Clan x86
Member Forums => Ender's Book Club => Topic started by: Ender on September 06, 2009, 08:08:44 pm
-
I would like to start a forum book club. In case you haven't noticed, forum activity is dwindling, and several prominent members are posting a mere once a week or once a month. I think this would be a good way to energize the forums. Also it will be really exciting for me personally to manage a book club =)
Here's how I propose it can run:
We will read a book a month. Members will propose book titles in a certain thread and the week before the new month we will have a vote on what to read. I think the books should be non-technical and should be comprehensible to everyone. Some possible genres we can cover are literary fiction, popular economics and politics, popular books on religion such as those Dawkins books which I despise >_>, popular science (like Stephen Hawking's book etc.), books on history, historical fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, etc. (So you see there is a diverse range of topics!)
So tell me, who is interested?
-
I'd do this, so long as there is a guarantee everyone had access to said book.
-
I'd do it.
-
I'd tag along, I guess. Something to do while waiting for hurd to be released.
-
Awesome. I believe Rule is going to do this, and I can persuade Kaleeko to it as well. Furthermore I may get a few friends of mine IRL to come on here and participate.
So the people I project so far are:
Blaze
Armin
Rule
Kaleeko
Friend or two of mine
Maybe Joe
Not bad. Anyone else?
-
Possibly in the future (after early 2010).. depends on a few things for me :)
-
I'll participate as long as I can afford the books.
-
I guess I can participate as long as I can acquire said books online. =P
j/k. I'm down. It seems like a good idea.
-
:)
Absolutely the most important thing is that everyone in the book club is interested in the book =) Else it will fall flat on its face if no one reads the book :P
-
I'd participate if you'd let me and if I could get my hands on the book. I don't know how much time I will be able to dedicate to leisurely reading, but I will put forth effort to finish it. School is rather demanding at the moment.
-
I'd participate if you'd let me and if I could get my hands on the book. I don't know how much time I will be able to dedicate to leisurely reading, but I will put forth effort to finish it. School is rather demanding at the moment.
No, we don't take people named Brandon ;)
Of course I would let you :P
-
If I had ample amounts of free time I would.... but I don't! :(
-
lets get this rolling. everyone nominate some books they want to read, then we can make a poll to choose what we read, then make a deadline based on that of a library book checkout period.
Ive wanted to read Keep the Aspidistra Flying (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_the_Aspidistra_Flying) (George Orwell) for a while.
-
I'm going to be spending *a lot* of time on planes the next couple weeks. I vote Burmese Days (also by Orwell) because I was planning on bringing it with me and reading it on the plane anyway. :D
That being said, Aspidistra is an awesome book. I highly recommend it (though I've read it already)
-
I read Aspidistra for English my senior year of high school. It's a great book.
I also have Burmese Days. Good books all around!
Perhaps a different author? :P
-
Perhaps a different author? :P
If you don't make specific recommendations, this idea will get nowhere.
-
I read Aspidistra too. It's really good, though I don't remember a whole lot of it.
-
I have 3 books in front of me that I want to read:
Terry Pratchett: Strata
Philip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
George Orwell: Burmese days
If you guys pick any of those, I'll read it too. If you pick something else, I'm out (I'm trying to clear out my queue a bit :) )
-
Burmese Days or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep sound good to me.
-
I recommend the latter. It is probably one of my favorite books of all time. And it made Blade Runner shitty -- that's how good it was. Reading the book first and watching the movie after... wow. Blade Runner lacked.
-
The movie Blade Runner is quite amazing too. Rutger Hauer is incredible in that, and it's Harrison Ford's best film -- he is quite good at non-verbal acting. There are 3 different versions of it though. Each version has different pros/cons.
I would recommend DADOES first. Although Burmese Days is a damn good book. It's better than Aspidistra. Both Androids.. and Burmese Days are worth reading. Maybe Androids first.
-
The movie Blade Runner is quite amazing too. Rutger Hauer is incredible in that, and it's Harrison Ford's best film -- he is quite good at non-verbal acting. There are 3 different versions of it though. Each version has different pros/cons.
I would recommend DADOES first. Although Burmese Days is a damn good book. It's better than Aspidistra. Both Androids.. and Burmese Days are worth reading. Maybe Androids first.
For what it's worth, the only reason I HAVE those books (including Aspidistra) is because of you.
So I'd call that agreement: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, unless anybody is against the idea. Though it may just be me and MM, at least Newby and Rule are familiar with the book too! :)
-
I'm up for it, though I have to go to the library or a book store.
-
Cool, here's the eBook if anyone wants it. http://www.vaydenband.com/armin/DADOES.pdf
I hate eBooks myself and will be renting it from the library. If anyone wants the abridged audio book, let me know as well.
-
The movie Blade Runner is quite amazing too. Rutger Hauer is incredible in that, and it's Harrison Ford's best film -- he is quite good at non-verbal acting. There are 3 different versions of it though. Each version has different pros/cons.
I would recommend DADOES first. Although Burmese Days is a damn good book. It's better than Aspidistra. Both Androids.. and Burmese Days are worth reading. Maybe Androids first.
For what it's worth, the only reason I HAVE those books (including Aspidistra) is because of you.
Hope that's a good thing! :)
-
The movie Blade Runner is quite amazing too. Rutger Hauer is incredible in that, and it's Harrison Ford's best film -- he is quite good at non-verbal acting. There are 3 different versions of it though. Each version has different pros/cons.
I would recommend DADOES first. Although Burmese Days is a damn good book. It's better than Aspidistra. Both Androids.. and Burmese Days are worth reading. Maybe Androids first.
