All Hallows Reading - How did it go?

[Deborah]

Well, we kicked off the idea of a special month with the plan of finding those places where genre meets literature. The idea was to explore the idea of genre as literature, or whether art can exist in places better known as simpler and more commercial medium.

Now that the month is closing, I'd love to hear some thoughts on how we did.

Did we find art? Did we make the right choices? Should we try this again in the future, maybe next October?

[Sophia]

For my part I'm exhausted by reading so many books in one month!

But I was glad to read four books that I'd never have read, otherwise. I particularly enjoyed 'House of Leaves, which I did feel was worthy of the name art. I also enjoyed 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' although it neither felt like a children's book or a mystery. But, yes, I'd say it was good art.

'The Windup Girl' is the only science fiction I've read, part from some Arthur C. Clarke stories. I was surprised to find that it was quite good - and that I enjoyed it - but I wouldn't rate it as great art.

As to the future. I'd like to see more biographies/life writing as a regular feature. This is a great way to learn about the men and women who write the books we enjoy. Regrettably 'Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace' was not a great book, in my opinion, but it has encouraged me to tackle some more books by Wallace. I've become very interested in the man.

I digress. I think this is an exercise worth repeating. Off the top of my head, I don't know how we go about making the right choices. But – for the future - I would hope that if a book is chosen that those who nominate and/or vote for a book that wins have the goodness to leave the odd comment.

[Daniel]

I'm with Sophia in admitting that it was an exhausting month of reading, but that's as much my own fault for wanting to read the entire roster of Giller Prize shortlisted books before that award is given tonight. The Man Booker shortlist was also calling my name, but I only managed to get one of those titles read...

To the question at hand: Did we find art? I would say no, but that isn't a criticism of our efforts or the results. I would argue that art transcends labels, so defining our selections by genre may have been a little self-defeating if "art" was our only goal.

Now if you ask the question of whether we found works that were more literary than one would expect from standard genre fiction, I would answer with a resounding "yes" in pretty much every respect.

Should we try this again? I would be game, because I think we've learned some lessons from this go-around that would make it even better next time. My only concern would be the issue that Sophia raised above regarding the shortage of comments. It's difficult to sustain interest in six simultaneous group discussions when only two or three are seeing active postings. That aspect was a little disappointing to me, and it's certainly something we should keep in mind should we decide to plan something similar next year.

[Julie]

Maybe instead of 6 books, we should do 3? Or make it last two months with 3 books each month? I know I can't read six books in a month and I have other groups and other things to read too. That could be part of the problem with lack of discussion. I participated in 3 discussions though, 2 books I read now and one I read last year. That's alot for me!

[Deborah]

Maybe next October we could do Mystery Speculative and Horror with no mod pick and for April Fools we could try non-fiction and young adult.( With a mod pick.)

[William]

The custom of wearing costumes has been linked to All Saints/All Souls by Prince Sorie Conteh, who wrote: "It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities".

I'm not opposed to doing something weird next year, or something on a different month, but this was intended as a lark, something wild and difficult to do for a month, and to cloak ourselves in genre novels to ward off the retribution of evil spirits before they are shuffled off to the next world.

[Casceil]

It was an interesting experiment.The first couple of weeks I found it very frustrating because I did not have time to read that many books. I think the low participation in discussion was largely due to the number of books. Once House of Leaves became a two-month book, I immediately moved it down my priority list on the theory that I had more time for it, and read some other books before it. Since the House of Leaves discussion really took off in the last ten days or so of the month, I'm guessing I'm not the only person who did that.

Overall, I think this was a very interesting experiment, but six books at the same time was too much. I'd like to see more experimentation in the future, particularly in the direction of biography and non-fiction. Some young adult books are worth discussing, but many are rather thin soup for in-depth discussion.

[Julie]

I am always up for some nonfiction.

[Salome]

I enjoyed finding out about the books as the titles were new to me, but I admit I never fully committed to any of them (I still haven't finished The Wind-up Girl, even though I liked its environmental values...) I definitely don't blame the book group for my lack of follow up :), but I would agree that it's harder to be engaged when we seem scattered over so many different choices. What about having a genre book and a literary book paired up every few months to generate discussion?

[Deborah]

It's a good idea. However, we found that when we admitted genre submissions that we suddenly got an influx of people nominating the latest genre de jour. And then we got submissions for the twilight books. And then... you see what I mean. It's not that genre can't be wonderful. It's that it's usually not aiming for or achieving greatness.

I think in order for a genre book to be considered it needs to succeed as literature, and not merely when compared to other books of its kind.

[Salome]

That makes sense... Maybe those rare gems can be woven in when they become apparent. I guess that's part of the challenge though, who determines which ones are gems and why?

[William]

that's why we made the group, actually. Before it was professional editors, critics, and book awards. The bestseller lists helped. Then, as print media changed, critics were fired, and editors went as well, so the person reviewing books was a strung out 23-year old fresh out of school more capable of parroting whatever his Junior year lit prof said that formulating cogent thoughts about living works. The bestseller lists changed over time to reflect pop interests and those seeking the gems were left without a voice. I think all of us who moderate this group felt like our voices went unanswered for a LONG time, and it was only with reluctance that the mantle was taken up, but now that we have, we refuse to relinquish it until the proverbial evil queen is vanquished and order restored to the land.

The short answer is: We do. And because they're good.
P.S. - That concept of we is the entire group, not just the mods.

The mods are just gluttons for self-punishment. Perhaps we were all terrible schlock writers in a previous existence and have to reverse our poor Karma. Along those lines, I'd like to apologize for Schmock-Schmock!

[LindaJ^]

Found this discussion as we hit the mid-point of the six books for Octobesr 2013. I had already read 4 of them so only had 2 to read, which was good as I decided to challenge myself and read the fiction longlist for the National Book award. It's been a wonderful month of reading so far! I have added new authors to may favorites list and enjoyed everything to date - the moderator pick, the mystery pick, and five of the longlist! I only wish I did not have to work!!