Pickman's model
sunset spires and twilight woods
7.30pmDerian said:
All New *All Singing/Dancing* London Bookgroup Welcomes New Members thread
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Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
At last night's bookgroup (which was very enjoyable by the way, despite lots of you losers not turning up) we were discussing the idea of having a 'book of year' as well as a book for each month. This would be a long book of the sort that couldn't be read in one month. Those who aren't interested in reading stupidly long books need not join in, but those of us who like something that takes some commitment and is too long to be read all at once can have this second book in the background that we'll all be reading.
The year is to run between bookgroup anniversaries, and since we've just had one the book we set now will be the book for the next year.
The suggestion that emerged last night was Richard Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, which is kind of pricey to buy at the moment but is available in various places online, such as here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10800
What do people think of the idea? Worth doing?
The year is to run between bookgroup anniversaries, and since we've just had one the book we set now will be the book for the next year.
The suggestion that emerged last night was Richard Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, which is kind of pricey to buy at the moment but is available in various places online, such as here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10800
What do people think of the idea? Worth doing?
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
For those of you know nothing about it, here's amazon's synopsis of AoM:
"One of the major documents of modern European civilisation, Robert Burton's astounding compendium, a survey of melancholy in its myriad forms, has invited nothing but superlatives since its publication in the seventeenth century. Lewellyn Powys called it 'the greatest work of prose of the greatest period of English prosewriting', while the celebrated surgeon William Osler declared it the greatest of medical treatises. And Dr Johnson, Boswell reports, said it was the only book that he rose early in the morning to read with pleasure. In this surprisingly compact and elegant new edition, Burton's spectacular verbal labyrinth is sure to delight, instruct, and divert today's readers as much as it has those of the past four centuries. "
"One of the major documents of modern European civilisation, Robert Burton's astounding compendium, a survey of melancholy in its myriad forms, has invited nothing but superlatives since its publication in the seventeenth century. Lewellyn Powys called it 'the greatest work of prose of the greatest period of English prosewriting', while the celebrated surgeon William Osler declared it the greatest of medical treatises. And Dr Johnson, Boswell reports, said it was the only book that he rose early in the morning to read with pleasure. In this surprisingly compact and elegant new edition, Burton's spectacular verbal labyrinth is sure to delight, instruct, and divert today's readers as much as it has those of the past four centuries. "
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
Am I right in thinking that you wouldn't read the kind of book that requires months/years at all? zora said the same thing and I think other people will too, but that's fine. some people liked the idea though so i think it might be worth pursuing.Hollis said:
citydreams
on the road again
PieEye said:
You're missing out there PieEye.. The War of Don's Nether Parts is a hilarious, farcical account of life within an imaginary South American country. The characters are delightful and exude sexuality, humour and vigour. The plot is extremely finely crafted. There are terrorists, wars, insurgiencies, politics and plentyful liasons that are stitched together in the finest threads of situational comedy.
Without doubt this book is one of the funniest I have ever read, knocking Tom Sharpe well off his perch.
onemonkey
winmonkey
okay, as an example consider the theatre producer Bordenave, the banker Steiner or the journalist/playwright Fauchery.. they are all fairly major supporting characters but what do you know any of their characters and why they might do the things they do or act they way they act? I couldn't find any clues about what they were thinking.. and i got the impression that they and many (most / all??) of the other people in the book just did as required by Zola to keep the book moving.. but when you get to feel like that you aren't involved and the whole thing seems pointless taken as a whole.Hollis said:I demand specifics.
undeniably he is quite good at set-pieces and ensemble scenes.. the dinner party at nana, the day at the races, etc, etc, and also does a good job of capturing some of the minutae of unfolding emotions.. nana's child-like glee on first arriving at her country home and Georges & Nana's 'love' scene that follows or Muffat's rage/jealously/confusion/grief at his wife's infidelity.
but i can't bring myself to care very much about the book taken as a whole because it lacks plausibility, plot or point!
citydreams said:
I just don't seem to be finishing any of the books in time at the moment so I'm going to sit out of BG for a bit I think and come back when I think I'll have a chance of completing them in time. It frustrates me when I can't have a proper talk because I don't know the sodding ending.....I've been a useless member these past few months!
onemonkey
winmonkey
or another possiblity we discussed last night is that maybe the point is that he concentrates on the microcosm, that it is a painterly book in that it only wants to portray what it sees and not explain, judge or analyse that. certainly all the historical detail feels authentic..(which paris streets had what type of prostitutes, what the green room and dressing rooms smelled like in Parisian theatres etc.)
and it is just one book in a massive sequence.. maybe knowing more about the others would give a better perspective
and to be fair, it seems a radical and scandalously frank exposé of some of the sexual mores of the era.
and it is just one book in a massive sequence.. maybe knowing more about the others would give a better perspective
and to be fair, it seems a radical and scandalously frank exposé of some of the sexual mores of the era.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
i think very few of us finished this month's pieeye but we still had a good discussion about it - we'll miss you if you don't comePieEye said:
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
citydreams said:
Yes, but it's so, well, obvious - can't we pick books that no one else is likely to have read? The last four books chosen (my suggestion included admittedly) I've read already and had not that much desire to read again.
Hollis said:Maybe we should all just agree to question each others commitment to the bookgroup at the moment... Although I'd agree choosing, at the first opportunity, a night on the piss with Jess does seem a particularly feeble excuse for non-attendance.
ok - you can question mine.
I'll question Brainy's
Brainy has to query Orang Utan
OU gives the monkeyman hell
monkeyman can sic Zora
and Zora can hassle everyone else because she's german and efficient with it.
And I would turn down a night of unbridled lust with Simon Pegg for one on the piss with Jess.
You lot are no contest.
citydreams
on the road again
Orang Utan said:
No-one else had read it that turned up to the group.
All books are obvious once you have read them.
Did you enjoy it?
To be more constructive, we thought that chosing two books at a time should allow some more choice within the group. Perhaps we should chose one book online and one offline.
Pickman's model
sunset spires and twilight woods
name a few books & let's see if anyone's read them.Orang Utan said:Yes, but it's so, well, obvious - can't we pick books that no one else is likely to have read? The last four books chosen (my suggestion included admittedly) I've read already and had not that much desire to read again.
also, it does help if you turn up to the bookgroup so you have some small influence on the choice.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
I enjoyed it, very well written with engaging characters, but a soupcon of cynical potboiling about it, like his others - you need to read the other books too.citydreams said:
Pickman's model
sunset spires and twilight woods
could do ernst junger's "storm of steel", an antidote to the arsy pacificism espoused by the bloke who did "all quiet on the western front".Hollis said:military history..
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Pickman's model said:
Sorry, didn't mean to come across as sour, though I'm sure it appeared that way. I suggested JG Farrell's Troubles earlier. Would also like to try out Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, David Madsen's Memoirs Of A Gnostic Dwarf, Nigel Slater's Toast.
And The Da Vinci Code!
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