Chaos Reading discussion

Hi All. It's time to start nominating books for the next group read! This time the theme will be:
"NUMBERS"
You can nominate books that reference a NUMBER in any way. Basically, anything vaguely connected to the theme is fair game.
Everyone gets up to TWO book nominations each.
Simples!



How it works: I post a theme, we each nominate books that in some way reflect the theme. The nominated books go up on a group shelf, and are posted as a Group Poll. The group votes on ONE book for the next Group Read. We read & discuss the winning book! Easy.

Nominations: Just post a reply to this thread that includes the book title link and why you're nominating it. Please don't post any spoilers though!

Timeframe: I won't set a definite time frame for the group read until the book's chosen, and we know how long it is etc. but this nominations thread will run for about a week.

Selecting A Book: When you're thinking about books to nominate, try to keep in mind things like: the length of the book, availability in different countries, price, whether it's something that would make for a good discussion etc etc.

Hi Ruby, what an inspiring theme again. This time, it didn't take me long to come up with two titles.

I love Japanese literature and I adore Haruki Murakami. This one 1Q84 has been on my to read list for ages. I wouldn't mind the chance to finally get into it and share my reading experience with you.

The other one is 1984. I read it years ago with amazement. I wonder how I would judge it today.

How about 2666? Always wanted an excuse to start that one.

How about The Thirteenth Tale? I've been meaning to read that one forever.

I'm sure I have more numbers-related books on my shelf, off to look for another one!

And for my second choice, I would like to nominate Catch-22.

I'd love to (finally) read Fahrenheit 451. Great theme!

Two very different books but I enjoyed both.
Forty Thousand in Gehenna and The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers

Ooh ooh - Zone One! It's awesome AND it's short!

Lily Smalls wrote: "Hi Ruby, what an inspiring theme again. This time, it didn't take me long to come up with two titles.

I love Japanese literature and I adore Haruki Murakami. This one 1Q84 has been on my to read ..."

Hehe. I did the same thing a while back. I feel like I should warn you though, 1Q84 really has nothing to do with 1984.
Also, it's a VERY long read.
My review if you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And my second nomination: Equations of Life . Apparently I am all about apocalypse!

Gargh. Just realised, I also have The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky on my shelf....

I think I'll make that my second nomination after all.



Probably.

how about Eight Months On Ghazzah Street or One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich?

Ruby wrote: "Hehe. I did the same thing a while back. I feel like I should warn you though, 1Q84 really has nothing to do with 1984.."

Or, does it?....

These are some GREAT nominations! I have no idea who I am going to vote for.

Ready Player One, because I need a reason to read it.

Walden Two - B.F. Skinner's behaviorism is largely discredited these days, but this book about an attempt to found a utopian society was huge in its day, and has had an effect on me for 40 years.

And I only left off Catch 22 and 1984 because others already nominated them.

There are great books already listed!
I'm currently reading 1Q84 and love it. Also, 2666 is so well written. It's hard to say I loved it because of the subject matter but I will be rereading it one day. I highly recommend it.
Catch-22 is high on my "want to read soon" list.

For nominations, I nominate Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal and Six Suspects.

Whitney wrote: "Ruby wrote: "Hehe. I did the same thing a while back. I feel like I should warn you though, 1Q84 really has nothing to do with 1984.."

Or, does it?...."

I didn't think so at all. Even the direct references seemed way off base to me.

Okay. For my second nomination, I've changed my mind again. I think I'll go with When I Was Five I Killed Myself. I'm sure this time.

Some great nominations here. I'd be happy with quite a few of them.

Another excellent theme and excellent selections! I will add two more I have on my TBR list:

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and
The Third Bear

(P.S. I thought the 1984 references in 1Q84 had more to do with how the future wasn't rather than how it was.)

I still have a second nomination to come up with but so many other books have been mentioned that I want to read, I may not need another!

Whitney wrote: "(P.S. I thought the 1984 references in 1Q84 had more to do with how the future wasn't rather than how it was.) ..."

I'm not going to pretend to know what you're talking about there! It has been a while since I read it, so I don't remember much besides what I wrote about in that review. I remember thinking the direct references missed the mark - using terms like "doublespeak", but without seeming to have really used them in their proper context. I was on the lookout for parallels with 1984, but didn't see many.

