The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion
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x - Nominations for January 2011
Good evening, Madge, but it's 3:30 AM over on your side.
I agree Madge, and hopefully Chris will too. The reading schedules need to be shorter. Both Bede and Karamazov suffered burn out partly because the discussions dragged on too long.
I'm nominating The Time Machine by HG Wells. Short and easy as well as a definite change of pace.
I'm nominating The Time Machine by HG Wells. Short and easy as well as a definite change of pace.
Excellent. I haven't read it in many years. I remember doing a paper on Wells' sci-fi novels, but I can't recall if it was for high school or college. Does your cat require a Santa hat?
Thanks Rochelle, but he's a snob and has threatened me with lingering death if I attempt to dress him up for the season. I'd rather not risk it. ;)
Yes, welcome back Kate, you were missed. (Chris knows that we are nominating for January.)
Kate Mc. wrote: "I'm nominating The Time Machine by HG Wells. Short and easy as well as a definite change of pace...."Why read the novel when you can watch the movie adaptation instead? :) I listened to a six-hour audiobook of Wells' The War of the Worlds, but I thought I could have gotten the same out of a 90-min movie.
Nemo wrote: Why read the novel when you can watch the movie adaptation instead? :) I listened to a six-hour audiobook of Wells' The War of the Worlds, but I thought I could have gotten the same out of a 90-min movie.I think the book The Time Machine is much better than the movie.
Laurele wrote: "I think the book The Time Machine is much better than the movie. ..."Which movie were you referring to, the 1960 or the 2002 remake? Better in what way?
Here is the YouTube link to the 1960 movie in 11 parts.
Rochelle wrote: "I don't think anyone else wants Ethan Frome, although I see qualities in it that many miss. "I didn't read it in school, but picked it up maybe 35 years ago, and found it extraordinarily powerful and wrenching. I'm not sure emotionally that I'm ready to read it again, though if it gets voted in I'll probably go for it. But anybody who thinks it's just a casual novel, or perhaps better defined as a novella, isn't seeing in it what I experienced.
MadgeUK wrote: "As almost everyone seems to have abandoned the TBK discussion, I thought it might be a good idea ..."I have to apologize for abandoning it. I had read about a third of the novel earlier, and was waiting until it the discussion reached the point I was at to start continuing my read and participating, but things intervened (including having to make a few last-minute presents in the shop for people I hadn't expected to have to make presents for). I really wanted to participate, but life just got in the way this time. Not to mention, so I won't, vision issues which I hope to get resolved this Spring.
Everyman wrote: "Not to mention, so I won't, vision issues which I hope to get resolved this Spring. ..."Sorry to hear about the vision issues, Everyman. The Garnett translation is available in audio book, so you could give it a try. There is still a month left. :)
Everyman wrote: "I didn't read it in school, but picked it up maybe 35 years ago, and found it extraor..."Knowing I have at least one other fan, I add Ethan Frome for nomination.
No need to apologize, Eman. This is a bad time of year to have a long read, aside from your visual problems.
Nemo, you might want to check out Wells' style, and you can't do that with a movie. I'm curious to see if he has more substance than his unusual (for its time) content. These books are very short, and might be doubled up for a one-month read.
Eman, what kinds of things do you make in your shop? Do you do carpentry?
Maybe "lightweight"? "Simple?"? "Less than serious"? "Brain candy"? "Fluff"?
As differentiated from the deep and thought provoking works that are read by VSP. :D
Okay. I'm digging a hole here. Will stop now.
As differentiated from the deep and thought provoking works that are read by VSP. :D
Okay. I'm digging a hole here. Will stop now.
That's okay, John. I read your share and then some. My fluff quotient is getting a bit low though. I may need to indulge myself over the weekend.
We have a varied selection, 8 so far. Could be we'll all vote for our own and get no majority. :)
Nemo, are you leaving Romain Rolland in, or is it too long? Madge, do you really want to have another week of noms?
If people abandoned "Brothers Karamazov," they're not going to finish the Rolland.
No, and it's not as long. But then again, it's not nearly as universally interesting or well-written, either.
John wrote: "If people abandoned "Brothers Karamazov," they're not going to finish the Rolland."
I don't know of anyone other than Madge and Eman who abandonned it. The discussion certainly died, but that's not the same thing. I'd say leave all the nominations in and let the votes decide the winner. Of course, if Rolland wins then Nemo might have to volunteer to moderate it. :)
I don't know of anyone other than Madge and Eman who abandonned it. The discussion certainly died, but that's not the same thing. I'd say leave all the nominations in and let the votes decide the winner. Of course, if Rolland wins then Nemo might have to volunteer to moderate it. :)
If the discussion died, whether people abandoned it or not is sort of a moot point.
