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November 2015 Book Club Vote
November 2015 MobileRead Book Club Vote
Help us choose a book as the November 2015 eBook for the MobileRead Book Club. The poll will be open for 5 days. There will be no runoff vote unless the voting results a tie, in which case there will be a 3 day run-off poll. This is a visible poll: others can see how you voted. It is http://wtsharpe3.com/Pictures/Multiple-Choice_C3.gif You may cast a vote for each book that appeals to you. We will start the discussion thread for this book on November 20th. Select from the following Official Choices with three nominations each: • We, The Drowned by Carsten Jensen Amazon UK / Amazon US / Kobo Spoiler:
• The Train by Georges Simenon Amazon US / Kobo/ OverDrive Spoiler:
• Skylark by Deszö Kosztolányi Amazon US / Kobo / OverDrive Spoiler:
• How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone by Saša Stanišić Goodreads Spoiler:
• Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto Amazon US / Kobo Spoiler:
• Memoirs of Hadrian by Margeurite Yourcenar Goodreads Spoiler:
• Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami Goodreads Spoiler:
• Resurrection by Wolf Haas Goodreads Spoiler:
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Choices, choices, choices. I'm going to let this one sit for a couple of days. There's a couple I'm not sure about yet.
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Only two of these titles are available at my library so I am going to put a couple more requests in and wait a bit to see if I can get any others.
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^Are you talking as eBook or as any format? My library is only missing The Train which is actually one of the ones I am deciding if I am going to vote for.
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I did go and check paper availability to see how that helps and it only added 2 options for me. We, The Drowned - Electronic and Paper available The Train - Not available Skylark - Not available How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone - Not available Inspector Imanishi Investigates - Paper only Memoirs of Hadrian - Paper only Kafka on the Shore - Electronic and Paper available Resurrection - Not available |
My library failed miserably for electronic availability:
We, the Drowned - paper The Train - not available Skylark - paper How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone - paper Inspector Imanishi Investigates - paper Memoirs of Hadrian - paper Kafka on the Shore - electronic and paper Resurrection - paper Only one electronic offering, but overall good availability with only one not in the system. I trust my library to be able to get me the one not in the system as well. |
I know Murakami is both highly regarded and hugely popular, but I was underwhelmed by his weirdly Western After the Quake when it was a choice in the other club. I'm hoping for pretty much anything else.
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*Goodreads says 430-700+ pages depending on version. |
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ETA: Simenon's only 144 pages, folks! |
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My support lies elsewhere this month. |
I'd like to see Skylark make it. I'd like to read more works from Russia.
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I'd like to see one of the mysteries win.
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I'm holding back for a couple of days while I check on availability and cost, as well as length. But I definitely would prefer one of the mysteries to win.
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I'm definitely not liking the current leader. I truly have zero desire to read it. So I've gone ahead and voted for The Train, and Inspector Imanishi. I can see reading either one, and even enjoying it. But no matter how worthy, I'm not interested in anything Kafka.
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Sure it does. Even though it's not written by Franz Kafka, I hardly think the choice of title was an accident. But beyond that, I looked at the description and it's definitely not something I'm in a place I want to be reading right now. Maybe at some other point in my life, but not right now.
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Maybe someone who has read it can chime in (or wait if it ends up being selected for the club.) Also, I can certainly see Murakami not being for everyone too so wasn't sure if that was the reason. |
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I'm trying to think how to put across the without spoiling even 1% of the book but i cant so i wont. I will just say if you haven't read The Wind up Bird Chronicle its worth a read and it might wet your appetite enough to follow on to this book. That book itself isn't related to Kafka on the Shore at all (unless you count the cat references) but i got the same satisfaction (i was going to put vibe but that doesn't do it justice) from reading that book as i did from this one. Probably doesn't help much sorry but i'd hate to think someone was missing out on an interesting read because of the title and a brief description and what it might (or might not;) imply. |
The surrealistic tome Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami is our winner. Happy reading, everyone!
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I'll pass this month. But see you again next month. :)
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November 2015 Book Club Vote
The cheapest audiobook route I've found in the States, assuming your local library doesn't have it, is Kindle plus narration. And that's not cheap. $11.99 for the ebook (price fixed by publisher) and add Audible narration ($9.99) and the grand total is $21.98—might as well say $22.00.
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Hooray! some Murakami. I get to read it again even though i had Norwegian wood queued up to read (finally) but hey ho.
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So far I'm really enjoying it.
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Me, too. Just finished the first 9 chapters.
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Kafka on the Shore was my first and probably least favorite Murakami, but it still had a lot of redeeming qualities. It had a bit of an "everything and the kitchen sink" vibe akin to what little Tom Robbins I've read, but I never found much redeeming in Tom Robbins.
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^Another Roadside Attraction is my favorite.
This will be Murakami number seven for me. I've read (in order of reading): The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Sputnick Sweetheart South of the Border, West of the Sun After the Quake Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World I've enjoyed all of them, especially Tazaki and Wonderland. |
The only Robbins I read to the end was Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas. I'd already read a few John Barth novels, and Robbins struck me as a somewhat forced (but apparently successful) attempt at a more accessible John Barth. Friends prevailed upon me to try something else by Robbins, so I started Another Roadside Attraction, but it seemed like more of the same: forced exoticness, try-hard absurdism, and next to zero sympathy for his characters. That last point is the clincher for me, and what I think distinguishes Murakami at his most absurd (Kafka on the Shore) from Robbins. To me it didn't seem like Robbins liked or had much faith in his characters or his readers.
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It's started, as Murakami novels do, to get weird. I like Murakami a lot. Probably for that weirdness.
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17 chapters under my belt now, some Kindle, most Audible, and there's a lot less weirdness than I anticipated, especially from the opening chapters. Of course, there is the whole thing about the guy who talks to cats, but that was expected from the book's advertising blurb. Not that there isn't a lot of weird, just nothing unbelievable except for the cat thing. Of course, that may change.
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I'm giving everyone fair warning: If you read the first seventeen chapters and walk away, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You read the eighteenth chapter and beyond, you stay in wonderland, and Murakami shows you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Yes, it has now officially become very weird. And thoroughly enjoyable. Great selection this month. |
^I was going to say something when you said "a lot less weirdness than I anticipated" comment because I was two chapters ahead. :P
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Cats are in almost all of his books. If a cat does something strange, its often the least strange thing in the novel. They kind of ease your way into more strangeness. :)
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