Literary Viral • April 2020

[sun surfer]

I’m going to get my vote in early:

1 to The Samurai’s Garden


I’ll be equally happy with the selection this month whether this one wins or I’m outvoted.

On the one hand, I’ve always wanted to read Saramago, and the lit club has never read anything from Portugal yet.

On the other hand, I’ve seen the film Blindness and know the general story already, and though The Samurai’s Garden was basically unknown to me before I stumbled upon it looking for nominations, I did enjoy the preview and think it sounds really good.

Either way, we’re getting a selection with a very high rating on Goodreads- Blindness has a 4.12 and The Samurai’s Garden a 4.13. Also, it’s interesting that these two were published only a year apart in the 1990s- The Samurai’s Garden in 1994 and Blindness in 1995.

[AnotherCat]

Mine is:

Blindness

(If only because character names aren't used, so a change after Dr Zhivago )

[Bookworm_Girl]

I have no strong preference for the same reasons indicated by sun surfer. Both are excellent choices. I didn’t know Blindness was made into a movie.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I will break your tie with The Samurai’s Garden.

[sun surfer]

Run-off voting is complete and we have a winner! We'll be reading The Samurai's Garden for April. The discussion thread will be up soon.

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I will break your tie with The Samurai’s Garden.

And so the katana falls .

I am equally happy with either, but I had better get a move on and start I, Claudius .

[Bookworm_Girl]

I, Cladius reads pretty quickly in comparison to Doctor Zhivago.

I was able to find both the ebook and audiobook for The Samurai's Garden at Scribd. My library had several ebooks by the author but not this one.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I didn’t know Blindness was made into a movie.

It's in English and not Portuguese and stars Julianne Moore. I liked it, though in a quick look on Rotten Tomatoes I see the critics weren't enamoured with it.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

And so the katana falls .

I am equally happy with either, but I had better get a move on and start I, Claudius .

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I, Cladius reads pretty quickly in comparison to Doctor Zhivago.

I agree, and yes especially compared to Zhivago. I listened to both and after the more difficult Pasternak I was a little worried going into an historical book set so long ago, but after a quick round of the author catching us up to speed with all the main personalities and whatnot I, Claudius reads pretty easily in my opinion.

I was able to find both the ebook and audiobook for The Samurai's Garden at Scribd. My library had several ebooks by the author but not this one.

I think I'm going with the audiobook. I should finish the audiobook I'm on today (only 20 minutes left) and then start with the Tsukiyama. I don't necessarily mean to consume all our selections by audiobook nowadays, but I just get through audiobooks so much more quickly on average and that lets me stay on track with our selections so much more easily.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Reading is reading, whether it is with your eyes or ears.

Your feedback on the movie is probably more realistic than the critics.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Reading is reading, whether it is with your eyes or ears.

Very true! The only thing more difficult with listening is marking down notes for our selection if I want to discuss them. I can bookmark a point although it's not as precise as on an ebook. What I sometimes do is pause the audiobook and open my phone's notes and jot down my thought with the audio time stamp.