Ken’s Comments (group member since Jan 21, 2020)

Ken’s comments from the The Obscure Reading Group group.

Too soon for me to start. I'm reading one of the finalists now, Night's Lies.

Sara wrote: "Greetings folks, I too am new and excited about joining the discussion on this book. I hope to be on my second read through by the time the conversation starts in June, as those lovely long Russian..."

I am most impressed that you are reading this twice, Sara. In a word: Wow!

What? You actually think I'd walk down the 800 aisle to visit my own book sitting lonely as a shepherd's field with its green spine on the shelf between Collins comma Billy and Dryden comma John, so thin you'll miss it if you aren't careful? This would never happen.

Diane wrote: "Our library has a special room just for reservations and they are shelved so that the titles are hidden unless you take every book off the shelf to "browse". It's also in direct eyeline of the info..."


My library as well. 95% of the books I check out come via the inter-library loan system, and those are kept behind the circulation desk so that, upon arrival, you just say, "I have 5 books on hold" or something (you get notification of their arrival via email).

I'd be in trouble without inter-library loans, especially when it comes to poetry books (the shelf of which is called "Death Valley Days" in my hometown library).

That said, my hometown library is a great place to find bestsellers (don't read), mysteries (don't read), romance (don't read), and cookbooks (use the internet instead).

I do appreciate my librarians, though. The head librarian was even kind enough to stock my third poetry book, thus emphasizing the "Death" in "Valley Days" in that scorched-earth section of Dewey's Decimal. No one has checked it out, which is sad, but I take some consolation in the fact that no one has checked any poetry out. (My librarians just shake their heads sympathetically.)

Perhaps it's another ORG reader who happens to live in the UK? Grist for another British mystery show?

People are such weasels sometimes.

Matthew Ted wrote: "I went to collect my copy from my local library today and it wasn't on the Reservation shelf. Checked with a member of staff, and nope, nowhere in sight. She said it's getting quite common that peo..."

Wouldn't this be an easy sleuth job for the librarian, who could simply go to her computer to see who checked it out? Unless you mean STOLE as in walked out of the library with it. But if that's the case, it could be done from any old shelf.

Suggestion Box for your library: Move the Reservations Shelf to a location where only librarians can access it.

Huge margins were a thing with many old books. Maybe for annotations -- the "thread discussions" of olden times when readers and writers conversed that way.

Glad everyone is finding an edition to their liking AND that copies are relatively inexpensive!

Thought I'd read The Mysteries of Udolpho, but no, it was The Castle of Otranto, right next door.

I swore off Austen many decades ago. Call it pride. Call it prejudice.

As for the last, never realized that Mr. Strange and Mr. Norrell took up 500 pp. each! Will be avoiding that "magic" for awhile. Or, shall I say, Mann's Magic will come well before.

Nota bene: I managed to read Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family long ago, but that's because Hemingway did, and damn it, I can do anything Hemingway can do. Except drink that much.

In truth, I am sometimes daunted by big books. The moment I talk myself into starting Tokarczuk's The Books of Jacob or Mann's The Magic Mountain, I find an excuse to read another six shorter books instead.

Later, I tell myself. Later.

That said, I'm proud to say I've made my way through Moby-Dick, Don Quixote, and a raftful of Russian novels from the Golden Era of Russian Lit.

P.S. Never knew about that 5-star trick. Will give it a try.

Plateresca wrote: "Hi!
I guess I was supposed to introduce myself when I joined the group, so maybe better now than never :)

But I do find introductions confusing. People usually mention their age and where they li..."

Welcome officially, Plateresca. Agree that age and GPS shed little light on people. Favorite books, more so.

Alas, I don't even have a "Favorites" shelf, which is weird, because I have an awful lot of them.

Plateresca wrote: "Hi everybody! I'm very excited about reading with you :) I joined the group at the beginning of the year, but I was reading 'Middlemarch' with another book club in February so couldn't do the Karam..."

Yes, that is the hope!

I'm perplexed that Sue's copy is over 300 pp. and mine is around 200 pp. That's one hell of an introduction!

In any event, I'll be relaxing with my own reads. Probably I'll pick this up the last three or four days of May. It'll be fresh in what remains of my brain for June 1st!

If it's an old translation, it's no doubt the work of that warhorse translator of all things Russian, Constance Garnett.

Just pulled my copy of this book (an old Penguin classic translated by Richard Freeborn) and see that it's only 186 pp.

This means the reading schedule will be easy because there's no need to divide it up, it's so short. We'll just launch into a full-book discussion on June 1st.

This was only Turgenev's second novel. The back blurb says it is not only about the protagonist's homecoming, but "the homecoming of a whole generation of Russian gentry who have flirted with Western ideas and found only failure and disillusion, and return 'to plow the land' in the hope of a distant harvest."

It kind of reminds me of Gorbachev and Perestroika -- for one brief, shining moment, the union of Russia and the West in harmony, yet somehow fumbled away, leaving the door open for something worse than disillusionment.

Oh, you just hit POLL on the group page to see results.

Kathleen will be along to announce... I'm just up 3 hours earlier (east coast vs. west).

Sorry, thought everyone knew how to see polls when they completed!

At long last, a winner!

I already own two of the three finalists and just ordered the third, so I'll eventually be reading all three -- one with y'all and two in obscurity.

Hi, Sara. I hope by "summer" you mean June, the month we flip to everyone's favorite season (well, except for Mr. Fall here).

As a new member, you can actually vote on June's three finalists if you do so today. They are as follows:

1. The Books of Jacob

ADVANTAGE: Getting rave reviews, from one of Poland's preeminent writers.
CHALLENGE: Almost 1,000 pages (though can be done in 5-week discussion), only available in hardcover due to newness.

2. Night's Lies

ADVANTAGE: Sounds really cool with that "night before execution" suspense and psychology in play, a world lit. obscurity coming from everyone's favorite Italian island, Sicily.
CHALLENGE: Tough find in libraries and can only be purchased, as far as I can tell, through used book sellers who sell through Amazon and a few other online sources (you know, cheaper price but $4 shipping).

3. Home of the Gentry

ADVANTAGE: Supposedly the most Turgenevan (is that an adjective?) of Turgenev's books, nicely obscure because it's not Fathers and Sons, easily his most famous.
CHALLENGE: Would be our second Russian book in a row at a time when people are confusing Russians in general with Russian generals (clearly not the same).

Anyhow, I hope you vote (you can even change your mind, as long as the change of heart comes before midnight Pacific tonight) and hope you join in!

Also, rumor has it that bookshop.org, which gives proceeds to local bookstores and always sells books at 10% off, will be featuring free shipping this weekend in honor of Independent Bookstore Day, which is tomorrow (check your calendar!).

In fact, many indy bookstores are doing something in honor of themselves too. Check it out if you live near one.