Since Ricki is away for most of May, I'm going to make up the schedule by myself. If there are any big problems with it, let me know. It was rather hard, since there are enormous books on this list. I've surrounded War & Peace with blank months for CC, so that we have plenty of time for it. I suggest starting it as soon as you can.

JULY

Classics: no book
Reading List: Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden

AUGUST

Classics: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Pevear and Volokhonsky translation)
Reading List: An Artist of the Floating World by Ishiguro

SEPTEMBER

Classics: no book
Reading List: Every Man Dies Alone by Fallada

OCTOBER

Classics: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Reading List: Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom

NOVEMBER

Classics: The Sound of the Mountain by Kawabata
Reading List: The Man Who Made Vermeers by Jonathan Lopez

DECEMBER

The Name of the Rose by Eco
Serena by Ron Rash

JANUARY-FEBRUARY

2666 by Roberto Bolaño

Sherry:

great job with the list - I know it was no small feat with all those HUGE books!

Thanks, Al. I know I'm going to have to skip one or two this time. I probably will not do rereads of Eco and Ishiguro. I may also place a page limit on our next list!

Thanks, Sherry. I was pleasantly surprised to see Ron Rash's Serena on the "New Fiction" shelf at my little community library yesterday. I may take advantage of its availability and my summer reading time to read that one ahead of schedule.

Thank you, Sherry! War and Peace and Artist of the Floating World are both my nominations, but they're on the list in summer so I should be fine. I'm glad you gave 2066 two months.

Thanks so much for putting this together, Sherry!

I'll look forward to participating in the discussion of The Man Who Made Vermeers Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren in November. As the date approaches please just let me know how much input you think is appropriate from an author.

Also in November, for anyone in the Cleveland area, I should be giving a talk at the Cleveland Museum of Art, so we could continue the conversation in person!

Thanks again!
Jonathan

Apologies for cross-posting, but I wanted to be sure that everyone who is going to be participating in our November discussion of The Man Who Made Vermeers knows that filmmaker Errol Morris has a 7-part series on Van Meegeren in the New York Times online starting today. I'm looking forward to seeing what Morris has to say! Here's the link:
http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/...

I just ordered the books from Amazon and received three in the mail today: Boyden, Fallada and Sansom. The Boyden looks like a novella compared to what we have been reading (Rushdie and Pamuk) and to Fallada and Sansom. Boyden has 300 plus pages, and the other two have over 500. I don't mind long books if the book in question is something that I can hardly wait to get back to. I did not find the Rushdie and the Pamuk to be that compelling. Maybe we should make a requirement that half the books be 400 pages or less. I hope that I LOVE the Fallada and the Sansom! Then I won't mind reading the 500 plus pages.

Jane

Jane:

I know exactly what you mean - there was something so nice about reading the ever so slim Giovanni's Room somewhat soon after Anna Karenina. I think next go-round we should all make an effort to nominate some short ones!!

I am just about to finally finish Midnight's Children tonight - it took me much longer than I expected, which means I think I will have to skip The Portrait of a Lady and start right in on My Name Is Red.

Luckily, these are what I consider "quality" problems :)

I have My Name is Red on my Kindle, so I didn't know it was so big. I'm about 1/3 through Portrait and I do want to finish that, since I didn't read it the first time Classics had it on its list. I expect I'll be very late with Red, as I want to read a mystery in there somewhere!

Looking at the upcoming list of reads, it does actually meet the criterion of half the books under 400 pages: four are more than 400 pages, four are less, and two are bordering on 400 (depending on the edition you read I guess).

But Jane's point is a good one although I'm not much of a prescriptive man. Length is something I do try to factor in when voting and when nominating. So, I deliberately did not vote for 2666 even though I have it and do want to read it. But I thought, whoa, with War and Peace up as well, might be a bit much to expect the group to cope with that too. And when nominating, I tried to balance a big book with a short one.

Looking at how I voted, though, I realise that I didn't always appreciate how long some of my choices were. So, maybe we could just ask everyone to specify page length together with title and author. That way, it makes nominators and voters just that little bit more conscious of that factor when making a choice, but allows equally for freedom of choice.

Although the trend these days is for so many recent works to be thick tomes!

When I have time, I look at the books on Amazon before voting and I always look at the page number figure. But, since the final list is a product of everyone's votes, it's hard to control. I do tend to like really long books, but I'm a slow reader. So, that means that I never make it to all of the books on our lists.

Thanks for sharing - I love hearing how everyone approaches our list.

Sherry,

I noticed up at the top of the page that you put the book for September instead of the book for August.

Jane

Thanks, Jane. I must have put the dates in wrong.

The problem was, Jane, that I had forgotten to add the Ishiguro to our bookshelves. I have already read this one, and my mind must have just jumped right over it.

I can't wait for August! War and Peace is E-P-I-C.
It would be a pleasure to re-read it.

Btw, when will the selection for next year's books start?

Nice to see that you're chomping at the bit, Silvana. I usually start the nomination for the Reading List books about two months before our current list runs out. So probably sometime in October. I am going to make a new rule for this list, though. No books longer than 500 pages will be accepted for nominations. This won't always apply, but we have had so many enormous books lately.

But WAIT! I just remembered that we already have January and February filled up with Bolaño. So I'll start the nominations in January. Can you wait that long?

