MobileRead December 2010 Book Club Nominations

[bokolobs]

i recommend:

A Sportsman's Sketches by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8597
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8744

There is something christmassy about this book for me, sitting up in bed with a scotch or coffee on the night stand while devouring the short pieces. i read it every year.

“The first of Turgenev’s masterpieces . . . A Sportman’s Notebook conveys the vastness and beauty of rural Russia. It shows also the eccentricity, cruelty and nobility of many of its inhabitants . . . [Turgenev] was a careful writer, alive to each nuance of language and subtlety of style.”
—from the Introduction by Max Egremont

and also, @dreams The Brothers Karamazov for Christmas?! Really?! Not unless you want to compound your depression and finally kill yourself. Respect..

[dreams]

Originally Posted by bokolobs

i recommend:
A Sportsman's Sketches by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev <snip>

added to above nominations in post #7

Originally Posted by bokolobs

and also, @dreams The Brothers Karamazov for Christmas?! Really?! Not unless you want to compound your depression and finally kill yourself. Respect..

Hey, I just keep track of nominations and put in links.

[adityadubey]

I recommend:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1400

Charles Dickens is one of my favourite writers and the first person who comes to mind when some one says the word "classics". In Great Expectations we have the story of Pip, an orphan being raised in a working class background by his sister and her husband. He is set on course to become a well off gentleman by a mystery benefactor. On his journey from childhood to adult life he encounters many facets of human society and life, including a strange love and learns what truly matters in life.

The narrative is in the first person and really pulls you into the story. It has some of Dicken's best crafted and complex characters and is full of vividly described scenes and landscapes from the countryside to Victorian London, which create great atmosphere. The first line:

"My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip."

[doreenjoy]

I second "Call of the Wild" by Jack London

[doreenjoy]

I also second "Great Expectations."

[lila55]

I nominate "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins. Available for free in these places.

"Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked rooms and locked asylums, and an unorthodox villain made this mystery thriller an instant success when it first appeared in 1860, and it has continued to enthrall readers ever since. From the hero’s foreboding before his arrival at Limmeridge House to the nefarious plot concerning the beautiful Laura, the breathtaking tension of Collins’s narrative created a new literary genre of suspense fiction, which profoundly shaped the course of English popular writing." (Amazon)

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by basschick

walden sounds good to me!

It's also available on MR as an ePub, though the ePub also has six other essays as well.

Regards, Alex

Sorry, my mistake. I was thinking of Civil Disobedience and other essays.

I apologise for any inconvenience.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by lila55

I nominate "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins. Available for free in these places.

"Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked rooms and locked asylums, and an unorthodox villain made this mystery thriller an instant success when it first appeared in 1860, and it has continued to enthrall readers ever since. From the hero’s foreboding before his arrival at Limmeridge House to the nefarious plot concerning the beautiful Laura, the breathtaking tension of Collins’s narrative created a new literary genre of suspense fiction, which profoundly shaped the course of English popular writing." (Amazon)

Also available as an ePub on MR

Regards, Alex

[dreams]

Nominations updated in post #7.

[lene1949]

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

I second "Call of the Wild" by Jack London

I'll third that one..

[lene1949]

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

I also second "Great Expectations."

I'll also third this one..

[lene1949]

For my third I would like to nominate the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas...

From Amazon:

Set against the tumultuous years of the post-Napoleonic era, The Count of Monet Cristo recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantes, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason. The story of his long imprisonment, dramatic escape, and carefully wrought revenge offers up a vision of France that has become immortal.

ETA... To me this is the greatest classic of all times... I read it probably 4 years ago on my Palm Zire 72, and would love to read it again on a larger reader.

[adityadubey]

Originally Posted by lene1949

the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas...

I Second that one

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by twobits

Good enough!

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

One of the great books of American letters and a masterpiece of reflective philosophizing. Accounts of Thoreau's daily life on the shores of Walden Pond outside Concord, Massachusetts, are interwoven with musings on the virtues of self-reliance and individual freedom, on society, government, and other topics.

Originally Posted by basschick

walden sounds good to me!

Originally Posted by dreams

Is this a 3rd for this book?

I'm updating nominations in post #7.

Just to be sure, I'll third Walden.

I'll also add a second for The Brothers Karamazov.

[adityadubey]

Hmm, and I shall third "The Brothers Karmazov" as well. There, done with my votes, now I can get back to reading all of these
This is gonna be one difficult poll to vote on.