Book Club
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Feb. 7, 2016, 12:29 a.m. by kyuuri117
I know some of us in the JC3 thread have talked about doing a book club, but as far as I know, no ones started it.
Well, just bought a new book which I hear is quite good, and figured to hell with it, might as well see if you guys are also interested.
If anyone is interested in joining me, the book is "Leviathan Wakes" by James S. A. Corey. My Nook app says it's about 500 pages so I'm giving myself a week and a half to finish it... Around Feb 18th.
If anyone else wants to join me and discuss the book afterwards and thinks that more time is needed, let me know.
Lastly, I've never been in a book club before, as I've never really liked discussing the books I've read, but figured I might as well give it a shot. Needless to say, I know jack shit about organizing this. Anyway, open to suggestions.
Edit 1, Feb 7: Alright so I figure this goes without saying, but no spoilers on this page. When a book is finished, I'll create a new forum and we can discuss it there.
PhotogenicParasympathetic says... #3
I'm in. I've been meaning to read that for a while now, this is a good excuse. Sadly, I've also never been in a book club before, so I dunno what to do. I'll ask around and see if I can come up with some thoughts for organization though!
February 7, 2016 3:56 a.m.
grumbledore says... #4
Fantastic book. Im on the 4th in the series now :)
February 7, 2016 5:13 a.m.
Coinman1863 says... #5
Wow, I didn't think anyone would pick up on the idea a threw around a while back. Thanks for starting, and I'm obviously in!
February 7, 2016 7:39 a.m.
Awesome!
So yea, Inread the first four chapters last night and so far it's been fantastic.
Anyway, I figure the best way to do this is to keep this as a general discussion page for the book club itself. That means keeping this page spoiler free. And then once everyone who wants to has finish d the book, I can create a new forum and put a link here, and we can discuss it there.
February 7, 2016 10:38 a.m.
GeminiSpartanX says... #7
I'd be super interested in joining a book club, since I read all the time as it is already. I'm always looking for new stuff to read.
February 7, 2016 10:57 a.m.
PhotogenicParasympathetic, Coinman1863, GeminiSpartanX Awesome, glad to hear it. You guys think you can finish the book by like, the 17th-20th? Don't want to discourage anyone if they aren't a quick reader, or don't have a lot of free time, so let me know.
scrotality Yea I'm only a few chapters in and I've been hooked since the prologue. Book seems fantastic. When we finish, if you wanna join the discussion, that's fine.
Probably going to choose a different book instead of continuing with the series when we finish this, to make it easier for others who are interested in joining us. We can find a few and vote on what we wanna read.
February 7, 2016 7:43 p.m. Edited.
PhotogenicParasympathetic says... #9
For sure. I'm waiting for my job to start, so I've got plenty of free time right now.
February 7, 2016 7:55 p.m.
grumbledore says... #10
Sure that sounds good. I know it's a bit early to nominate the next book, by id like to suggest 'Revelation Space' by Alastair Reynolds. One of my all time space opera-esque series.
February 7, 2016 8:27 p.m.
GeminiSpartanX says... #11
If I can find a copy soon I'll do it. If not, I'll just jump in for the next one.
February 7, 2016 9:13 p.m.
Coinman1863 says... #12
That timeframe is fine for me as I have already read the book. A reread will be nice. And I got a few ideas for books as well from my original inquiry.
February 7, 2016 9:14 p.m.
Finished the book this afternoon, thought it was pretty awesome.
If anyone else is still reading it, let me know if the 17th as a deadline still works, if you want more time, or if you're all finished.
February 13, 2016 1:58 a.m.
PhotogenicParasympathetic says... #14
I'm not done yet, but im on schedule to finish by the 17th, so it should still work. If I get delayed, I'll let y'all know.
February 13, 2016 2:47 a.m.
Think what I'm gonna do is make another forum, and edit a link to it onto this. So this can be the main hub for general discussion, and each book can have it's own page. Will do it tomorrow.
February 17, 2016 11:03 p.m.
Sorry i've been ignoring this, just have had other things to think about. Do we actually want to do a discussion about Leviathan Wakes or just choose a new book that none of us have read and start from there?
PhotogenicParasympathetic, scrotality, Coinman1863, GeminiSpartanX
February 23, 2016 4:53 p.m.
GeminiSpartanX says... #17
I missed the boat on Leviathan Wakes, but I'm about to finish my current read (Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, for the 2nd time lol), so I'd be up for starting a new one.
February 23, 2016 9:06 p.m.
PhotogenicParasympathetic says... #18
I'd be down to start a new one too.
February 23, 2016 9:22 p.m.
Coinman1863 says... #19
I think now that we got everyone going, I think it would be good to start again.
