2/14/08
The pick for March is THE ULTIMATE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams. This contains all 5 novels +1 story. Just read as much as you can- it's lengthy, according to Amazon 832 pages - but it's been said that it's a quick read. :) Should be easy after Wind-Up Bird.
Book Description-
At last in one complete volume, here are the five classic novels from Douglas Adams’s beloved Hitchhiker series.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Facing annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat.
Life, the Universe and Everything
The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky– so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription conspires to thrust him back to reality. So to speak.
Mostly Harmless
Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself?
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy sequence used the tropes of science fiction to talk about the things that concerned Douglas, the world he observed, his thoughts on Life, the Universe, and Everything. As we moved into a world where people really did think that digital watches were a pretty neat thing, the landscape had become science fiction and Douglas, with a relentless curiosity about matters scientific, an instinct
for explanation, and a laser-sharp sense of where the joke was, was in a perfect position to comment upon, to explain, and to describe that landscape.
Next meeting: March 11th Tuesday, 6-8 pm. Streets of Woodfield Starbucks.
01/10/08
Happy New Year!!! As everyone knows by now- NO January meeting. We'll reunite February 12th 5:30/6:00-7:30. Streets of Woodfield Starbucks as usual. I know that we usually meet 6-8, but the room was booked @ 7:30 - so we'll have to be out by then. It shouldn't be a problem - I don't think that we ever go all the way to 8, but it could happen, and if it were - that would be the night. So-come earlier if you want or come at 6. It usually takes us a bit to grab coffee and get settled in anyway. The book up for discussion is THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE by Haruki Murakami. As indicated in the previous post- this book was for Jan. & Feb. Any interested new book club members- please feel free to come to the meeting. Even if you've only read some of the book by then - or none - it doesn't matter. But that way you can meet everyone. And we'll be selecting the March book- so you can be a part of that process. See everyone 2-12!
12-27-07
The next book selection is THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE by Haruki Murakami. It's a beastly book of 624 pages - so this will be the pick for January and February. At the moment - we're planning to meet to discuss this work on Feb. 12th. I'll update everyone if this changes. We may meet in January to discuss too. Let me know your thoughts on that. Until then - happy reading! :)
11-14-07
Thanks to all who came last night. If you didn't make it to this meeting - we hope to see you in December. I think our first meeting went well! Despite the noisy room - we discussed the intensity and layers of MISS LONELYHEARTS. And while many of us never got to THE DAY OF LOCUSTS, Kristin gave us an excellent synopsis, without giving away the surprises. I can't wait to finish that book!
And on to the next book, the December pick is...
THE LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel
Here's some detail from Amazon:
Yann Martel's imaginative and unforgettable Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion."
An award winner in Canada (and winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize), Life of Pi, Yann Martel's second novel, should prove to be a breakout book in the U.S. At one point in his journey, Pi recounts, "My greatest wish--other than salvation--was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time." It's safe to say that the fabulous, fablelike Life of Pi is such a book. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Next meeting - Tuesday, December 11th 6pm - Streets of Woodfield Starbucks. We DO have the private room there reserved! Woohoo!
"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young."
~ Maya Angelou ~
And for Kristin- for the love of Ray...
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."
~ Ray Bradbury ~
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FIRST POST
Online forum for our Book Club-
NEW BOOK CLUB!!!
After thinking about starting a book club for ages, I’m finally doing it. Please join us. – We’ll meet on Tuesday evenings at 6 pm, monthly, beginning November 13th. The gathering place is at The Streets of Woodfield Starbucks, in Schaumburg, but we can migrate elsewhere as desired (grab food, etc.). It should be a good time. This is to be an open forum. Please bring friends and family (children welcome- I’m bringing my daughter). The selected reading material will be a joint effort – a starter list is below. Please come to the meeting with titles in mind to add to the list. Each title will be written a piece of paper and then we’ll draw titles from a hat, so that it’s fair. The only thing that’s asked is that you choose established/semi-established literature (poetry and drama too). By that I mean -nothing too fluffy or mass-market. There are many book clubs that already cater to that material.
As Twain said, “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.”
And our book for the first meeting is…
MISS LONELYHEARTS & THE DAY OF THE LOCUSTS by Nathanael West
Hope to see you there!
-Jenn Ritchie
Contact me if you need. Email: tgupkgirl@yahoo.com
Sample READING LIST (Please feel free to add titles)
1. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
2. THE PLAGUE by Albert Camus
3. THE COMPLETE POEMS: ANNE SEXTON by Anne Sexton
4. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
5. THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
6. THE SHAPE OF A POCKET by John Berger
7. JUST ABOVE MY HEAD by James Baldwin
8. THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
9. DAY BY DAY by Robert Lowell
10. HERZOG by Saul Bellow
11. THE DEAD LECTURER by LeRoi Jones
12. MUMBO JUMBO by Ishmael Reed
13. A DEATH IN THE FAMILY by James Agee
14. THE BELL JAR by Sylvia Plath
15. ANNA KARNINA by Leo Tolstoy
16. LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET by Rainer Maria Rilke
17. A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN by Virginia Woolf
18. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
19. THE STRANGER by Albert Camus
20. HALLUCINATING FOUCAULT by Patricia Duncker
21. SELECTED POEMS by e.e. cummings
22. STRIKE SPARKS by Sharon Olds
23. WHITE NOISE by Don DeLillo
24. DEATH OF A SALESMAN by Arthur Miller
25. 1984 by George Orwell
26. PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
27. THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by Zora Neale Hurston
28. COLLECTED POEMS by Sylvia Plath
29. GOING TO MEET THE MAN by James Baldwin
30. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
31. UNDERWORLD by Don DeLillo
32. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST by Ken Kesey
33. THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller
34. NIGHT by Elie Wiesel
35. SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
36. THE COMPLETE POEMS by Elizabeth Bishop
37. ATLAS SHRUGED by Ayn Rand
38. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
39. THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion
40. WAITING FOR GODOT by Samuel Beckett
41. ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
42. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE Virginia Woolf
43. WELCOME TO THE FUNHOUSE by John Barth
44. THE DREAM SONGS by John Berryman
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