Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

You would think that with a half dozen or so of his books we would have that one but the closest I can come is The Mystic Men.

I will continue looking, and if I find it, I am game. :)

I do like reading Calvino, but is one of those writers who makes you as a reader work, which is nor necessarily a bad thing .... but like "Satin island" which recently read .....

I think we must definitely make a plan to read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler .

Traveller wrote: "I think we must definitely make a plan to read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler ."

I would love to tag along.

Looks like a poll is in order. I'll do one shortly. :)

Traveller wrote: "I think we must definitely make a plan to read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler ."

I finished reading it ~10 days ago, my head's still spinning, and I can't yet figure out how to review it. A discussion would be fascinating, I'm sure.

Hmmm... I wonder.. shall we just skip the poll and decide to do a discussion? (With the proper announcements, of course) Or, we could always do a poll with it and 2 or 3 other really crappy books in the poll. XD (Problem tho if a crappy book wins... :P)

Starting, say... early November?
Grr, if only my October running into start of November wasn't so busy!

I just finished High-Rise. I am still not sure if I can say that I liked it. I feel kinda dirty. Like I have been with the worst kind of people and I can't get clean. I am surprised how aspects of the book really bothered me.

Jennifer wrote: "I just finished High-Rise. I am still not sure if I can say that I liked it. I feel kinda dirty. Like I have been with the worst kind of people and I can't get clean. I am surprised..."

Hi Jennifer! How nice to see you posting here. :) Oh, the J.G. Ballard book. Yeah, I keep wanting to read JG Ballard and then - well, I had actually started High-Rise twice and put it down again.

Another novel which i have been toying with wanting to read, but feeling repelled by some of the apparent contents, is The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks.

However, the worst book i have ever picked up to date, (and never got past the first chapter) has been a book named Hogg by Samuel R. Delany. Yuckety-yuck yuck, is all I can say to that one!

Traveller wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "I just finished High-Rise. I am still not sure if I can say that I liked it. I feel kinda dirty. Like I have been with the worst kind of people and I can't get clea..."

I read the The Wasp Factory. I didn't like it. And maybe I am dense...but I didn't get until the end and even then it all kinda went over my head. Or maybe I didn't care.

I read The Drowned World and it was very cerebral. But I liked the world in was in.

Marita wrote: "Cecily, I read 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveller' years ago and loved it. I still remember chuckling away as I read."

Why don't you join in on our November discussion of it?

Jennifer wrote: "I read The Drowned World and it was very cerebral. But I liked the world in was in.."

Looks very interesting, especially in view of the current climate change debate. Added it.;)

Traveller, I very much hope that Hogg isn't your only foray into Delaney. It's a very determined outlier.

I really must read High-Rise, though -- Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition, is probably his most world-remaking and astonishing, but High-Rise really needs to be the next I read I think. So thanks for the reminder!

(Hello all, I seem to have just been pulled into this conversation long after it began, but I will jump in and out as I can!)

I am usually a big fan of Banks, though I haven't read The Wasp Factory yet.

Ruth wrote: "I am usually a big fan of Banks, though I haven't read The Wasp Factory yet."

Nate D wrote: "Traveller, I very much hope that Hogg isn't your only foray into Delaney. It's a very determined outlier.

I really must read High-Rise, though -- Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition, is probably his..."

Hi Nate! How lovely to see you popping up here!
I know Delaney is good, and I might have read some of his other fiction that I can't remember, but Hogg really put me off him. However, I am willing to try his other work, of course, especially if I get any firm recommendation.

@ Ruth and Nate: I see that other "polymath"/eclectic reader groups have 2 discussions a month that they divide between genres. We've been thinking of splitting this group in a similar manner into 2 sections: mainly a lit-fic section and mainly a speculative/SF section, since that seems to be where the group's interests mainly lie, and where most of my own fiction interests lie.

Then we can discuss relatively controversial authors like Ballard, Banks, Delaney, Palanuik, Rice Burroughs, Bret Easton Ellis etc. in the 'speculative' section...

I read bank's culture series and really liked his books.

Nate D wrote: "I really must read High-Rise, though -- Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition, is probably his most world-remaking and astonishing,"

The Atrocity Exhibition is certainly astonishing. It could make for a really good discussion, though trigger warnings might be required. (Personally, I was unable to finish it: too many mentions of rape, often with an apologist slant.)

Cecily wrote: "Nate D wrote: "I really must read High-Rise, though -- Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition, is probably his most world-remaking and astonishing,"

The Atrocity Exhibition is certainly astonishing. It..."

The sex in the later part of High-Rise, made me think that it was rape and not consensual at all.

