Friday, February 20, 2009

How About "Out?"




Barbara suggested reading the prize winning Out Stealing Horses by Per Pettersen for our Virtual Book Group. Tut Tut's library is holding a copy for her, and I have access. If we give everyone plenty of time to find a copy, should we choose this for our March read? Just to get the group going?



Also, should we be working on a list of books, one per month? I propose that Subtorp give some book suggestions for April, if we agree to one book per month. And should some months be dedicated to authors instead of one book?

19 comments:

tut-tut said...

Interesting idea, reading books, but not necessarily the same one, by the same author.

Subtorp, give it a go for April!

Avid Reader said...

we also need to figure out when to post about the books,

Q: how about the last weekend of each month--

a post spanning 3 days Fri Sat Sun... or... Sat Sun Mon?

tut-tut said...

I'm picking up the book tomorrow, when I'm downtown. I'll start it Monday.

Seems like a good plan to discuss at the end of the month and to allow time over three days for responses is good too. Unless you want to SKype in, like on Oprah!! She must own stock. They're always Skyping over there now.

I'm finishing up Stuart O'Nan's songs for the missing. I got Jane Smiley's 10 Days in the Hills for the Academy Award weekend, too (it begins the day after the 2003 Academy Awards); I don't know about it, thoug. If you haven't read O'Nan, you might like him. He writes about the ordinary, but elevates the mundane and seems to be able to key in to regular people's thoughts and desires and articulate them in a way I've not seen too many others do.

Avid Reader said...

Tut Tut,

I'll try to find the O'Nan at the library. I just bought the short stories of Steven Milhauser-- entertaining!
I'm also reading King Coal by Upton Sinclair, and it's good. I have to spend the afternoon snuggled with cats and just read.

Anonymous said...

tut-tut, I'll prob'ly still be reading Nietzsche. It's over 700 pages! Then again I am using it for study, so I suppoooose I could pick up a side read :) As for an April pick, how 'bout "The Stargazey" by Martha Grimes? It's the only book in the Jury series I HAVEN'T read...yet.

Avid, end of the month, over the week-end sounds good. And we should set up something like what Megan's done on the TT blog. To let other potential members know, who's gonna give the pick a read.

I've vaguely heard of Skype but this ol' caveman still has a lot to learn 'bout computers :(

Anonymous said...

Score! I think. I've got a copy of the Pettersen book coming by mid next week at the latest. Or did I order the wrong one?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the invite to read along with you all. I'd be very interesting except it's just not good timing for me right now. With my two blogs plus two manuscripts (one with a deadline) on the go, I'm not doing any (sob, sniff!) "recreational" reading at the moment!

Megan said...

I'm in. Will pick up the book tomorrow. Yes, end of month sounds perfect-o for me.

I have a "blog in reserve" with no postings on it yet, if you want to use that a la Theme Thurdsay I can certainly redesign it for the purpose...

Everyone feel free to email me direct at theonlymeganATgmail.com.

Avid Reader said...

Megan, would you host the Virtual Book Club at the extra blog? that would be great.

Anonymous said...

Megan,I just started a second blog for grey my matter over-flow. I'll drop you a line :)

Megan said...

Sure! I will work on it over the weekend.

JGH said...

I would love to read Out Stealing Horses. I don't know if I can manage though unless we have at least a month - I'm in 3 other book clubs! What is the target date for finishing and can I chime in late? In any case, I ordered it because the book does sound terrific.

Avid Reader said...

I guess we'll be discussing it starting the 27th of March??

JGH-3 book clubs? That's great!

Anonymous said...

March 27th? Sounds good to me, Avid. I always did like to do book reports. No, really!

Anonymous said...

I'M going to the Library tomorrow...will let you know....

tut-tut said...

Sounds like Sub and Meagan have it covered; I'm in awe.

Anonymous said...

Megan, looking forward to it. Let us know if you need any suggestions :)

Megan said...

I really like that painting, by the way.

Chris Wolf said...

May I join in? I'm a bibliophile too

My Classic Fiction Book List -Partial List

  • Austen, Jane: (Complete Works)
  • Balzac: Cousin Bette/ Eugenie Grandet / Cousin Pons
  • Best Russian Short Stories
  • Boyle, TC: Short Works
  • Brennan, Maeve : Short Works, 1 Novella
  • Bronte, Emily, Ann, Jane (Complete Works)
  • Brookner, Anita ( Complete Works)
  • Cather, Willa (Complete Works)
  • Chekov: Short Works
  • David Copperfield (Dickens)
  • Dickens:A Tale of Two Cities
  • Dickens:Great Expectations
  • Dickens:Nicholas Nickelby
  • Dickens:Our Mutual Friend
  • Dickens:The Old Curiosity Shop
  • Doyle, Roddy (some novels, memoir)
  • Drabble, Margaret (4 Novels)
  • Drieser, Theodore (Complete Works)
  • Fitzgerald, F.Scott (Most Novels & short works)
  • Hardy, Thomas (Complete Works)
  • Hemingway, Short stories
  • Hemingway: The Old Man in the Sea
  • Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises
  • Hugo: Les Miserables/Hunchback Of ND
  • James, Henry: Daisy Miller
  • James, Henry: In The Cage
  • James, Henry: Portrait of a Lady
  • James, Henry: The Golden Bowl
  • James, Henry: What Maisy Knew
  • James, Henry: Wings of a Dove
  • James, Henry:The Ambassadors
  • James, Henry; The Bostonians
  • Kerouac: Dharma Bums
  • Kerouac: On The Road
  • Kerouac: The Subterraneans
  • Kerouac: Tristessa
  • Lardner,Ring:Short Works
  • Larsen: Quicksand
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Arrowsmith
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Free Air
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Main Street
  • Lewis, Sinclair: The Job
  • MacGill, Patrick (Complete works)
  • Mackin, Walter (novels)
  • Maupassant: Short Works, novels
  • McGahern, John (novels of)
  • McNulty, John (Short Works)
  • Norris, Frank: McTeague
  • O'Brien, Edna (3 Novels)
  • O'Donnell, Paeder : Novels of
  • O. Henry
  • Potok, Chaim (4 novels/1 non fiction)
  • Salinger, JD : Nine Stories
  • Salinger: Franny & Zooey
  • Salinger: Raise High the Roofbeams
  • Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Dodsworth
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Elmer Gantry
  • Sinclair, Upton: King Coal
  • Sinclair, Upton: The Jungle
  • Steinbeck, John: Sweet Thursday
  • Steinbeck: Winter of our Discontent
  • Steinbeck: Cannery Row
  • Steinbeck: East of Eden
  • Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath
  • Theroux, Paul (3 Novels )
  • Toibin, Colm: (Novels of)
  • Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
  • Tolstoy: Short Works
  • Turgenev (2 novels)
  • Twain: T Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi
  • Vonnegut: Early Works (1950s-60s)
  • Wharton, Edith: Novels of/Short Stories
  • Women & Fiction (Edit. Cahill)
  • Zola, Emile ( 10 novels)