The Reading Circle - discussion about books to read

I love the concept! Good luck with the first session, Bruno, and everyone for that matter.

Nick

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when are we starting again?

Next moon. That’s April the fourth, I think. Isn’t it, Q?

I voted for the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. I bought the big book (with all of them) this christmas, and I am almost finished with the last one. A great series! I tried reading the hobbit once but I got bored out of it quickly. :bored:

So I’m in? niiiccccee. :cool:
Just in case I forget, PM me when I need to start my hosting duties. I’m not framilliar with the 13 moon calendar yet, so I might not realize when I need to start.

Four weeks, DayLight, but I’ll try to remind you before (if I myself remember, that is :roll: ) so you have time to plan things better and run a poll at least a week before opening the second moon of the circle, ok? :smile:

Okay, the poll is officially closed!

The Hobbit — 6
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — 4
The Neverending Story — 4
The Kite Runner — 1
NOTE: I know this doesn’t look like the one on the top of the page. But don’t forget Petter changed his vote.

That settles it. Tomorrow, we’ll start reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. A thread will be created (hopefully, I can do that today). You’re invited to read this delicious tale with us and make comments, questions and interpretations.

For everyone that’s joining me, I wish you a great reading! :happy:

Can i suggest a book for next moon? Also, i have already read The Hobbit, but i never got around to finishing it… i lost my place. Now seems like a good a time as ever to finish the book! And also, if it is free to suggest a book for next moon, may i suggest “Night in the Lonesome October” by Richard Laymon? He is becoming quite a popular writer, but he is dead now. I think it would not only help fellow LDers read some good literature, but also it would be a tribute to his memory, that people spend a moon reading one of his books. You never know, you might find yourself hooked! i am!

Jason, it’s up to the next Moon’s host to listen to your suggestion or not (of course you can volunteer to be host if you want us to read the book so badly, I’d certainly enjoy that—and I’ll try to find a copy of this book as soon as possible :smile: ).

What is this book about? If it sounds good I might put it in, because I have three books I’d like people to choose from(On the Road, Naked Lunch, Choke) and need one or two more choices.

I think there should be a reading circle subforum for these…

“Night in the Lonesome October” by Richard Laymon is not translated in French. :sad:

Daylight, in the same 70’s underground style, what about “Tales of Ordinary Madness” by Bukowski?

Mwahaha! Yes, they are rather… special. I wonder if we’ll have some readers this month. :happy:

Well, night in the lonesome october is classed as a horror book, by a popular writer of horror books. It is basically about a man, who after his girlfriend dumps him, goes on a walk, not intending to come back. From then on, through the month of october, his life goes spiralling out of control. I would not say it is good for children though, as it contains a high number of sexual scenes, that adults may find inappropriate for children.

if the idea catches on, and other lounge topics are in danger of being flooded by the reading circle then i will consider making a reading circle sub forum :smile:

That sounds REAL cool, Hebrew, and I do intend to read it, but I think BW is right. We need to choose books that are translated in all the languages of people who want to participate in this. I don’t know if Choke is translated, for that matter. It is fairly new, but by a popular author(Chuk, Phalihunick, author of Fight Club), so I’ll have to look into that. And BW, I’ve heard Bukowski’s name, but have never read his work. Could you describe this book? Also, what do you guys think about reading poetry instead of a novel for the Reading Circle? I think it would be cool to read some Blake, Whitman, or Ginsberg here.

It is in french. Many books of Chuck Palahniuk are.

I looked at the readers comments on Amazon and took in them what looked like the memories I had on this book.

“Tales of the ordinary madness” is a collection of short stories, which are part auto-biography and part fiction, giving a raw portrait of life in Los Angeles during the seventies. The stories are united by themes of desperation, loneliness, dead-end jobs, drunkenness, women, sex, bad apartments and roominghouses and a need for real connection in this disturbed world. Bukowski describes people who live miserable lives in miserable conditions. It shows a brutal point of view about life, with an hopeless and unblinking eye, but with sense of (black) humor and sort of (false?) ingenuousness. It emphasizes on crude details so many people found this book just disgusting.

Anyhow, I wonder if it a good idea, because it’s not a novel but many short stories. So it would be perhaps hard to comment. And I’ve read that in english the stories have been divided in two books, “The most beautiful woman in town” and “Tales of ordinary madness” thus it will make even more difficult to know what stories we will talk about.

[Edited later: I would add too that it’s not a great choice in a reading circle where everybody is asked to read the same book, as this one could really hurt feelings even amongst adult readers. Moreover if you’re living at your parents and they find this book… I suppose most of them won’t be very happy. :confused: Thus I give this idea up. ]

Same problems about difficulties for readers to comment because of the many poems… and the translation problem is even harder with poetry. I think you quite have to find the book in english, thus to order it online, etc. :sad:

It’s a good idea though. And I would be glad to discover Blake and Whitman. :happy: Has someone a solution concerning novels and poetry?

We can give English poetry a try. Just propose, lets see if the members are willing to try! :content:

Alright, well I think I’ve decided on the choices for next moon’s reading circle.

-On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
-Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
-Choke, by Chuck Palahniuk
-Waiting Period, by Hubert Selby, Jr.

Most of these books contain sexual content, explicit language, and drug content, Naked Luch being the most explicit, and On the Road being the cleanest. I have yet to read Waiting Period, but it sounds exelent and I plan on it, so why not read it for the reading circle? Should I post a new poll, Bruno?

I’m surprised you even suggest them DayLight. No poll will be made with those books. Please keep to the forum guidelines in your choice of books as well.

Also, you are not the next circle’s host officially. That will be decided about a week before the end of this one.

As long as there is a warning on the content of these books, and the disscussion on the exlicit topics is kept ot a minium in the reading circle thread, I see no reason why you should be able to keep us from reading any book. If nothing about sex, drugs, etc. is actually discussed in the forum, I feel that we should be able to read what we please. If you do not agree with a book’s content, then you do not have to read that book.