100 Years of Solitude

I have begun the book...and I am jumping ship. I'm not even following the Pearl rule, either. Turns out, I don't like magical realism and I don't get this book. The other Garcia Marquez book I read, Memories of My Melancholy Whores was not that great and I know this is on all sorts of lists. Several people I know hold this as one of their favorite books. Perhaps there is something wrong with me. However, I did read and enjoy War and Peace so I am capable of tackling literature not just genre fiction. Bottom line...thumbs down on Garcia Marquez, so far, for me. The rest of you can decide to read it or join Sally and me in our escape pod.

Couldn't Agree More!

Oh Infobabe, I've been lamenting our choice of OBOC since the day I saw it on the ballot. As far as I'm concerned, recommending a limited interest book like this for a community read is no better than answering all of our reference questions using Wikipedia!! It's an embarassment and, I feel, a misuse of our reputation as "go to" people.

Yes, yes, I know that I teach in the Readers' Advisory workshop that we never make judgments about people's reading habits but......with all the wonderful, tragic, uplifting, soul searching literature out there I feel we really dropped the ball on this one. To add insult to injury, Florida Roadkill did not meet the qualifications for placement on the ballot.

The upside is that, according to my "podmate," who's on the Programming Committee, the procedures for choosing OBOC will change next year. I highly recommend The Book Thief.

All that said, I've got to admit that 100 Years of Solitude sure hasn't gotten my motor running yet. I'll stick to the Rule of 50.

One Book One Community

I know we are meant to be discussing 100 Years but most book clubs digress and I really want to get something off my chest to my fellow bookies...I have been rereading Florida Roadkill in preparation for the book discussion I am leading next month. I read the book when it was first published and I went to a panel discussion he was on at ALA a couple of years ago. Since the first book, I have read and enjoyed the next several (I'm a few behind). When the One Book nominations were announced, I was worried about the potential book discussion that would result from a Florida Roadkill win. I stuffed our ballot box in an attempt to stave off that possibility. Alas, my efforts failed and here I sit on the brink of what I feel might be a disaster. My spin through the book this time fills me dread not laughter. At my regular book discussion on Wednesday my group wanted to ask me about Florida Roadkill and we spent 10 minutes on it before we moved onto the actual book for this month. They could not get into the book, did not understand or like Serge, and did not understand why this book was chosen. So many people will pick up the book because "we said so" and are not going to know what hit them. This book is a specialty book with fairly narrow appeal. It's like picking a vampire book or The Shining. Roadkill is not a soul-enhancing book or a shoulda like we are doing here. I'm hoping that I have some Dorsey fans or people who liked the travelogue aspects, but otherwise I think there's going to be a lot of 'splainin' to do, Lucy.

This is great!

I've got a copy at home and the minute I finish my book discussion book, which you can read about on my blog, I'll begin 100 years. Thanks guys. I think this format is totally right for book discussions and I'm really loving it.
We really need to consider doing one for the public - a link from our homepage. I think Sheldon would love it. Maybe after the first of the year?

Variety

I have my copy of 100 Year but I will not be able to start it just yet. There are a couple of other books that need to clear first. Thanks LJ and One-Book-One Community (and my own book discussions)! Please feel free to continue to post comments about In Cold Blood if you wish. Just because we have moved on to another book does not mean that previous books are off limits, by the way. This space is totally free form.

Decided

Let's read 100 Years of Solitude. There are quite a few copies in the library system so we should all be able to borrow it. Begin and post at will. Thank you for participating.