Pulp Magazine Authors and Literature Fans discussion

Should we stay with one month, or should we have two books for the two month period (which people could opt for one or the other or both) ?
Also, we've read a hard boiled mystery The Maltese Falcon and a sword and sorcery epic The Swords of Lankhmar - should we go for a different pulp genre?
Please let me know what y'all think. Thanks, also we're still discussing "The Swords of Lankhmar" if you haven't yet had time to read it or weigh in on the book.

Sorry, I meant "stay with two months" - I've corrected the post below:

Dear group members,
It's about time to be thinking of suggestions for our May and June read (or reads). Please feel free to post any and all thoughts and/or suggestions.
Also, a couple of questions perhaps worth discussing:

Should we stay with two months or go to one month, or should we have two books for the two month period (which people could opt for one or the other or both) ?
Also, we've read a hard boiled mystery The Maltese Falcon and a sword and sorcery epic The Swords of Lankhmar - should we go for a different pulp genre?
Please let me know what y'all think. Thanks, also we're still discussing "The Swords of Lankhmar" if you haven't yet had time to read it or weigh in on the book.

Two books to choose from would be ideal.

Maybe we could try reading Hunt at the Well of Eternity? It's supposed to be good pulpy adventure and a group read sounds like a good excuse to give it a shot. I think it comes out late this month or early next month.

Gabriel Hunt info and sample chapters

Other than Hunt, it might be cool to read some Burroughs. Or possiby a Shadow or Doc Savage, although those are harder to come by.

We should do Hunt for May.
Doing something from Burroughs sounds ideal for June.
I'm not sure about much beyond that. But some of The Shadow novels are online at:
http://arthursclassicnovels.com/
But this gets into the whole copyright legal or not thing. So, I'm not sure of that really helps.

I'd love to read some Burroughs. I put most of his books (I have quite a few) in a box under my bed because I don't read them very often any more & needed the shelf space. How about The Mucker, The Rider or The Monster Men? Not one of his series novels. (I know there is a 'Return of the Mucker', but it's still only 2.)

At the risk of seeming self-serving, I'd like to humbly offer up my own Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom for reading. I'm a new author, and I'm still excited about hearing what people think of it, what they get out of it, what works, what doesn't...all that sort of thing.

It's coming out May 14th. You can find out more about it at my website, www.DocWilde.com.

Best,

Tim

If you don't self-serve, no one will know, so do so! You have a review from Pinkwater. How cool. The blurb reads like a young Doc Savage. Sounds like fun.

My daughter informed me last night that she has to take 2 summer classes for college - that's $2K that is NOT in the budget & I have to come up with it shortly, so buying new books is out of the question for me right now, unfortunately. (3 more years... only 3 more years!)

In our original discussion of the group reads schedule, I was one of those who favored only doing one book at a time, and not very often (like about every four months). But on reflection, participation in the group read is voluntary; people who don't have time to read so many of the books don't have to, so there's no reason why other people who do have time, and want to, should have to hold back on their account! So, I'm not opposed to designating two books for a two-month period.

Varying the genres is a good idea, most of the titles suggested this time seem to be in the action- adventure category. I might have to sit this one out --at the college where I work (I'm a librarian), one of the short-staffed departments has said they might need me to teach a class in the fall. If that happens, I'll need to do a lot of nonfiction reading before fall to get back in the groove (I haven't taught at the college level in that discipline for over 20 years). But if I do have time for fiction reading in May/June, I've been thinking about Burroughs' Tarzan and the Lost City. Of course, that's a series book; but his The Bandit of Hell's Bend is a stand-alone. That's in the Western genre, another one we haven't tackled yet.

Tim, your suggestion of your book isn't self-serving at all; when you've written a good book, you're doing people a favor by letting them know about it, and I think it would eventually be a good choice for a group read! But since it's very new (forthcoming, actually!) I'll share a caveat that's come up in other groups: getting very new books by interlibrary loan is nearly impossible, because most libraries that have them won't loan them to other libraries. So members who depend on that source for books they don't own and can't get locally would be at a real disadvantage if we pick a very new book. (That would be a consideration with the Hunt book, too.) Of course, if none of the members who plan to take part in the read this time are in that boat, this won't be a problem!