Riona wrote: "I still have a second nomination to come up with but so many other books have been mentioned that I want to read, I may not need another!"

Can I have yours? I keep thinking of new ones!

Ruby wrote: "Riona wrote: "I still have a second nomination to come up with but so many other books have been mentioned that I want to read, I may not need another!"

Can I have yours? I keep thinking of new ones!"

Because nobody has suggested Tenth of December yet....

Just sayin'.

Whitney wrote: "Another excellent theme and excellent selections! I will add two more I have on my TBR list:

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and
The Third Bear
..."

ZOMG, Whitney! Are we telepathically linked or something? I just clicked on the link for The Third Bear..

I JUST listened to my first (wonderful) short story by Jeff VanderMeer yesterday & thought his name sounded familiar. Checked my bookshelf and realised he wrote Shriek: An Afterword! I picked that book up several years ago from a second hand book shop, based purely on the cover and it has intrigued me ever since. But I don't have the first part in that series, so I haven't yet picked it up. I also understand he was editor of The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories. Nuts!

VanderMeer is one of those authors I know I have to get to, but have never managed.

I'm excited about the choices for this discussion already, so I am only going to add The Third Policeman, since I have a copy on the way.

I second Ready Player One and submit 2001: A Space Odyssey :-)

The Crying of Lot 49: PynchonThe Crying of Lot 49

Derek wrote: "VanderMeer is one of those authors I know I have to get to, but have never managed."

Ditto. I have so many of his books on my TBR list.

Ruby wrote: "Riona wrote: "I still have a second nomination to come up with but so many other books have been mentioned that I want to read, I may not need another!"

Can I have yours? I keep thinking of new ones!"

But I might still need it!

Riona wrote: "Derek wrote: "VanderMeer is one of those authors I know I have to get to, but have never managed."

Ditto. I have so many of his books on my TBR list."

Well I finally did something about it & ordered the first in the Ambergris series: City of Saints and Madmen. The short story I listened to on Podcastle was actually an excerpt I think. It was awesomely creepy.

Nominations closing in the next day or so...

Argh! Just picked up a copy of Five Boys and as I was adding it to my shelf, realised that this would make a great nomination!

Okay - THIS is definitely my second nomination. I'll be closing the thread in the next hour or so and putting up the poll, so last chance to change/add nominations..

Okay. Two days ago, I put the poll up but it disappeared. Sigh... trying again. I'm starting to think GR has abandoned technical upkeep altogether..

Petra wrote: "There are great books already listed!
I'm currently reading 1Q84 and love it. Also, 2666 is so well written. It's hard to say I loved it because of the subject matter but I will be rereading it one..."

Thanks Petra for bringing Six Suspects to my attention, I'd never heard of Swarup and this sounds great. TBR!

Still having trouble with the poll?

Glad to enable anytime, Jen!
I was at a book sale today and found a copy of Six Suspects!!! I was thrilled.

Karen wrote: "Still having trouble with the poll?"

Okay NOW the poll should be here:
http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/83...

Apologies for the technical glitch!

Thanks Ruby! I'm only able to vote once, I don't mind but it says max of two votes so I thought I'd flag it.

Jen wrote: "Thanks Ruby! I'm only able to vote once, I don't mind but it says max of two votes so I thought I'd flag it."

Hi Jen. Everyone was able to nominate one or two books to make up the list of books for the poll, but you can only vote on the actual poll once. Hope that clears it up :)

Ruby wrote: "Jen wrote: "Thanks Ruby! I'm only able to vote once, I don't mind but it says max of two votes so I thought I'd flag it."

Hi Jen. Everyone was able to nominate one or two books to make up the list..."

Aaaahh, thanks!

Since it's looking like Ready Player One is in the lead and since I had the audiobook on hold at the library, I went ahead and started it. I recommend the audiobook version, which is read by Wil Wheaton; a fine choice for an ubergeek novel.

Whitney wrote: "Since it's looking like Ready Player One is in the lead and since I had the audiobook on hold at the library, I went ahead and started it. I recommend the audiobook version, which is read by Wil Wheaton..."

That's awesome!

Still, the vote is close. It would only take one person to change their vote to prompt a tie...... bwahahaha!
Except I have a copy of Ready Player One on my shelf so I'm not going to do that.