Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is well and happy. The year is new and hopes are high around here in our corner of paradise. In making my annual 43 Things List, I wanted to include a reading goal so I included, " Read 3 'Top 100' Books." My intention had been to choose from that Modern Library's Top 100 Novels List that was published a few years ago, but Erica thinks we should use my goal in the book club and she doesn't want to be limited entirely by that list. I can be flexible (sometimes). We looked at some lists this morning and agreed to read 3 books together and, as always I invite anyone who wishes to join us and comment here in this blog.

We have chosen:

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - #61 on the Modern Library List
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - # 5 on the Modern Library List
The Picture of Dorian Gray - by Oscar Wilde

Willa Cather is up first. My personal goal is to finish this book by the end of February. Hope to see you here.

Cath 22- Final thoughts

I have always wanted to read Catch-22, and so it was my suggestion for the book club. Many people have told me that I would really like/enjoy this book. I am not sure like or enjoy is quite the right word. Unlike Laura, my experience with war vets are from my grandparents and thus a little removed. Of course, they were both World War II vets. Because of this, most stories of the "good war" are all very positive. I enjoyed the unique perspective of this dark comedy. I found it amusing, and I can only imagine the outrage when the book was first published. It may be my slightly cynical nature, but the description of bureaucracy and weariness was very refreshing. Yossarian's belief that everyone is trying to kill him,the major with no known first name, and the god awful parades all paint a picture of the futility, selfishness, and the humor of war. There were no pure heroes or even heroic figures, and people did the right things for the wrong reasons. Finally, the phrase "it's a Catch-22" means so much more to me now. It is part of our everyday vernacular, but reading the full origins makes it mean so much more. OK, I am going to have to say it----I guess I did enjoy the book.

I can't wait for the next book.

Catch-22 Wrap up

I have now read more books about war than I ever dreamed. Through this book club I have read War & Peace, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Catch-22, and for my Adult Book Discussion I have read Season of Betrayal, Three Day Road and Resistance: A Novel.

War, the portrayal of war, and the perception of war through the "entertainment" media are all very personal. My father was in Vietnam between my 3rd and 4th birthdays and my impression of that time was my mother constantly crying. I'm sure that wasn't true, but when he walked through the gate into the Ultra 70s purple-painted waiting room of the airport on Easter Sunday to come home to us, I knew everything would finally be okay for our family. Over time, however, I couldn't help but be influenced by my experience of other vets and shattered families. We were fortunate that my father weathered his experience and came home with a Bronze Star, a volleyball scar, and photographs he readily shared with us. When I watch Vietnam movies, however, I feel anguish. The filmakers are able to tap into that part of me that knows I am the happy product of a successful Vietnam return that easily could have gone the other way.

Until recently, my only exposure to war-related "entertainment" had been film and TV shows, not books. I wasn't sure I could be moved by books. After All Quiet we commented on the power such a tiny book held. While there were some highly comical moments in Catch-22, I find I am mostly just saddened by the futility of the war effort and the death. I couldn't find it funny even though I know it's a black comedy. The scenario seems too believable, too current, perhaps that's the problem. I appreciated the absurdity of the Syndicate and Milo's complex distribution schemes and Major Major's refusal to see anyone. I look forward to seeing how the book translates into film, it's in my Netflix queue.

Ulysses

I finished Joyce's "masterpiece" a few weeks ago, and I finally put some thoughts together. I did not like the book, and it was not only because it was very difficult to read. I mean, yes, I needed spark notes and annotations. I found the book to be quite boring (except for the last 40 pages). More importantly, I did not like any of the characters. It turns out that I am like the tv station USA- characters welcome! I am proud that I read it, but I would not recommend the book. War and Peace was soooo much better. I may write more later, but for now, I am looking forward to Catch-22.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, Book Club enthusiasts. The deal was Ulysses and then Catch-22. Well, we successfully completed the task of reading Joyce by Christmas so with the new year comes Heller. Next week we start Catch-22. Please join us.

