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A Night in the Lonesome October
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"A Night in the Lonesome October" Daily Read 2019
All the good stuff!Chapters and pages
Page counts for each chapter, links to each day's discussion and notes.
(view spoiler)
Cover art by James Warhola
High resolution image
Sketch 1 & Sketch 2 & Sketch 3 & Sketch 4 & Sketch 5
Dedication
If you want to know which authors the book is dedicated to, here's the list. You can also choose not to look at it, to keep the suspense, they will surely come up in the discussion on certain days!
(view spoiler)
Treasure Hunt!Please note: SPOILERS, only read after you've read the entire book
Cover art
High resolution image
Cover art with numbered characters
Cover art with named characters *spoilers*
The Characters
I will update the list below as people discuss it daily. It will be safe to open if you've read the discussion for each day's chapter.
Character list: (view spoiler)
The Players
List of people mentioned in the story so far.
(view spoiler)
Finished reading?
Article by Chris Kovacs on identifying the characters in the text *spoilers*
I read this book for the first time in October 2017, one chapter per day, and I had the pleasure of having an experienced guide. I asked Jim to join us for this read, and I'm happy to report that he agreed. He has read the book several times, and has excellent notes and background information on pretty much anything you can think of! Jim will be posting his notes one day after we read each chapter, so that we can keep guessing about things, and maybe have answers the following day. Jim has also done tons of research about the cover image, the high resolution image above is all thanks to him.Thank you for joining us, Jim! :)
Mod
Mod
Thank you for asking me to participate. I don't think I've read a book as often as this one, but I still enjoy it each time. I generally post the notes I've collected the day after a chapter should have been read first thing in the morning (around 6am Eastern). These notes are compiled from a lot of sources. Some are quite reputable, others not so much, & others are pure conjecture. The book is a lunatic scavenger hunt. I highly recommend avoiding spoilers. Unfortunately, that includes the book's description, but you probably can't help that. Sigh. It added a lot to the mystery when I read it without that.
The first day is a short, mysterious chapter, but there's a lot to contemplate before reading it. As Anna pointed out, the dedication is full of hints & there is a prelude. There's also the title & the original cover art that Anna linked to in msg #2.
The cover artist is James Warhola, a nephew of Andy Warhol. He's a very nice guy that I heckled for years since he made extensive notes before painting the picture. He's lost them, unfortunately.
Here's part of an email between us:
...I am crazy busy at the moment. But did love books like this with all sorts of details to work from. and as I remember I loved this one. I did what I could to get it in on deadline. A crowd scene not often done for a small paperback cover I thought was the perfect solution for this type of book since it was made up of som many crazy interesting characters... most of them were all my friends since I never had a budget for photography....
The original back cover is a caricature of Zelazny & Gahan Wilson, the illustrator for the beginning of each chapter. Zelazny was an admirer & actively sought him out for this, I believe. Wilson has a Wikipedia entry here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gahan_W...
Jim wrote: "I highly recommend avoiding spoilers. Unfortunately, that includes the book's description, but you probably can't help that. Sigh. It added a lot to the mystery when I read it without that."Agreed! I read it without knowing anything at all, and I'm so happy I did. I know we have at least a couple of people who like to go into books without reading the blurb!
Allison wrote: "Can we get a bit of a roll call? Who will be joining for the daily read? Will you be starting Sept 30?"I'll be there and I'm excited that we have Jim here for the details, since I'm a bit of a noob concerning the classics I certainly won't be getting half of it on my own.
Mod
It's this level of analysis that I think I bring to the table. ;-)
Allison wrote: "I have no idea what this is about, other than that it's about someone's October."Haha, that sounds about perfect!
I'm in! I have just placed a library hold on this.
Gabi wrote: "... I'm a bit of a noob concerning the classics..."Thank you. While I consider many of the references classics, my wife & daughter tend to sneer at my definition since I love the old Universal monster & SF B movies. My daughter tells me there's still a chance I'll grow up. I hope not.
;)
Just here to say I shall be joining in this endeavor. Looking forward to it!
I should be joining. Waiting on the Library hold. :)
Allison wrote: "Can we get a bit of a roll call? Who will be joining for the daily read? Will you be starting Sept 30?"The ebook is only 99p on UK Amazon at the moment, so I’ve picked it up- I’ll start reading on Monday I think (Sept 30)
I'll be there. Fascinating cover.