Certainly, Sherry. It would buy me some time to find the listed books :)

Sherry wrote: "I have My Name is Red on my Kindle, so I didn't know it was so big. I'm about 1/3 through Portrait and I do want to finish that, since I didn't read it the first time Classics had it on its list. I..."

I think I read MY NAME IS RED in just a few days and I'm normally a slow reader. I don't know why this particular book went so fast. It didn't seem like a particularly fast read when I was reading it. I'll admit, I really got engrossed, though.

Silvana wrote: "I can't wait for August! War and Peace is E-P-I-C.
It would be a pleasure to re-read it.

Btw, when will the selection for next year's books start?"

I came in too late to read WAR AND PEACE with you all, but I have a wonderful hardcover edition my brother gave me for Christmas a few years ago and I've never read the book. In any edition. ANNA KARENINA is my all time favorite book, though. I just loved reading that one.

Gabrielle, be sure and read our discussions of My Name is Red and Anna Karenina. They never really close so you can still comment there too. Also, our War and Peace discussion will probably be going on for a while, so feel free to start now!

Okay. Thank you so much. :)

I have been meaning to reread THE NAME OF THE ROSE and to read 2666 for some time now. This will be the perfect opportunity for me to do so. I read Roberto Bolano's BY NIGHT IN CHILE and loved it.

I was in Border's today, shopping in preparation for educator's weekend in Michigan because I can get 30% starting tomorrow (but I had the time today). They had 2666 in paperback on the shelf in one volume. It wasn't there when I looked a few weeks ago. So, it will be added to my shopping list!

I bought it in hardback, but now they have it for the Kindle. I knew I should have waited. That is one heavy looking book.

Oh, I have it in hardback and I love it! It's not quite as long or as heavy as DROOD and THE TERROR, both by Dan Simmons and both of which I have to read. I love hardback books. I get my exercise toting them around! :)

Greetings everyone! I have been a terrible, terrible Goodreader. I've been so swamped with deadlines that I don't know if I'm coming or going. I'm very sorry.

But I know that The Man Who Made Vermeers is coming up for discussion in about a month, and so I wanted to check in to ask how, if at all, you'd like me to participate in or prepare for the conversation? Is there any information I can send you that might be of interest? Please just let me know.

Things seem to have calmed down a bit for me, so I'll hope to be a better group member in the future!

Hoping that everyone is well,
Jonathan

Jonathan:

I nominated The Man Who Made Vermeers and would love for you to be around for the discussion - it starts on 11/15 and participate as much as possible. Additionally if you think there is anything not in the book that would give us some insight into your background and how you came to write that particular book - i would love to include that in the "kickoff" note for the discussion. You could just think about it and post it on 11/15, which would be great!

Sherry or anyone else who has been around the board for a while:

What has been the procedure in the past when the author has been around for the discussion?

Jonathan, thanks again so much for participating - I am really looking forward to this!
Al

When we've had authors in the past, they just comment like any other poster. I think after we read the book, we'll probably have lots of questions for Jonathan. We can let the form of the discussion flow from there.

Jim Crace and Robert Olen Butler just posted as if they were long time CR members. Most of the authors who have been here make themselves right at home.

Thanks so much Beej, Sherry and Al,

And thanks Al, for nominating the book!

I'll give some thought to what might be useful or interesting and post it on 11/15.


For starters, though, some of the material on the book's website might be of interest. There's some information about the research and also color images (one completely fair criticism that the book has gotten is that the pictures are only in black and white, so the website is a nice complement. http://www.themanwhomadevermeers.com/

I'm actually going to be in The Netherlands in early December, so there might be a few days when I won't be able to join in the conversation. But I'm very much looking forward to participating as much as I can!

Also, if there are any Constant Readers in Cleveland, I'm giving a talk at the Cleveland Museum right before the book comes up here, so that could be a fun way to kick off the discussion too!

This should be fun! Thanks so much!
Jonathan

Beej wrote: "Jim Crace and Robert Olen Butler just posted as if they were long time CR members. Most of the authors who have been here make themselves right at home.

"

They did so to the point that Crace even commented upona difference of viewpoint which arose between myself and Steve at one point in the disucssion -- though I cannot recall the details now. It was humorous to me that he noted that as he responded to the point as well as to other parts of the discussion. It raised him in my already high regard, certainly that he truly was paying attention to the overall conversation as it was unfolding -- so definitely he was particpating as a full CR member in my opinion -- and since you are a member -- likewise. I'm looking forward to starting your book soon.

Dottie, Crace messaged me during the discussion. I dont remember what I had posted, but he offered to babysit my kids, who were young at the time. (I'm sure he was joking..)

Beej wrote: "Dottie, Crace messaged me during the discussion. I dont remember what I had posted, but he offered to babysit my kids, who were young at the time. (I'm sure he was joking..) "

That is wonderful and funny! I thought he really entered fully into the group and remember the discussion as one of our more outstanding ones over the years.

Hi Everyone,
I just noticed that The Name of the Rose Including Postscript is listed as "including postscript." Is that a later edition? I read that book ages ago and thought I might participate in the discussion, but I'm wondering if I should get my hands on a new copy?
Thanks!
Jonathan

Jonathan, I looked on Amazon, and I didn't see any editions of the book that said "including postscript" on it. I don't think you need to get your hands on a new copy. The edition in the GoodReads database looks just like the edition on Amazon.

Thanks Sherry!