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

New Choices

When we were gathering ideas that eventually led to One Hundred Years I had some other thoughts. I have mentioned before that I never read my assignments in school so many of the classics passed me by. Additionally, I acknowledge, as I did with In Cold Blood, that some books on my list might have been read by some of you as popular fiction at the time of release. That said, here are my new ideas in no particular order:

• Ulysses by James Joyce
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (I'm very interested in her), obviously non-fiction
• Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

I welcome other thoughts.

Post the List

Hi all, I'm back. It was an extremely "eventful" trip - between illness and theft. But I am nothing if not a good sport and still managed to have a fabulous time. Luckily we had all Canadians at our table on the cruise so we were able to have some VERY interesting political discussions!
So, I haven't blogged and am feeling a little disoriented today as I spent most of the day filling out forms for lost cards, license, etc. (not to mention deleting the 250 some emails that were totally irrelevant!)
Let's see your list Infobabe. I'm ready to try again.

Back to the Drawing Board

Okay...so magical realism didn't float my magical boat. I have a long list of books that never read. What do you want to read? Let's try again.

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.