I've always wanted to read something in the yellow peril genre. Girasol has reprinted Dr. Yen Sin, but most people probably don't have it. Also, Harry Stephen Keeler included a lot of oriental characters in his wacky mysteries. I think all of his books are currently in print...

That said, I'd also gladly go along with reading A Princess of Mars by Burroughs.

Yr. pulp nerd,

FJ

The only problem I have with "A Princess of Mars" is that we'll have to read the first 3 books. Cliff hangers on the first 2 books, no decent end until the third. It's a great book & none of the 3 are too long, but just realize it's a 3 book commitment as far as I'm concerned.

Hi folks,

I hadn't thought about the possible issues with laying hands on a copy of my book. Mea culpa.

One thing about the libraries, though: if you ask your librarian to get Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom FOR your library, not only will you be able to read it, but it'll make it available to anyone else in your community who might find it fun. Tell them to take a peek at the reviews page on the Doc Wilde site, so far it has only garnered excellent reviews.

Also, if any of you do read the book, please let me know what you think of it. And if you like it, a short review on Amazon and Goodreads would be INCREDIBLY appreciated. The more good word of mouth, the higher the chances there will be more books.

Best,

Tim
www.DocWilde.com

Having been a public librarian for several years after graduating from library school, I'll echo Tim's suggestion of asking librarians to get his book, and other titles you want to read, for the library. Many librarians are very open to considering those kinds of requests from their patrons, especially if they know that you check out books frequently. (Some libraries even have regular forms you can fill out to suggest books for the collection.)

HI everybody! I just joined--today--and figure I'd jump right in. I'd really like to do a Doc Savage novel---and a few have recently been reprinted!

I nominate Land of Always NIght by Kenneth Robeson. Was just reprited last year and I read it at the age of 13 and still find it a heck of good story!

The new re-printer of Doc Savage is Nostalgia Ventures and "Land of Always-night" was reprinted in Feb. 2007 so a copy may be , hopefull, easier to find.

I'm going to go ahead and create a poll for the May group read when I get a chance later.

We have a tie between Hunt at the Well of Eternity and The Monster Men so I guess everyone will have the option of reading either, both, or neither of them for May discussions.

As I recall, TMM was a fairly short novel, and I'm interested in the Hunt book as well, so I'm going to shoot for both...

I have TMM, but not the other & a burgeoning To-Read pile, so I guess I'll just read TMM.

Okay, NOW I found that poll! :-) I've been clicking on "polls" periodically to check for it, but somehow I expected it to be at the top. (I guess I should have read the fine print that said "showing 7 out of 7.") Oh, well --as I said, I probably won't be able to take part this time around anyway, so probably it's just as well that I didn't vote. I'll be following the discussion with interest, though!

Can we read something wierd tales like ?

SF,Noir pulps seems to be more read today. Im not talking about REH when i think about fantasy.
Others of his times. Clark Asthon Smith,CL Moore or Kuttner.

I have Elak of Atlantis by Henry Kuttner. Which is good S&S book.

Mohammed, any of the authors you mentioned would be good choices for a group read. Of course, we try to vary the genres, so since our previous group read was a swords-and-sorcery novel, we might want to go through some other genres first before we get back to that one. The Gabriel Hunt and Burroughs books we're reading for May are action adventure and science fiction (I think?), respectively.

Yeah it doesnt have to next month group the S&S i mentioned i just thought it would be nice reading,talking about those authors with people here.

I like the idea of varying genres too. A SF,action adventure a month and other genres next month.

Heck many of my favorite genre book,authors in Crime,SFF are from pulp era. I have books by Hammett,James M Cain,CL Moore,Leiber,Kuttner,REH,Asthon Smith in my TBR pile.

I'm reading A. E Van Vogt's Slan at the moment. Anybody else interested in getting in on that eventually?

Slan is a book i have wanted to read for a while.

I can easily get it from the library or as second hand book.

Well, so far we haven't had any discussion of either Hunt at the Well of Eternity or The Monster Men. Since the month of May is already past, I'd say we should extend our discussion through June --both of those novels may be hard to get copies of right away, and it's understandable that it also takes people a certain amount of time to read them once the copies are obtained.