OK. I wonder if that will happen with Canterbury Tales. Eman's planning a loooooong reading session.
At least it's more manageable, since you can break down the reading into separate stories that can be read and made sense of as a group, or individually. So, it's more amenable to the particular reader's reading schedule.
(Refer to #80) Not exactly, John. Whether people abandoned it from boredom, complexity or length would influence the choice of future reads.
But it wouldn't influence the fact that the discussion died in the first place, which is what I was talking about. I'd be surprised, for example, if the Karamazov discussion picked up, even after the holiday break.
The Karamazov discussion could be jump started. It would just take a couple people tossing ideas around and others would probably chime in. I doubt it will pick up on its own without some serious prodding, though.
Yeah. All you'd have to do is mention religion or socialism and you-know-who will chime right in.
I was being careful. You should have seen what I was going to say.
The idea around here is that everyone in the group can participate freely in the discussions. It's meant to be a friendly and welcoming environment, not a judgmental one.
And people have been tossed out of GR for less than what you did, John.
No one's told me what I've done.Who, Rochelle, and what did they do?
Rochelle wrote: "OK. I wonder if that will happen with Canterbury Tales. Eman's planning a loooooong reading session."Not THAT long. And there is so much quality to discuss in that work. I'm thinking maybe eight weeks, but havn't finally decided yet.
And poetry tends to read more slowly than novels.
Rochelle wrote: "Nemo, are you leaving Romain Rolland in, or is it too long?"Length of the novel shouldn't be a problem. If it is a good book, you'll benefit from the part you read even if you don't finish it.
Rolland was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings".
Jean Christophe was the first tome I ever read, as a teenager. A friend recommended it to me because the hero was based on Beethoven, one of my favorite classical music composers. Rolland's idealism appealed to me, as well as his non-judgmental portrayal of all his characters (somewhat like Tolstoy). The book was a vehicle for Rolland to express his ideas on various subjects, music, art, literature, religion, the national characters of France and Germany, etc. All in all, it was a good read for me, and I was glad to also get to know Rolland through the book.
There is my pitch for Jean Christophe. I'd seriously nominate it for the group read if someone else is interested. I'd support others' nominations if they too can make a pitch for theirs. :)
It's in. Noms don't need to be seconded. Make your pitches after the noms are listed in the poll.
Kate Mc. wrote: "It's meant to be a friendly and welcoming environment...And it hasn't been that lately, which is why some posts had to be removed:(. The Season of Goodwill seemed to have been replaced by Scrooge on certain threads:(. Let's hope that the New Year and a new read will bring some good resolutions.
The Celts thought that the sun stood still for twelve days in the middle of winter and during this time a Yule log was lit to conquer the darkness, banish evil spirits and bring luck for the coming year. Do Americans make chocolate yule logs at this time of year too? We will be burning a yule log on my daughter's wood burning stove today and eating a chocolate one next Saturday:-
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_7rxXGXJYj48...
Looking at the list of people who won the Nobel Prize in Literature during its first 20 or 30 years, it's sort of interesting to see how many don't even come up on the literary radar anymore. I mean, who even reads Giosuè Carducci, Rudolf Christoph Eucken, Paul Johann Ludwig Heyse, Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler, or Jacinto Benavente, et cetera, et cetera anymore?I thought Rolland was similar until I saw a fairly new copy of "Jean Christophe" in a used book store when I was in high school or college.
MadgeUK wrote: "Do Americans make chocolate yule logs at this time of year too? We will be burning a yule log on my daughter's wood burning stove today and eating a chocolate one next Saturday:-..."No, but I can't speak for the people who have time to make candy when both spouses are working. There might be a half dozen in the Midwest.
John wrote: "Looking at the list of people who won the Nobel Prize in Literature during its first 20 or 30 years, it's sort of interesting to see how many don't even come up on the literary radar anymore. I me..."There probably people who wrote one good novel and disappeared, or maybe the selection was really bad those years.
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The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910
Books mentioned in this topic
Jean-Christophe, Vol. 1 (other topics)The War of the Worlds (other topics)
Jean-Christophe, Vol. 1 (other topics)
Jean-Christophe, Vol. 1 (other topics)
A Woman of No Importance (other topics)
More...
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As almost everyone seems to have abandoned the TBK discussion, I thought it might be a good idea to kick start the New Year with a new, lighter, read. It might work, it might not.