Mission Accomplished

Last night I finished the book. I wasn't sure I could do it, but Ulysses by Christmas is a reality. I feel good for having made it through the book, but I recognize that as soon as I finished I immediately turned to the annotations and 2 different books of notes for clues. My ability to pronounce all of the words far exceeded my ability to understand them as grouped. In the end, however, I achieved the goal of reading Ulysses, all of it.

The End is in Sight

If you ever want to put off doing something just say, 'let me finish this sentence..." and then pick up Ulysses for the last sentence. I'm there now and will be for 40+ more pages. This last sentencesection (I can be Joycean, too) is devoid of punctuation, including apostrophes and periods. Jeepers Thats all I can say about that you can believe it you sure can Oh my goodness

I expect to finish the book tonight and then read the notes to learn what the book was about. Did I really read the book or pronounce words to myself in my head? I'll let you know once I finish the notes.

Halftime

Today I made it to the halfway point of Ulysses. I still feel like I'm slogging through the snow, uphill, but today I made it to the top of the mountain. So...I get the politics of a free Ireland; my whole life I have listened to this. In fact, I can't get behind the drink Black and Tan if it is composed as Guinness and Bass Ale. Another major theme seems to be antisemitism. Terrific, two things I understand! Right before the halfway point there were a couple of sections consisting primarily of lists. While I'm sure the annotations will explain how this was great literature, I was reminded of my writing assignments in grade school when I incorporated the entire required vocabulary list into 1 or 2 sentences. Here's one of my greatest hits:
"The pink chair sat on the red rug in a room that included..." then I would list whatever other nouns, etc. could possibly fit. Cheating or Joycean?

On and On

The calendar tells me it is December and my tabbed copy of Ulysses tells me I am in trouble. I fear I may not make the goal of Ulysses by Christmas. Four tabs down, seven to go. Those Dedalus chapters are killer or should I say "chaptersarekiller" and start crafting my own faux compound words? I know I can do this but I digressed with a detour into Stieg Larsson, so I lost a little time. Maybe if I apply myself...

Part II

I never thought I'd say it, but Ulysses is getting better. Having reached Part II, The Bloom section, I am much relieved! I know almost all of the words, it is predominately in English, there is punctuation, and the text is most like a novel. Fancy that! By using the Gifford Annotated, e-notes with my e-version at home, and Cliffs Notes, I may get through this by Christmas. My goal is to make it to the first tab of Part II during dinner.

First 25

I have read the first 25 pages of Ulysses, more by the time I am actually typing this. In truth, then, I am reading Ulysses. I eagerly await the day when I can say, "I have read Ulysses" because this undertaking is no beach read. My annotated volume arrived, much to my relief, and I have gone back through the notes of what I have read to get current. Jeepers! I'm reminded of some of my uncle's poetry. The poems were so word/idea complex that his footnotes ran for many more pages than the poems themselves.

I keep reminding myself that our patron read it so I should be able to. I mentioned to Erica that there were words I didn't know and proper nouns that I wasn't sure if they were people or places. Finally I saw the word, "valise" and was so excited..."suitcase...it means suitcase!!!" I know a word!!! This will be a long voyage, I fear.

So it begins...

How do we tackle Ulysses? When we read War & Peace we broke the book down into each small section and tabbed it with Post-It note pieces. Having frequent stopping points to mark progress was a good way to approach a daunting novel. We are using a similar approach with Ulysses. We marked off natural stopping points within the formal sections. Ulysses will still be difficult, I expect. The annotation books should arrive from amazon.com any day now. Have I ever read Ulysses? No, but I've read the first 3 pages.

New Season!!

Time flies and I can't believe how long it has been since I posted anything to this blog. Inactivity is the kiss of death to a blog so it's a good thing this a singular purpose blog. The virtual leaves are changing here in SW Florida and it is time to do our Fall/Winter online book discussion. Once again I reminded Erica that our patron, David, has powered his way through more of the Modern Library top 100 novels than we have.

