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Werner
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May 01, 2021 10:28AM
Okay, Oksana, we'll put Wolf Hall in the poll when we set it up!
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I'd like to nominate The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle.I've been reading and enjoying a lot of vintage mysteries lately.
I love this book, Rosemarie. I read it twice, and would not mind reading it again!
I've read it once and it's time for a reread.
Count me as another group member who'd be up for a read of The Sign of Four! Like some others, I've read it once (as a kid, in my case); but it's been on my "to reread" shelf for some time, and a group read would be a great opportunity to get back to it.
I'll try to put the poll up on Tuesday, June 1. So far, our two nominees are The Sign of Four and Wolf Hall. Is everybody happy with those choices? Does anyone want to propose any additions or changes?
The poll is now up, at this link: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2... . It'll run through June 13. I've sent a general message to all group members, as well.
With 19 total votes cast, The Sign of Four emerged as the clear winner of our poll, with 13 votes to six for Wolf Hall. We'll plan to officially start our read on July 1 (I might have to join in late, depending on when I finish my current book, which is pretty thick!), and I'll have the discussion thread up on or a little before that day.
I'm looking forward to reading this as a group.
Looking forward to it too, Rosemarie!
Carol wrote: "Count me in!"That's great, Carol!
I am sure I already have it in my collection! Do not need to go to library.
Carol wrote: "I am sure I already have it in my collection! Do not need to go to library."Sounds good!
July is fast approaching, bringing with it the time for another of our annual (voluntary) group reads. So it's about the time for some brainstorming about what to read.
Precious Bane (1924) by Mary Webb isn't an extremely well-known novel, but it's one that seems to be greatly appreciated by many of those who've read it. It's been on my radar since I read of a review of a reprint edition in the early 80s, and I was lucky enough to find a copy of it a few years ago (pre-COVID) in my favorite used book venue. Since it's not a long novel (I'm guessing that much of the 328-page length in the Univ. of Notre Dame Press edition, which is the default one that the Goodreads link goes to first, is actually critical/introductory material), I'll toss it into the ring as a suggestion!
It’s an old book but does anyone want to read The Heart Of the Matter? Also, the paperback edition of Storyland, a new mythology of Great Britain was just published. I am definitely reading it as soon as I can get it.
Oksana wrote: "It’s an old book but does anyone want to read The Heart Of the Matter? Also, the paperback edition of Storyland, a new mythology of Great Britain was just published. I am definitely reading it as s..."The only problem with selecting a newly-published book for a group read is that, while it's easy enough for people to buy copies, it's typically not so easy to borrow them from libraries. (Many libraries won't have a particular new book; many libraries that do have it have policies against lending new books to other libraries by interlibrary loan, and large libraries often have long waiting lists for new books. My guess would be that most people who take part in group reads would rather not have to buy the book; and I hate to discourage those who can't afford to do that from participating! So, my advice would be to wait and nominate Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain next year, when it will be easier to get by interlibrary loan.
We read Graham Greene's novel Our Man in Havana as our common read in 2017; but we don't have a rule against picking other books by an author we've already read. I've read The Heart of the Matter, back in 1999; I wouldn't reread it with the group (I only gave it two stars; my review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... , for whatever it's worth), but if it's picked, I could contribute to the discussion. (Many people have liked the book better than I did.)
You are right about the new book. I just looked at the local library, and I cannot even get it through interlibrary loan system. I read Our Man in Havana with this group, but it is the only novel by Graham Greene I read. Thank you for the review!
You're welcome, Oksana! (Those are the only two novels of his that I've read, so I'm not very well-read in his work either.)
Well, our suggestions so far are Precious Bane and The Heart of the Matter --if you still want to nominate the latter, Oksana? Is everyone satisfied with those two, or does anyone want us to consider other possibilities?
I've read The Heart of the Matter and thought it was okay, but not the most cheerful read.I prefer something lighter in the summer-or an older classic.
I like P.G. Wodehouse and have read quite a few and enjoyed them.
I would gladly reread the first Blandings book-Something Fresh, also known as Something New, so I'll suggest that.
No, I would drop the Heart of the Matter. How about The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes?
The poll is up now, at this link: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2... , and will run through June 12. I'll be sending out an invitation to all the group members to vote as soon as I post this comment!
With voting closed and 18 votes cast, our winner is The Sense of an Ending, with eight votes. (Something Fresh got six votes, and Precious Bane four.) We appreciate everyone who voted! The read will begin on July 1, and I'll plan to have the discussion thread up at that time. This will be an unusual read for us, in that we've only ever done a common read of a contemporary book once before, in 2013 (and that was a case where it was one of two books that had tied in the poll, and members had the option of reading either of them).
In Memoriam, The Jewel of Seven Stars, The Everlasting Man are all books from your list that I'm interested in reading, Werner.I also have The Man Who Knew Too Much by G.K. Chesterton and The Monastery by Walter Scott, among others.