February 23, 2016 9:26 p.m.
GeminiSpartanX says... #20
So, I picked up a book at my local library yesterday that looks interesting: 'The Accidental Highwayman' by Ben Tripp. I honestly only picked it up because the front cover had review from my favorite author of all time, Brandon Sanderson, on it. Upon first glance, it looks like a really funny light read, that shouldn't take very long to finish. Any interest in choosing this one as the next book? Or did I miss the boat and has another been chosen?
March 2, 2016 9:28 a.m. Edited.
I hadn't even realized that my last post here had been replied to until now, I just get too many notifications and then they get wiped away.
I just looked up "The Accidental Highway Man" and there were a lot of mixed reviews about it. This one stood out the most:
"I picked up this book mostly because of the Brandon Sanderson blurb which states that The Accidental Highwayman is a swashbuckling adventure. This is a complete lie - there are no buckles swashed in this book. Even the title is misleading: The Accidental Highwayman. There is no highwaymanning in this book. At best, our intrepid (and bumbling/boring) hero is gifted the outfit of a highwayman, and flees on a highwaymans horse in chapter 4...and that is the last act of highwaymanship to be had. The rest is flat, fluff, and nonsense, and its all written in "ye olden language."
I dont know who this book is for. One the one hand, the characters and plot are suited for a very young audience: fairies, circuses, nice witches, ladies in distress, wholesome romances, etc. And, unfortunately, many characters speak like - and act like - characters ripped from a 1960s Disney movie. As an adult (even one reading a YA novel), I found it all very mundane and trite. I have a hard time thinking of many adults who would enjoy this story.
On the other hand, Ben Tripp writes his story in a historical (accurate?) writing style - lots of thees and thous and and other vocabulary befitting characters living about 1750. Ben Tripp actually does this very well, but the charm of it wears thin quickly. The language then becomes a barrier that slows the reading down to a trickle. I have a hard time imagining many kids who would slog through the oldie-time language for such a middling story. I've seen some reviewers suggest that this book would be great for 13-16 year olds, but as a high school English teacher who teaches 13-16 year olds, I strongly disagree. Even my most ardent readers would only half enjoy this book. I'm sure they're are exceptions out there, but they're not in my classroom.
...Story too juvenile for adults to enjoy, language barrier to complicated for children to read for fun. So again, I ask, who is this book for?"
--
I mean, the book doesn't look long, if everyone wants to read it we can give it a shot. Most of the positive reviews said the book heavily reminded them of The Princess Bride and Jane Austin novels. Personally, i'd prefer to read something else, but again, if you all want to try this, i'm game.
March 2, 2016 2:14 p.m. Edited.
I do have a couple of suggestions myself. Back in college in an English Lit class, we read a book from Nobel Prize winner Herta Muller, called "The Land of Green Plums". The book is horribly depressing. It's faux-auto-biographical (in the sense the characters we are reading about are fictional, but the author is writing about things she has experienced in real life) about the authors time living in a communist regime, and what she and her friends to do to survive. It's dark, gritty, full of backstabbing and treachery, and very well written.
Another book i've been looking at that's gotten fantastic reviews, but which I have not read, is called "All the Light We Cannot See", by Anthony Doerr. It's a romance story (I think) about a blind French girl and a German soldier that takes place in Occupied France, WW2. It's gotten great reviews, and is currently on the NY Times Best Seller list.
Another book on the NY Times Best Seller list which I've heard great things about is a murder mystery called "The Girl on the Train", by Paula Hawkins. Both this and "All the Light We Cannot See" have been the two best selling books on the Best Seller list for a few months now.
Anyway, do any of these books look interesting to you guys?
March 2, 2016 2:32 p.m. Edited.
GeminiSpartanX says... #23
I'm somewhat of a vocab-nut, ever since I saw someone with a bumper sticker that read 'eschew obfuscation', so it's no wonder why I gravitated to the book I suggested lol. Already I've picked up a few new (*old) descriptive words from it that likely need more use today. I always take online reviews with a grain of salt, as you never need look further than online book reviews to find the most haughty, conceited, condescending egotists available to the internet. It's often laughably easy to criticize the criticisms of people who can't escape the boundaries of their own preferences when it comes to books.
Ranting aside, I'm game for whatever the group decides. I tend to prefer lighter, humorous, or intelligent books more than gritty novels. 'All the Light We Cannot See' would be my preferred choice out of the selection you offered kyuuri117.
kyuuri117 says... #2
If you go to Amazon and look up the Kindle version of the book you can read the prologue. It's what convinced me to buy the book. Very interesting.
February 7, 2016 12:38 a.m. Edited.