This sounds like fun. I'm in!
Allison wrote: "Can we get a bit of a roll call? Who will be joining for the daily read? Will you be starting Sept 30?"Here! Really, doesn’t anybody know the proper way to respond to a roll call? ;) I’ll be participating in the chapter-a-day approach, starting with the prologue on September 30.
I’ll avoid the more generic spoiler and non-spoiler threads until I’ve finished the book, but I’ll try to hang out in this thread and only check for posts after I’ve read the day’s chapter. If I quietly vanish, it’s because my hyper-sensitive, anti-spoiler trigger has somehow been activated, in which case I’ll come back and catch up around the 31st. :) My first and only experience with Zelazny was Lord of Light which had a style I didn’t much care for, so my expectations are a bit low. The less I enjoy something, the less I care about spoilers, so we’ll see.
Lord of Light is pretty much the only book I’ve ever read where I felt like the book blurb was a prerequisite, and I normally avoid book blurbs like the plague. I was wondering whether that would be the case with this book, so Jim your info suggesting it be avoided was helpful! Business as usual for me, then.
YouKneeK wrote: "...Lord of Light is pretty much the only book I’ve ever read where I felt like the book blurb was a prerequisite, and I normally avoid book blurbs like the plague. ..."You make a good point about Zelazny's writing. He's very chary with his words & usually expects a lot of fine attention from the reader. A lot of people have trouble with "Lord of Light" because the first chapter starts in the present, but the last few words are "Sam remembers." If you miss that, chapter 2's sudden drop into the past makes no sense & you're lost. The story then works its way back toward the present & the last chapter takes place immediately after the first chronologically. That's one of his more straight forward books, too. "Roadmarks" & "Doorways in the Sand" both have unique, mind-bending chronologies, especially the former.*
This book is straight forward chronologically. It's tricky only in the allusions. It helps a lot if the reader gets them & takes them into account in the context of the story. Some are quite obscure, others are obvious. The former are part of the fun of the book. Trying to figure them out has taken me to some strange places.
I do NOT have them all figured out. I've read this book with groups half a dozen times & there are still some questions. It's why I started keeping notes. Even with input from Christopher S. Kovacs, one of the main editors of the 6 volume Collected Works of Zelazny & all around Zelazny geek, there are things we're guessing at. Every year someone comes up with a new & interesting hypothesis about something.
*"Roadmarks" has 2 timelines designated by chapters being 1 or 2. He wrote the whole thing out with T1 in chronological order, but tossed the T2 chapters into the air & randomly inserted them between T1 chapters. Since time is a road & folks are traveling it, that makes a warped kind of sense on the second reading. The first is just bewildering. Good, but definitely weird.
John wrote: "I'm in on this as well, I'll be reading the prologue on the 30th.Make sure you get the right one:
A Night in the Lonesome October
and not..."
I didn't know that, but the source of the title is fairly famous.
I’ll be enjoying it as a completely clueless first time reader. I have read no blurbs and might be able refrain from reading the part that tells you about the characters too, since I’m reading the ebook. I’m usually pretty bad at references because my knowledge is riddled with holes. Looking forward to learning a few things.
Oh and doing the chapter a day starting Sept. 30!
John wrote: "Jim wrote: "I didn't know that, but the source of the title is fairly famous."I don't know the source you speak of, it sounds like it came from something I just don't know."
That's the way I felt when I first read this book. The worst part was I actually did sort of know the source & it nagged at me occasionally until I happened to stumble across it a couple of years afterward while reading some of his other works.
I'll say what the source is on 1Oct with some notes on the dedication & original cover. That gives you & others time to look, if you're so inclined.
That's one cat out of the bag and we didn't even make it ten hours!
Mod
I'm so pleased that we have so much interest for this experiment and that I've already learned a few things! I can't wait to start figuring out what all this means! (But nobody tell me yet, it's very rare I get to be entirely surprised!)
John, I'm not saying it's a spoiler, just that Jim and I had agreed to wait until Monday to talk about that :D Fortunately this bag is so full of cats, a couple of fluffy kittens escaping won't make much of a dent :)
It's hard, but I promise you it's worth it to read one chapter per day!
John wrote: "...I'm having issues not starting to rea dit right now, so hopefully, I make it the whole month at one chapter a day."I so feel you. Gotta have to try and keep oneself busy with other reads.
