Chris’s Comments (group member since Mar 16, 2013)

Chris’s comments from the r/books group.

Sorry I havent been around! Doing my final internship so I have been snowed under, ive even been neglecting reddit bookclub!

I dont think I can commit to anything until the end of Oct when I finish.

I started it and it's kind of funny but I can see it getting depressing. It's just a long monologue by a bitter old Jewish man to a psychologist(?) . Not too dark yet but will probably get depressing later. It is very vulgar though, lots of exaggerated adolescent masturbation.

Hey Clayton, welcome. The concept for Miss Peregrine's Home looks interesting.

The next book we decided on was Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth.

Forget about my Americana complaint, I don't hold a grudge :) Everyone else was keen for Portnoy's Complaint so let's give it a go. I'll pick it up at the library on Monday and try it.

Tell me when you've finished White Noise, I read it not long ago and I didn't like it very much. Should make for good discussion. It has turned me off Americana for a while so count me out for Roth.

My bookclub books are Ulysses, At Swim-Two-Birds, The Idiot and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I'm also reading The Slap and Ghostwritten. It's winter here so my holidays are shorter, but i'm trying to pack in as much as possible.

Funfact: I just read a chapter from Ulysses (Aeolus) that pastiches newspaper headlines together and apparently that's also a technique used by Quoyle in The Shipping News.

We are voting for next month's books if you want to submit something and get ahead of the game!

At Swim-Two-Birds is a little confusing when the characters start to rebel. The story jumps all over the place. But it's really funny and well-written, although the humour is mostly crude bum jokes.

Ulysses is the same with its humour except it's even more confusing with stream of consciousness. There are a few people re-reading it though so there's some useful discussion on each chapter making it easier to get through.

Hi everyone

Sorry for the lack of updates from last month, I got very busy with prac!

We are currently voting for our July books of the month!

In June our BOTM has been At Swim-Two-Birds, another comic Irish novel with a main character writing stories full of characters that rebel against him.

Over June, July and August we are reading Ulysses! Here is the schedule, it has been a very interesting book so far! But with some help along the way it has been fun :)

Happy reading!

Hi everybody,

Over at r/bookclub we are choosing our selections for May. There hasn't been a lot of activity yet so come and nominate or upvote some selections.

The books we're currently reading are White Noise, Blood Meridian and Alice in Wonderland, and there are some discussion threads on the front page.

I was born in 88' so a lot of the references weren't aimed at me, but it was still easy to follow the gist of the reference (whether it music, actor, game .etc.) and I also found it was good food for thought for all the reasons you guys have already talked about.

It was a fun and playful book but i'd enjoy a darker version of a similar concept even more.

Hi Nicole, welcome. I read The Golem and the Jinni recently. Historical fiction & urban fantasy are two things I don't read much of so I wasn't sure if I would like it, but it was a page-turner and good yarn.

I've read a little Stephen King. I liked Night Shift and The Gunslinger, but Under the Dome was my first King and I thought it was long, dragged, bad ending .etc. I thought i'd love it because dystopia is my favourite genre.

Hey Megan, I will be putting the series on a hold until others have caught up. Lots of other books to read anyway!

I definitely want to read further in the series. It didnt blow me away or anything but its only a beginning and its obvious that there is still a lot of story to be told.

Aww so we are changing the series read? I read The Gunslinger already and posted a thread about a week ago, did anyone see it?

I try to finish most of the books that I read, even if i'm not enjoying them. I guess there are a lot of reasons I do it.

The first is importance. I read a lot of classics (Midnight's Children is a good example, Kindle says i'm at 90% and I started reading it before Megan did!) and I try to finish them no matter what. If they're highly esteemed in the literary world it means that a lot of people took something from the book. I try to find out what it is, even if I don't particularly enjoy the book. The importance factor is especially important to me if it's from/representing another culture: different perspectives and contexts broaden the mind.

The second is reading proficiency. It simply makes me a better reader. If I don't like a book i'm looking at it from different perspectives, breaking down sentences or chapters or overall structure .etc... essentially, if I don't enjoy it, it means i'm going to analyze it in different ways instead of just turning pages and getting caught up in the story. Plus, I spend a lot more time with the book, it means I become much more intimate with it and remember it better.

The third is enjoyment. I couldn't stand Midnight's Children for the first half but I like it now. It's happened a lot: Gravity's Rainbow was a chore to read but with the benefit of hindsight, I love it. But most of all, my biggest (guilty) pleasure in reading comes from re-reading. A book I didn't like the first time around will reap some rewards the second time a round. And vice versa: a book I loved in the past doesn't resonate anymore, so there's a personal growth aspect to it as well.

Hi everyone,

Our selections for r/bookclub have been chosen..

We have a third choice this month because McCarthy is a bit too literary for some tastes and we read the book a few years ago. It is the stuff of nightmares.

I will edit and include links when im not on mobile :)

Hey everyone,

I have completed Book One of the series. it's a very quick read once you start! It has quite a few lofty concepts, from the Bible to Tarot to wizards to the shifty terrotories of this future world they are living in.

I dont want to spoil it so ill wait until others have finished.

I liked it but im hoping it will get even better.

Hearing Wil Wheaton read it would be cool, maybe I should use my free audible credit for it. Ive never listened to an audiobook before.

Read it when it came out & really enjoyed it. r/bookclub read it too and there were mixed reviews, and I found it resonates with certain interests and particular generation (geek pop culture, 80s pop, mmo games)

Goosebumps and Paul Jennings for me too. Although I also remember reading stuff like Animorphs too.

Hey everybody,

Just a quick update to let you know that we are currently voting for our April books of the month.

The first sentence is infamous: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

So i'm a little late but i've read the first chapter now! I'm at the tail end of a few other books so I will be diving into this very soon (almost done with Midnight's Children arghh!!)