So...having conquered War & Peace, I have set the challenge to read the Modern Library's #1 pick, James Joyce's Ulysses. Erica was not, at first, convinced until I told her it was only 258 pages (gigantic lie, she's very gullible). Once she learned the truth, the deal we struck is that we will read Ulysses now, followed by Joseph Heller's Catch-22.

We will be reading the novel accompanied by the Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses [Revised and Expanded Edition], which I bought from amazon.com. The reviews I read indicated that in order to understand/appreciate this book we need annotations. Just as we did with War & Peace, we are tabbing the book at intervals to give us good stopping points and to help give a sense of progress. The goal is Ulysses by Christmas.

Please join us in this book, if you would like. Feel free to comment without reading, as you wish. We have no idea how we will do. Will we enjoy it, get it, understand the fuss? The beauty of not reading Ulysses for a literature class is that if we struggle, we struggle; we will finish, however!

Comments

Recently this blog along with two others I write have been plagued by Anonymous comments that are irrelevant to the associated posts. To combat these spam-like contributions, I have changed the settings on the blog to require registration for anyone wishing to comment. I apologize for any inconvenience this requirement may cause.

I still love 1984

It has been a little over a decade since I read 1984. I am a huge Orwell fan and have read many if not most of his works. I read 1984 way after that year...it was in the mid 90s when I was assigned this reading. I remember a deep sense of dread and impending doom. I understand it more now than when I was in high school. I believe that it is something I should probably read every 10 years.

Personally, I find it very amusing how everyone uses the term 1984 these days but many people do not understand the full scope of the novel. They just say "Big Brother" as if 1984 is solely about loss of privacy and having government involved in your life. It is about so much more...it is about individualism and totalitarianism, information freedom and control, torture both psychological and physical, as well as the importance of language. I read this book and I think of North Korea. How the government controls information and you hear about North Koreans who escape are shocked that the rest of the world is not like NK and everything they ever learned was wrong.

In essence, I still love 1984 even though my heart hurts when I read it. So I will end my post with 3 words...Information IS power!

In the End

Last weekend I finished the book. In my old insomnia days, I used to fall asleep to tapes and one of my favorites (before I had all of the Prairie Home Companions) was a BBC Radio production of 1984. Reading the book after all of these years was interesting because I could hear the radio actors' voices speaking many of the lines in my head. I am also curious to see the film again, not having seen it since it was released in 1984. What's to say about this book? I like the term "negative utopia," I prefer Brave New World, and I was reminded how much I don't like gin. Anyone care to weigh in on anything?

Big Brother

Lori brings up "Big Brother" and that makes me think about the idea that there was a time when Big Brother wasn't a concept. Now, we all have an idea of it and there is even a reality show with that name for our amusement. A frightening symbol of totalitarianism is a pop cultural reference. What would Orwell make of that?

Arrival of Books

I know our books have arrived and some of us have begun reading. I just received a book to review from Library Journal so as soon as I get that review in I will start 1984. Perhaps to get in the swing of posting again and to get our discussion going, we could write some posts about the title. Our group is spread across a couple of age clusters. Some of us were aware of the book long before we read it and, at the same time, the actual year 1984 was far (or very far) in the future). For others, the year had passed by the time the book was read. I imagine that one's perspective is altered by that. I am in the far (but not very far) in the future group. Thoughts?

It's a Little Dusty!

This blog is a little dusty. Our group has not been on this blog for some time and time has a way of ticking along even when we pay attention to other things. Happily, however, we will be regrouping and making some additions for another session of online book discussing. While I was visiting the Mouse, members of our team tossed about some titles and settled on George Orwell's 1984. I'm sure one of the things we will discuss is how much in the future that title seemed when we first became aware of it, and now it is 25 years in the past. I look forward to seeing where this blog goes, especially as some of have more blogging experience now than when we first attempted it.

I could really go for Silent Spring! Anyone else weighing in?