For what it's worth, the only reason I HAVE those books (including Aspidistra) is because of you.
Hope that's a good thing! :)
I'll let you know ;)
Aspidistra was definitely worth it. I sent you an email awhile back (dunno if you got it, or even if I sent it to the right address :P) thanking you for recommending it. My friend's band (Talk City (http://www.myspace.com/talkcitywpg) (warning: not the greatest recording quality, but I do like their music) has a song called Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Because I'd read the book, we had a cool conversation about it (well, maybe not cool.. and barely a conversation... you know what? shut up :P).
In ANY case, Aspidistra is an awesome book :D
-
I posted this as a 'news' item, since it's probably the closest thing we have to news (besides random people joining.. borrrrring! ;) ).
We should probably pick a 'deadline'. I'm expecting to finish it by Nov 8, but we're probably better off giving it more time. Jan 1? Feb 1? What's normal? :)
-
Let's do December 1st.
-
So, I started and finished the book today. Something about spending a whole day flying helped...
Anyway, I won't comment on it for now.
-
Goddamn, I haven't even been to the library yet.
-
[spoiler]Go ahead and post, iago. That's what these are for![/spoiler]
-
[spoiler]In a couple of months, you'll probably get a new daddy.[/spoiler]
-
2 weeks to go!
so, is anybody else reading this?
-
I want to but I still haven't had time to get to a library. I was pretty sick last week, and now I have a nasty ear infection and I can't drive because of my meds :(
-
I seriously doubt I'll have the time to read this by December 1st.
-
Fine, I'll discuss it myself!
Hey Ron, what did you think of the .... bah!
Do you want me to bump up the date? If so, to when? If not, just give up on the idea? :)
-
Make it New Years since that'll give everyone at least 2 weeks of winter break.
-
Works for me. Changed.
-
The whole thing shouldn't take long to read at all, if you're motivated. iago is one of three people I know who read the whole thing in a day.
-
Yeah, it's a quick read. But I definitely wouldn't have 1-dayed it if I wasn't on planes a whole day.
For what it's worth, I finished another book I mentioned (Strata by Terry Pratchett) on the way back -- it was way better. :)
-
I've just been spending all my time doing music related things, and don't know when that will change. Writing and recording an album while booking, promoting, practicing for, and playing shows is a lot of work.
-
I've just been spending all my time doing music related things, and don't know when that will change. Writing and recording an album while booking, promoting, practicing for, and playing shows is a lot of work.
lies. all you musicians do is drink and bang groupies all day and you know it
-
I've just been spending all my time doing music related things, and don't know when that will change. Writing and recording an album while booking, promoting, practicing for, and playing shows is a lot of work.
lies. all you musicians do is drink and bang groupies all day and you know it
You forgot the part where they love suing their fans for downloading their music!
-
I've just been spending all my time doing music related things, and don't know when that will change. Writing and recording an album while booking, promoting, practicing for, and playing shows is a lot of work.
lies. all you musicians do is drink and bang groupies all day and you know it
You forgot the part where they love suing their fans for downloading their music!
lmao
-
I've just been spending all my time doing music related things, and don't know when that will change. Writing and recording an album while booking, promoting, practicing for, and playing shows is a lot of work.
He hasn't even had time to upload tabs :(
-
For what it's worth, I finished another book I mentioned (Strata by Terry Pratchett) on the way back -- it was way better. :)
Bah! I very seriously doubt it. :)
-
For what it's worth, I finished another book I mentioned (Strata by Terry Pratchett) on the way back -- it was way better. :)
Bah! I very seriously doubt it. :)
I wasn't the biggest fan of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.. the book didn't really go anywhere or deal with the issues I was hoping it dealt with. It was an interesting story, and had some cool meaning, but ultimately I wasn't satisfied. :P
-
For what it's worth, I finished another book I mentioned (Strata by Terry Pratchett) on the way back -- it was way better. :)
Bah! I very seriously doubt it. :)
I wasn't the biggest fan of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.. the book didn't really go anywhere or deal with the issues I was hoping it dealt with. It was an interesting story, and had some cool meaning, but ultimately I wasn't satisfied. :P
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "the book didn't really go anywhere or deal with the issues I was hoping it dealt with". I think it deals with a ton of issues, but it doesn't resolve them explicitly, which is one of its greatest strengths. Basically everything Philip Dick does, leaves one in an uneasy, depressed, unresolved, thoughtful mood.
-
For what it's worth, I finished another book I mentioned (Strata by Terry Pratchett) on the way back -- it was way better. :)
Bah! I very seriously doubt it. :)
I wasn't the biggest fan of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.. the book didn't really go anywhere or deal with the issues I was hoping it dealt with. It was an interesting story, and had some cool meaning, but ultimately I wasn't satisfied. :P
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "the book didn't really go anywhere or deal with the issues I was hoping it dealt with". I think it deals with a ton of issues, but it doesn't resolve them explicitly, which is one of its greatest strengths. Basically everything Philip Dick does, leaves one in an uneasy, depressed, unresolved, thoughtful mood.
It didn't do it for me. :)
-
I'm going to take a shot in the dark and assume that nobody else will have it read by tomorrow, right? :P
-
I'm going to take a shot in the dark and assume that nobody else will have it read by tomorrow, right? :P
Yeah, that's what I figure too. :P
-
It's kinda what I said when we first talked about this on AIM. It's hard to get more than one or two people to read a book for no real reason. Ah well, it was worth reading anyways.
Burmese Days is still in my queue, I've read the first two chapters. But it's low priority right now, under stuff I *need* to read.
-
I've read it. We can still have a discussion. 8)