Mod
I've watched Karate Kid and Rocky like a dozen times, I'm pretty sure this is how it works.
Mod
I'm in. It's all loaded up on my ipad ready to go.
I'm looking forward to participating in the "a-chapter-a-day" as well, starting on the 30th.I have absolutely no prior knowledge, never read any book by this author, nor did I ever read a book this slow, but it sounds like a lot of fun. So thank you for organising this (and having someone explain things to me, I think I might miss the most obvious clues otherwise :)
Good going, John. No, not one of the better known ones, but rather haunting. Certainly sets the mood, don't you think?
Oooh, this looks so fun, I can't stand it! I just ordered a used copy online. Hopefully it won't take too long to get here (I purposely chose a bookseller in Illinois). I'll read to catch up when it gets here then do the chapter-a-day with the group.
John, did you start reading already?Everyone, please try to hold your horses (and cats) and only talk about things we've already read about. Since we haven't started reading yet, the list of non-spoilery topics at this moment is pretty short. I love that we're all eager to get into this book, but I also want to let people discover things as they come up, one day at a time. Only two more days, or one and a half really!
Very random indeed. Please tag it in any case, thanks!
Allison wrote: "Can we get a bit of a roll call? Who will be joining for the daily read? Will you be starting Sept 30?"I'm in. Daily read sounds fun. I've got an ebook on my IPad and I'm ready to start on Sept 30.
New page so the perfect time to post a reminder!We will be reading one chapter per day, starting with the prologue on September 30th. There will be open spoilers up to and including the current day, so only open the thread after you've read each day's chapter.
Jim will start posting his notes about the prologue and general things of interest on October 1st, always lagging one day behind to keep things non-spoilery. I will be updating msg #2 and #3 with all kinds of things as we progress through the book, also lagging one day behind.
Please wait until GR time rolls around to a particular day before posting about it.
Don't want to participate in the daily read? Go non-spoiler in First Impressions *no spoilers* and then post your Final Thoughts *spoilers*.
It's different from how we usually do things, but there's only one rule really: Only post thoughts related to things we've already read about, and you can't go wrong! Happy reading! :)
Already September 30 here hehe but I shall keep quiet until later.
Just to sync up comments, it's 8:21am Eastern time for me now. I'll post the comments on the prologue & such in about 22 hours.
I already read the prologue, even though I'd usually read the day's chapter right before bed. That way I have less time to wait until Jim's notes and everyone's comments! I'm super excited and really in the mood for this, can't wait for tomorrow night!I don't know how I'll be able to comment on anything, the only thoughts I have about the prologue are very spoilery for the rest of the book. So even if you don't see me commenting much, you can be sure that I'll be reading everyone's comments!
Snuff is great! I like how he says it’s best to take it day by day, I'd forgotten that.(I’m typing this while walking a dog! :D)
After reading the prologue while sipping my morning coffee I'm sure this is exactly the kind of book I love to read.
When I read the dedication list I had no idea who Albert Payson Terhune was - when I looked up bis books I was confused :). But after the prologue I think he could be the inspiration for the POV - cute one.
It sounds so far as if the dog's party and at least one other are competing for something being done where they need parts of corpses or other stuff out of graves, Frankenstein like.
And it reads like the dog hasn't always been a dog.
Not sure I have many thoughts about this so far but I'm definitely intrigued.
So, it seems as if Snuff’s owner is Jack, the Ripper, but I have no idea what their quest is all about, the curses and what not. It’s all a mystery to me at this point.
Gabi wrote: "And it reads like the dog hasn't always been a dog."My first thought was that Snuff is a hellhound. He reminded me of the Dog from "Good Omens".
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October 2019 Daily Read
Official discussions: First Impressions *no spoilers* / Final Thoughts *spoilers*
Do not look at the blurb of any other edition except the linked/default one, because they contain massive spoilers. If you've already read it, please don't spill the beans!
We will be reading one chapter per day, since there are 31 chapters, one for each day in October. There is also a prologue, it's up to you if you want to read it on October 1st, or September 30th.
Please try to wait until GR time rolls around to a particular day before posting about it. No spoiler tags needed. If you absolutely must post about a future day's chapter, use spoiler tags and tell us which chapter you're talking about!
Happy October and welcome to the treasure hunt!