Posted 2007-December-07, 09:42

The Omnivore's Dilemma. Michael Pollan

What is the What. Dave Eggers.
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#19 User is offline   P_Marlowe 

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Posted 2007-December-07, 10:50

Hi,

Tuesday with Morrie by Mitch Albom
For one more day by Mithc Albom

A long way down by Nick Hornby

With kind regards
Marlowe
With kind regards
Uwe Gebhardt (P_Marlowe)
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#20 User is offline   y66 

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Posted 2007-December-07, 11:16

Anything by Cormac McCarthy. Maybe No Country For Old Men is good to start with.

If you like movies, A Killer Life by Christine Vachon (bio), is tough to put down.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
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