Thanks for that feedback, Rosemarie! We'll keep all five of those in mind next year, then, when we're starting to think more seriously about what book to pick. We have both The Man Who Knew Too Much and the Scott book here at the BU library; and though neither of them are officially on my to-read shelf, I'd happily read either one. Actually, I've only ever read two novels by Scott, Ivanhoe and The Heart of Midlothian; I'd be willing to join in a read of anything else that he wrote. And the latter two novels would make great choices for a group read, too --I wouldn't reread them (there are too many unread books I want to read!), but I could contribute to the group's discussions.
I've read both of those Scott novels and really enjoyed The Heart of Midlothian because Jeanie is such a wonderful character.The Antiquary is my other Scott favourite.
Rosemarie wrote: "I've read both of those Scott novels and really enjoyed The Heart of Midlothian because Jeanie is such a wonderful character.The Antiquary is my other Scott favourite."
Jeanie Dean is indeed a wonderful character, and for me she was the major reason I liked the novel as much as I did. On the strength of your recommendation, Rosemarie, I've just added The Antiquary to my to-read shelf. (Amazingly, despite Scott's stature as a writer, it appears that not one single Goodreader has ever written a review of that particular book for this site!)
I read it in another group as a buddy read and we all loved it. I hope you do too.
Rosemarie wrote: "I read it in another group as a buddy read and we all loved it. I hope you do too."Since I've loved both the Scott novels I've read so far, I probably will!
If we keep to what's become our usual schedule, we'll be doing our annual group read in July. So, it's time to start thinking seriously about what we might want to read.We haven't read many plays as common reads. For this year, I'd like to suggest one: A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. It's one of the more important plays of the 20th century in British literature, and has been produced in two movie versions. I've only seen the one starring Charlton Heston; but I was extremely impressed with that one, enough to want to compare it with the written original. This would also be a short, quick read, not demanding a major time commitment.
I've read that play and was very impressed, Werner.
That's encouraging, Rosemarie! If we choose it as a group read, hopefully you'll be able to join in the discussion.
I also read this play. It is a great choice!
Oksana, thanks for your input! I'd typed a response when you posted it, but apparently I forgot to click "Post." :-(Of course, we don't have to go with A Man for All Seasons just because I suggested it. If there are more than just that one suggestion, I'll put up a poll on June 1, and we'll vote. But June 1 is coming up pretty quickly, so the next few days would be a good time to post alternate nominations, if anybody has one!
We'll definitely put that one in the poll, Rosemarie!
The poll is now up, at this link: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2... . It will run through Sunday, June 11, and I'll plan to announce the results on June 12.
Our poll results are now in, and The Club of Queer Trades has won by a landslide, with nine votes to three for A Man for All Seasons. (It started out as a very late and surprise nominee, but jumped into an early strong lead and never lost it.) :-)We'll begin reading on July 1, and I'll post a thread then. Since I'll have to get the book by interlibrary loan, I may start late; but I do plan to join in!
Yay! My copy of the book arrived today. So I'll be all set to start reading with the group on July 1.
I'll probably be reading the book next week at the earliest. I have another book to finish first.
I've read the first two stories; but I'm setting it aside briefly to finish up another short book I started while I was on vacation. But I should get back to the Chesterton book in the latter part of this week.
I've finished the first story, about Major Brown. It's entertaining.
I've just realized that I failed to post a link here to the actual discussion thread for the Chesterton book! Mea culpa! Here it is: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... .
Although I think the idea behind my message 426 --giving other group members convenient access to a list of the books we want to read that are relevant for this group -- in hindsight, that way of going about it is really impractical. :-( It's eventually going to be quite inconvenient to hunt up the comment, either to refer to or to update it; and updating will be a nuisance. But, I've come up with what I think will be a much better alternative!Unlike many Goodreads groups who only use their group bookshelves for books selected for official group reads, in our group only the "Currently reading" shelf is strictly reserved for those. We already use our "Read" shelf as a general bibliography of books by British authors that any of our members have read, and all members are invited to add books to that shelf as they read them. If Rosemarie agrees, I'm going to extend the same invitation to everyone to add books by British authors that we'd like to read to the group's "To-read" shelf (UNLESS, of course, they're already listed on the Read shelf --that will be made apparent whenever, in the adding process, you search for a book that's already there, so there's no danger of shelving a title twice). Another group I'm in already allows this, and it poses no problem; only books selected for group reads are given start and finish dates, so the Goodreads program knows that only those books are to be treated as actual upcoming group reads.
To my mind, the advantages of this are that the bookshelves are always readily accessible from the group's home page (or from any of our pages, actually!), the bookshelf is easy to add to and update, and we can see everybody's entire list at one place. What do you think, Rosemarie?
If we decide to do this, I'll begin gradually adding the titles from my message 426 above to the To-read shelf, Once that's done, I'll delete that message, to eliminate clutter on this thread. :-)
I think it's a great idea, Werner!
Yay! I've now completed my project of moving books from the older post I mentioned to our group's to-read shelf (and have now deleted the old post and my related ones.) We now have 104 books on that shelf, and hopefully others in the group will add others as well. Of course, we don't have to pick our group reads from that list; but I think it will be a worthwhile resource!
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