MobileRead November 2009 Book Club Nominations

[geneven]

I nominate Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne. I've never read it, it's on the 1001 must-read books list (thanks for the link), and it is probably not sad.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by geneven

I nominate Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne. I've never read it, it's on the 1001 must-read books list (thanks for the link), and it is probably not sad.

I'll second this

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Ea

Ah, please, could anyone third "The Trial" by Kafka?

That does have 3 nominations. See the first message.

BOb

[GA Russell]

I was going to second Jane Austen's Persuasion because Becca Ann is a good sport, so I'm glad to see that it already has the necessary three.

[JeremyZ]

Please add another vote for Oliver Twist.

[MelC]

Originally Posted by Ea

Ah, please, could anyone third "The Trial" by Kafka?

Already done

Mel

[JSWolf]

I'll nominate The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett.

Terry Pratchett has invented a phantasmagorical universe in which a blissfully naive interplanetary tourist called Two-flower joins up with a drop-out wizard whose spells only seem to work half of the time.

Together they undertake a chaotic voyage through a crazy world filled with monsters and dragons, heroes and knaves. Pratchett has taken the sword and sorcery fantasy tradition and turned it in its ear to create an entertaining and bizarre spoof.

[CharlieBird]

Since I am halfway thru it and finding it much better than expected, I'm...

...seconding Moby Dick. I'd be happy if The Trial were selected tho.
d

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'll nominate The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett.

Can something written in 1983 and a still living author really be called a classic? There's not even Cliff Notes for this.

BOb

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I'll nominate "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad as it too is on my to-read list.

Do you have a quick abstract or summary?

BOb

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Can something written in 1983 and a still living author really be called a classic? There's not even Cliff Notes for this.

BOb

I've never once heard that there has to be Cliff Note to make a book a classic. I do think the entire Discworld series is classic. I don't think it matters that Terry is still alive.

Besides, if we had to have Cliffnotes to make a book a classic, then The Trial would not be eligible and The Secret Life of Bees would be.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by geneven

I nominate Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne. I've never read it, it's on the 1001 must-read books list (thanks for the link), and it is probably not sad.

I'll 3rd this nomination. I was required to read it in school but conned my way out of it. That was back when reading was against my nature.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

That does have 3 nominations. See the first message.

BOb

sorry, didn't see it.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

I'd like to nominate "The Picture (or Portrait) of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde.

I third this.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Do you have a quick abstract or summary?

BOb

From Wikipedia: Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1902 publication, it appeared as a three-part series (1899) in Blackwood's Magazine. It is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon.

The story details an incident when Marlow, an Englishman, took a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferry-boat captain in Africa. Although Conrad does not specify the name of the river, at this time Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver; however, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization in a cover up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region.

This very symbolic story is actually a story within a story, or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts, from dusk through to late night, to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary, his Congolese adventure. The passage of time, and the darkening sky, during the fictive narrative parallels the atmosphere of the story. It should be noted from a structuralist point of view that Marlow is also the name of a town situated on the Thames further upstream from London.