Would Anyone Be Interested in a "Book of the ___" Reading? Nominations?

[Original Alear]

First off, I should say that if we actually do this, I would expect to do it in the entertainment subsection, but I wanted to see if I could grab some attention here since this seems like the best place to catch people's attention.

Anyway, I'm curious if anyone would want to read a book of our collective choice for fun. Hopefully a non-serial book which isn't too long (yeah, I'd love to read my copy of War and Peace but I'm not going to make you guys come with me on that one unless someone else noms it).

The commitment would not be too great, maybe 100 pages a week (or a set of chapters not much greater/less than that if the book is so subdivided). Or it can be less if you guys feel that is too much - for all I care we can do a chapter a week.

We can also discuss our methodology for discussing the book - I could make an opening post each week since I am the person who started it, or we could have someone else do it since you hate me, or we could have a different person do it each week and I'll sub in if someone falters (no pressure!). Presumably, our discussions from one section would build off of prior sections, but who knows? We might get lost (I doubt it though...)!

If we don't get at least 5 people interested in this, I'll probably cut my losses.

If you're interested, post here, and nominate one book of your choice. Make it something that's still in print and available on amazon or barnes and noble or something so I don't need to go on alibris or somewheres and wait too long for it to be sent here (or rather, NJ). By...Wednesday of next week I'll make a voting topic if interest seems high enough. We might do an elimination round and a finals round if we get a lot of entries.

Anyway, for my part I'm nominating The Fifth Head of Cerberus, by Gene Wolfe, a series of three novellas, each with a style all its own. I'm just going to cite the amazon summary since it's more interesting than what I could muster:

A brothel keeper's sons discuss genocide and plot murder; a young alien wanderer is pursued by his shadow double; and a political prisoner tries to prove his identity, not least to himself. Gene Wolfe's first novel consists of three linked sections, all of them elegant broodings on identity, sameness, and strangeness, and all of them set on the vividly evoked colony worlds of Ste. Croix and Ste. Anne, twin planets delicately poised in mutual orbit. Marsch, the victim in the third story, is the apparent author of the second and a casual visitor whose naïve questions precipitate tragedy in the first. The sections dance around one another like the planets of their settings. Clones, downloaded personalities inhabiting robots, aliens that perhaps mimicked humans so successfully that they forgot who they were, a French culture adopted by its ruthless oppressors--there are lots of ways to lose yourself, and perhaps the worst is to think that freedom consists of owning other people, that identity is won at the expense of others.

It is easy to be impressed by the intellectual games of Wolfe's stunning book and forget that he is, and always has been, the most intensely moral of SF writers. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk

Oh, and you don't have to nominate a book you've read! And you don't have to nominate.

Oh and no twilight.

[MacLovin]

Are obscure/Anitque books allowed.

[Original Alear]

Umm, I guess, if you can point us to someplace we can get them online (ebook is fine I suppose though I'll probably vote against something that's only available as an ebook unless it's free), and in a large enough supply for interested parties to read them.

I mean, I'll take a look in my local used bookstore but I'm not going on a shopping expedition around all the used bookstores in the NJ/NYC area to find a book.

But considering the lack of replies/views this has gotten I'm guessing we're not going to be doing it.

[Rehab]

I would like to do it, but I'm not sure if I could keep up with getting new books. Your first suggestion sounds cool, I'd like to put forward Journey to the West to force myself to read it. Centuries-old book about an exceptionally intelligent and powerful monkey's adventures and struggles with the fundamental forces of nature. From what little I've gotten through so far, it's very readable.

[Jack of the Dead]

NO

[Original Alear]

I would like to do it, but I'm not sure if I could keep up with getting new books. Your first suggestion sounds cool, I'd like to put forward Journey to the West to force myself to read it. Centuries-old book about an exceptionally intelligent and powerful monkey's adventures and struggles with the fundamental forces of nature. From what little I've gotten through so far, it's very readable.

Since it's a chinese classic, it's very long, and expensive to buy IIRC. I'll accept the nomination anyway and trust voting to vet it, should others prove interested. Frankly, I'd actually be interested in reading it myself. Also it probably has chapter segments.

[Rehab]

Huh, at least a selection of significant chapters translated fit in an average-size paperback the time I had a copy. Yeah, the chapter selections are broken up into fairly tight segments. I don't think it would be too hard to set up, not counting deciding what translation to use.

[MacLovin]

I think its on project Gutenburg.

I'd recommend

Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, or

the Pellicudar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Hametts works can be found on paperback.

E.R. Burroughs works can be found online as e-books, or on paperback/fairly cheap antique editions.

[Original Alear]

Huh, at least a selection of significant chapters translated fit in an average-size paperback the time I had a copy. Yeah, the chapter selections are broken up into fairly tight segments. I don't think it would be too hard to set up, not counting deciding what translation to use.

No way am I doing an abridged version. I guess I could do the full version while others did a partial reading.

I think its on project Gutenburg.

I'd recommend

Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, or

the Pellicudar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Hametts works can be found on paperback.

E.R. Burroughs works can be found online as e-books, or on paperback/fairly cheap antique editions.

These are good suggestions, or so I assume, but like I said, I'd rather limit doing a series. Whatever though, I'm not going to wield dictatorial power on what we read if we read, if people vote for it I'll do the Pellicudar series.

[Rehab]

The thing is that I'm not sure all the chapters have been translated, at least not in the paperback editions. Forcing myself to learn Mandarin to read the rest isn't the worst idea ever, though.

[Original Alear]

The thing is that I'm not sure all the chapters have been translated, at least not in the paperback editions. Forcing myself to learn Mandarin to read the rest isn't the worst idea ever, though.

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Chinese-Classics-Classic-Volumes/dp/7119016636

The top review for this edition says that it's unabridged, and from reading the Three Kingdoms and Bandits of the Marsh editions from this publisher I'm pretty confident they aren't going to stick mandarin in the middle of the book.

[Rehab]

Oh shit, awesome! The only editions I was aware of translated like less than half, only "The most significant sections" or whatever. That's going on the wishlist, either way.

[Original Alear]

Oh shit, awesome! The only editions I was aware of translated like less than half, only "The most significant sections" or whatever. That's going on the wishlist, either way.

Foreign Language Press is awesome indeed, they have translations of all 4 of the great classics available (and maybe that book that used to be one of the 4 great classics too?). Though I'm not sure how great their "Dream of Red Mansions" translation is since everyone seems to translate that as "Chamber."