Thanks for the invitation, Traveler! As far as Delaney goes, Dhalgren makes the best case as essential 20th century lit (see Aubrey's recent 5-star review!), or Babel-17 for fast sci-fi entertainment (that's also very smart and about linguistics!). Hogg was really only something I was able to approach once I had a wider view of where he was coming from, in ficton and nonfiction, and even then, it seems designed as an act of total frustration and nihilism, and reader horror and revulsion seems to be the intended effect.

I'd like to counterbalance these a bit with something less intense: I think everyone should read Leonora Carrington's stories. Her geriatric adventure novel The Hearing Trumpet turned up in another group recently, and it's splendid, but the stories in The Seventh Horse And Other Tales are even better. Especially The Stone Door, which occurs both there, and as a longer novel soon to be re-printed by Exact Change.

She was a capital-S Surrealist who eloped with Max Ernst as a teen and painted into her 90s in Mexico, so she's probably not for everyone, but her storytelling has a fairytale clarity, sense of purpose, and humor that many of her contemporaries had less of a handle on.

Nate D wrote: "Thanks for the invitation, Traveler! As far as Delaney goes, Dhalgren makes the best case as essential 20th century lit (see Aubrey's recent 5-star review!), or Babel-17 for fast sci-fi entertainme..."

Thanks for all the recommendations! I wonder if there are any good stories in The Oval Lady, Other Stories: Six Surreal Stories

Irony: Because I read The End of Alice, GR recommends Hogg , which I have never heard of the book or the author, until I saw it/him mentioned here. And GR, just because I read The End of Alice does not mean I really want to read "more like it". And I can say I will pass on Hogg.

Jennifer wrote: "Irony: Because I read The End of Alice, GR recommends Hogg , which I have never heard of the book or the author, until I saw it/him mentioned here. And GR, just because I ..."

:) Yeah...
You know, my GR pages tend to have so much clutter that I more often than not, look right past those rec's without even noticing them, but I have had a few howlers with the "Read 'this' because you have 'that' on your shelf "....

Anyway, from people's reactions, I don't know if I'd have the guts to read The End of Alice, but on the other hand, the curious cat inside me needs to know...

Traveller wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "Irony: Because I read The End of Alice, GR recommends Hogg , which I have never heard of the book or the author, until I saw it/him mentioned here. And GR..."

I am glad I did. Really. It was a very uncomfortable read. But one that is important. I just don't know how much of...that kind of perspective I can read. I have been considering reading Tampa, for like over a year now...

Traveller wrote: "Nate D wrote: "Thanks for the invitation, Traveler! As far as Delaney goes, Dhalgren makes the best case as essential 20th century lit (see Aubrey's recent 5-star review!), or Babel-17 for fast sci..."

Oh absolutely. That is, I think, just about her earliest work, but it serves as a rapid microcosm of what she does so well. Though I don't think it's even remotely in print, besides being contained within the copy of he collection House of Fear that I managed to find at the library.

Nate D wrote: "Oh absolutely. That is, I think, just about her earliest work, but it serves as a rapid microcosm of what she does so well. Though I don't think it's even remotely in print, besides being contained within the copy of he collection House of Fear that I managed to find at the library.
..."

Hm. I asked you about that book, because that is the only work of hers that I actually could find at my own library. (It's out though.) But I asked for it, and apparently it's coming in soon, so that's good. :)
Thanks!

That's actually amazing that yo have a copy on hand. Nice find.

I really liked Seveneves, but Stephenson is one of my very favorites, i think it's not as good as Reamde or Anathem but it still made me think. IMO Quicksilver is not the place to start, he gets very verbose in it, I'd start with Crytocomicom.

If the Robinson you were talking about above is Kim Stanley, his Mars books are phenomenal, starting with Red Mars.

Nate D wrote: "That's actually amazing that yo have a copy on hand. Nice find."
Oh goodie!

Lori (Hellian) wrote: "I really liked Seveneves, but Stephenson is one of my very favorites, i think it's not as good as Reamde or Anathem but it still made me think. IMO Quicksilver is not the place to start, he gets ve..."

Most of us have already read some Neil Stephenson or other, though. The reason I've been wanting to do Quicksilver, is because of the history of science aspect, but meh, I realize the book is not really suited for a group discussion, because of it being so long. I suspect such a discussion would soon fizzle out...

We -did- finish Foucault's Pendulum by Eco, though, so... you never know! :P

Yea sorry I kinda jumped in without reading all the previous posts I got so excited to see my favorites. Quicksilver is a ton of fun and I learned a ton of science, and never knew Newton was so into alchemy.

Darn I still have yet to read Foucault's Pendulem, sorry I missed the discussion.

Here is my review of shadow of torturer one of the most complex books in fantasy/sci fi.

Sumant wrote: "Here is my review of shadow of torturer one of the most complex books in fantasy/sci fi."

