Literary An Unusual Viewpoint • May 2019

[sun surfer]

My last votes go to-

1 to My Name is Red
1 to The Sound and the Fury

[sun surfer]

Initial voting is complete and we have a six-way tie!!!!!! I believe this is a first for any of the clubs here and a record in the forum for the largest tie. The tie is between:

-The Sound and the Fury
-The Woman in White
-Pnin
-Historia Calamitatum
-My Name is Red
-The Hunchback of Notre-Dame


Run-off voting is now open!

Voting will close exactly TWO DAYS from this post.

Each person has FIVE votes to use.

If the run-off also happens to end in a tie, the selection that received all its votes first will win. This means that the order of votes in a post could prove pivotal.

[AnotherCat]

I'll try to get it right this time (which does not mean that I tried to get it wrong last time )

The Sound and the Fury - 2

The Woman in White - 2

My Name is Red - 1

[sun surfer]

Having such great older classics nominated is tilting my hand in regard to voting, but with this group I don’t think we can go wrong and I’ll really be happy with any of the nominations winning. My votes:

-2 to The Woman in White
-2 to Historia Calamitatum
-1 to The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

[Spinnenmonat]

2 to Historia Calamitatum
2 to Pnin

[Bookworm_Girl]

I don’t mind reading any of these so the decision is tough.

My votes are:
Woman in White - 2
Hunchback of Notre Dame - 1
My Name is Red - 1

[sun surfer]

Run-off voting is complete and now we can make official what I think we’ve known for a day- the winner is The Woman in White!

This marks only the second time we’ve ever chosen a selection previously chosen by the general club, and the first in almost eight years (the first, A Passage to India, was selected by a Lottery winner in the club’s beginning).

This is also the longest selection we’ve chosen in a long time. I think it’s the longest chosen since I started posting page counts for each nominee, which has been awhile. We have had selections in the past that were probably longer (off the top of my head, I’m looking at you, Middlemarch) but not in awhile. The Woman in White is almost as long as our other four selections this year combined. Nevertheless, it looks like an easy enough read which can make it go by more quickly.

I’ll have the discussion thread up soon.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I read this book in 2008 but don’t remember much about it other than that I really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to rereading it. I’m pretty sure that even though it’s long it was a quick read.

[sun surfer]

Ah, I didn't know anyone here had read it already! If I knew that I might've voted a little differently, but it seems like you didn't mind since you didn't talk about it until the vote was over.

I'm glad it's a quicker read since I can be a slower reader. I've been getting audiobooks in faster recently because of a lot of daily work travel but I think I'm going to try The Woman in White in ebook. I'm over 75% done with Journey without Maps in ebook and would like to finish that first but I don't want to wait more than a few days before starting this one so if I don't complete Journey very soon I may put it on hold to get on the Collins.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I think this may be the first time the Lit Club has selected a book that I’ve already read so it’s not a big deal. I sincerely don’t mind reading it again since I don’t remember it! I just know I really liked it. I have also read his book Moonstone and really liked that too. I can remember more about that book. I’m terrible at remembering details about books and especially movies. I started keeping a book journal this year in the hopes that recording general thoughts and some key details will make it easier to remember in the future. We’ll see how that goes!

[gmw]

A book journal has certainly made a difference to me ... I've been keeping one for about 12 years now. I have been fascinated to discover how my memory and my journal sometimes part ways over some books.

I, too, really enjoyed The Woman in White and The Moonstone. Not only is the perspective a little different in these books, but the whole structure, indeed, sometimes even the sentence structure, is unusual to a modern eye (Collins sometimes gets a bit adventurous with his punctuation). I think it was for this reason I didn't find the books particularly fast reads, but I was very impressed with how he made each narrator seem real and individual.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I wonder if I thought it read quickly because I read it rather voraciously. I really remember the “experience” of reading it for some reason more so than the content. Maybe it will come back as I read.

That’s great feedback on the book journaling, gmw. I wish I had started sooner. I’m learning as I go what type of details I want to include. Also I came up with a rating system that evaluates different characteristics to help me further remember. For example, I have settled on rating plot, character, writing, pacing, enjoyability and insightfulness. It is making me pause and reflect on a book that I’ve read rather than just moving on to the next item.

[gmw]

Yes, keeping a journal is very much learning what you need as you go, because everyone will be different. As your last sentence almost says, it's the sitting down and thinking about the book later that's the important part, actually writing down your thoughts in a journal is almost an optional extra - but I would not have the discipline without the journal to enforce it.

One thing I found works well for me is placing a hard limit on how much I write. Since I am such a naturally verbose person, this really makes me think hard about what was important. (It's also good practise for my own writing.) It has the added advantage of making it more likely I will re-read the entries .

[sun surfer]

The discussion thread is up!

Originally Posted by gmw

I, too, really enjoyed The Woman in White and The Moonstone. Not only is the perspective a little different in these books, but the whole structure, indeed, sometimes even the sentence structure, is unusual to a modern eye (Collins sometimes gets a bit adventurous with his punctuation). I think it was for this reason I didn't find the books particularly fast reads, but I was very impressed with how he made each narrator seem real and individual.

Thanks for the insight. I'm looking forward to the book and it'll be my first Collins. The read seems like it could take some time but that's one of the psychological advantages of ebooks for me- my kindle has the same heft no matter the length of the book so once I'm in a story it's easier to forget about how much more there is to go.

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I came up with a rating system that evaluates different characteristics to help me further remember. For example, I have settled on rating plot, character, writing, pacing, enjoyability and insightfulness. It is making me pause and reflect on a book that I’ve read rather than just moving on to the next item.

That's a good idea Bookworm_Girl. I wonder if it could even be transferred to the book club setting where we could give our opinions on various aspects of the monthly selections.