Whoooo! I am so glad someone mentioned that! The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe has been one of my fave story cycles for the longest time, and I would sell my pinkie nail to have us do a discussion of that! ;)

I read it so long ago and still have clear images from it. Agree, it is a cycle worthy of discussion!

Lori (Hellian) wrote: "I read it so long ago and still have clear images from it. Agree, it is a cycle worthy of discussion!"

Very happy to hear that indeed! How fortunate that you joined the group, Lori! :D

Traveller wrote: "Lori (Hellian) wrote: "I read it so long ago and still have clear images from it. Agree, it is a cycle worthy of discussion!"

Very happy to hear that indeed! How fortunate that you joined the gro..."

Really excited to do a group read for Books of new sun.

In that case, we need to set a date for Book of the New Sun! ^_^

Traveller wrote: "In that case, we need to set a date for Book of the New Sun! ^_^"

True that!

People, } here { is our rough schedule for the next few months - would you like me to make any alterations to it before I send it out as a newsletter?

I am good for Fahrenheit 451 and Books of new sun.

Good to hear, Sumant! I'll try and make BOTNS for early-ish in 2016 then.

Hmm, I've been looking at the schedule, which I had composed completely out of member's suggestions, and it seems a bit on the 'dark' side to me? I've been thinking that we should perhaps try and lighten it up with something less.... you know...

Then I was thinking: We've done a lot of Latin-American and we're doing an Italian author, and we've done a few American authors - how about we go for a German or Russian author, like Herman Hesse or Franz Kafka or Fyodor Dostoyevsky or Anton Checkov ?

I've been wanting to do Notes from Underground, and Dolors and I think Ema? has said that they want to do The Castle by Kafka, and a few people have also expressed interest in Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov.

What say the rest of you?

Also been wanting to redo The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Ruth and Cecily mentioned Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman .

Traveller wrote: "... it seems a bit on the 'dark' side to me? I've been thinking that we should perhaps try and lighten it up with something less.... you know..."

Hello, Traveller,
Thank you so much for the invitation. This is the first time I'm joining a virtual literary group with such intelligent and well-read participants. I'm almost afraid of being a part of it, although I do it with a happy heart. :-)

I vote for Notes from Underground. It's in my "needs to be revisit" & "needs another chance" lists. It didn't digest well with all that bile, you know?

Kafka is my favorite author of all times, and - shame on me - I haven't read The Castle.

Vladimir Nabokov has ruined himself for me with Lolita, but I would endure him with you, if it were the case.

Poet Gentleness wrote: "Traveller wrote: "... it seems a bit on the 'dark' side to me? I've been thinking that we should perhaps try and lighten it up with something less.... you know..."

Hello, Traveller,
Thank you so m..."

Oh good, thank you so much, Poet G. Let's definitely put Notes from the Underground and The Castle on for next year then!
I am very happy to see your post, and welcome, btw! I am sure you'll fit right in. Hmm, it's not exactly as if these are "light" reading either, but oh well, we never professed to be a 'light reading' group. :)

I'd be very happy to reread The Castle. It's too long since I last read it.

Cecily wrote: "I'd be very happy to reread The Castle. It's too long since I last read it."

Oh goodie, so we have at least 3 or 4 people now who wants to do it. Let's put it on for around January-ish, shall we?

I'll do some admin this weekend. :)

Started reading ship of magic from liveship traders and liking it so far.

Hmm, the movie of The Martian looks good! Maybe we should read the book....

Traveller wrote: "Hmm, the movie of The Martian looks good! Maybe we should read the book...."


It is in my top 5 favorite reads of this year. If I was to keep an actual list...that is where is would be.

Here is my review of Lord foul's bane , 1st book in Thomas covenant series.

Jennifer wrote: "It is in my top 5 favorite reads of this year. If I was to keep an actual list...that is where is would be."

Will add it to the bookshelf...

Traveller wrote: "Hmm, the movie of The Martian looks good! Maybe we should read the book...."

People are running out of times if they want to read the book before the film comes out.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed the book: there were all sorts of aspects that might have made me dislike it, and yet I found it hugely enjoyable.

Traveller wrote: "Hmm, the movie of The Martian looks good! Maybe we should read the book...."

I loved this book. Check out my review. As I read it I thought it would make a great movie, and here we have one coming! It's also a short read. I wanted more!!

Well, since it's getting such glowing recommendations, why haven't I read it already!

We can always do a sort of flash discussion thread soon, where we compare the movie to the book. People invariably want to kvetch either about the movie or the book of adapted novels, since most people either find the book or the movie was handled better. :)

For example, I hated the books of The Hunger Games, but found the movies passable, and I never managed to get "into" The Godfather books, but I loved the films. :)