You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

My landing post for the 2014 challenge!

I begin planning the assault upon the windward face of Mt. Literati; the Sherpas seem restless and keep stealing my waffle mix when I'm distracted pouring bitters into the Old-Fashioneds (one cannot touch the face of God without Peychaud's.) The huskies sniff the air...do they smell impending disaster? Or are they merely dismissive and snarky? Only time, ice, and blood will take the measure of such arctic canine hipsters.

Slick's Slugs, Books 1-6

Maddening Modernists and Criticism of Everything:
<--criticism of society, WWI England-->
#1.Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf (172 pages) [Begun 1 Jan, finish 5 Jan]✔
<--dreamlike, authors female, suffered depression, one highly influenced other, criticism of the patriarchal-->
#2.Ice, also by Anna Kavan (158 pages) ✔ [started 6 Jan finish 9 Jan]
#3. Last Evenings on Earth, by Roberto Bolaño (219 pages)✔ [started 10 Jan finished 15 Jan]
Together making 549 pages

<--constant struggle, Man vs. World-->
#4.Under the Volcano, by Malcolm Lowry (380 pages) ✔ [started 17 Jan finished 9 Feb]
<--jumps in narration, advancing time-->
#5.Omensetter's Luck, by William H. Gass (315 pages)
Combined 695 pages✔

<--criticism of life, society-->
#6.The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing (640 pages)

<--criticism of convention, perception, Deceptiveness of Fate, Memory, images of leaking-->
#7.Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, by Herman Melville (625 pages)

<--criticism of society, '20s-->
#8.The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (180 pages)
<--criticism of society, current - existence of good AND evil-->
#9.To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (323 pages)
[total 503 pages]

<--criticism of society, modern-->
#10.Speedboat, by Renata Adler (192 pages)
<--told in fragmented and kaleidoscopic prose, criticism of society, future-->
#11.Your Face Tomorrow, Vol. 1: Fever and Spear by Javier Marías(400 pages)
Combined 592 pages

Mickey Mouse's Marchers, Books 7-12(I feel silly typing that)

Studies of Change: All the books in this section deal with the subjects of change.

<--man's inhumanity to man,, class differences, change via obsession-->
#12.The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolaño (577 pages)
<--all sorts of change, Deceptiveness of Fate, Memory-->
#13. Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie (536 pages)
<--change, family, class, race-->
#14.The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (619 pages)
<--change via obsession, class, race-->
#15.The Sea, the Sea, by Iris Murdoch (512 pages)
<--change via class, family, profession-->
#16.The Claverings, by Anthony Trollope (546 pages)
<--almost every kind of change there is!-->
#17.Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, by Samuel Beckett (520 pages)

Roadrunner's Racers Books 13-18(dignity regained)

..but with Great Obscurity comes Great Responsibility.
(Books with 10 or fewer ratings.)

<--NO ratings, so obscure I had to add it to GR myself-->
#18.Prairie State: Impressions of Illinois, 1673-1967, by Travelers and Other Observers, by Paul M. Angle (620 pages)

<--FOUR ratings-->
#19.Twelve German Novellas, by Harry Steinhauer (648 pages)

<--TEN ratings-->
#20.A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory: Asia in Search of Its Role in the 21st Century, by Dennis Patterson

<--TEN ratings-->
#21.Adlai Stevenson of Illinois: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson, by John Bartlow Martin (840 pages)

<--TEN ratings-->
#22.The Preservation of Historic Architecture: The U.S. Government's Official Guidelines for Preserving Historic Homes, by Department of Interior (544 pages)

<--SEVEN ratings-->
#23.Collected and New Poems, 1924-1963, by Mark Van Doren (615 pages)

Reserved for Tasmanian Devil's Trouncers (I feel like I'm laying placards for a banquet of oceanic youth cricket teams)


Matters of Time, Mystery, and Alternate History.

<--Intertwining Alternate History, the feeling of oddness-->
#24. How Few Remain, by Harry Turtledove (596 pages)
<--Alternate History, War-->
#25. Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon (776 pages)
<--Alternate History, Gone awry-->
#26. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis (578 pages)
<--Alt. History, Dealing with Time/Eternity-->
#27. The Flounder, by Günter Grass (560 pages)
<--Dealing with Time/Eternity-->
#28. Maidenhair, by Mikhail Shishkin (506 pages)
<--Questions of Metaphysics, Meta-fiction, Mystery, Religion-->
#29. The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco (536 pages)

Reserved for Buzz Lightyear's Bombers (this sounds like an inappropriate college shot drink)


Women and Men - all books with those in the title

lol Mt. Literati sounds pretty exciting!

That is one scary Mickey.☻

As long as those Sherpas are not stealing the drinks!

Okay, who was the poor hound that had to be dressed up as a slug for that photo op?

I think it's been clipped many times all over the internet, but was originally a person who makes dog costumes.

Will wrote: "Slick's Slugs, Books 1-6

Maddening Modernists whom you occasionally want to strangle:"

I'll be gleaning books off of your list, I'm sure!

Ok, still working on this, but now in efforts to top Thing Two's connections, I'm connecting BOTH sections and individual books in a complete chain. I suspect the presidential section is getting changed! On the other hand, connecting Moby-Dick to James Monroe might be fun.

Will wrote: "Ok, still working on this, but now in efforts to top Thing Two's connections, I'm connecting BOTH sections and individual books in a complete chain. I suspect the presidential section is getting ch..."

I'll bet Monroe won't think so.☻

Will wrote: "Ok, still working on this, but now in efforts to top Thing Two's connections, I'm connecting BOTH sections and individual books in a complete chain. I suspect the presidential section is getting ch..."

So competitive.

I prefer to think of it as allowing myself to be inspired to further greatness by the example of others...

I liked Moby Dick, and loved To kill a Mockingbird. Hope you enjoy them too!

Alright..I've planned almost to the end...at least as far as I will get until sometime into the year. I'm looking forward to tackling modernists.

haha, love the pictures, esp. Mickey. Good luck, Will!

Ok, I think my books for this challenge are set, hopefully it's all good. ✔

Looks like a great list and your pictures are too cute!

Will wrote: "My landing post for the 2014 challenge!

I begin planning the assault upon the windward face of Mt. Literati; the Sherpas seem restless and keep stealing my waffle mix when I'm distracted pouring ..."

I hope it doesn't take too much blood. Love the planning, mascots, connections, and commentary!

Finally progress after suffering an interminable dalliance at base camp, where I feared for the supply of Gin once the Sherpas had discovered what the Tonic was for. I expressed this fear in a letter to the Admiralty, requesting re-supply, but was rebuffed by them, apparently personally by the redoubtable (and rotund) First Lord himself. I then emailed them this article from Slate (http://www.slate.com/articles/health_...) but for some reason I never receive any replies via email from the Admiralty, only handwritten letters. No doubt more public school snobbery. But I've secretly had a supply sent up from Quebec City, I'll not fall prey to the fates of so many of the crew of Jacques Cartier (http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/5/1/5)

We set off across the icewindblown tundra for our lofty spires, at this point only a distant point of reflection, in both the optic and figurative sense. I'm indeed reminded of an odd story I recently read, concerning a woman planning a party, whereupon the entire tale is wrapped up with the gentle lady's day, and flits from character to character like a butterfly lighting upon flowers; some quite dire, some quite ponderous. An excellent tale to occupy the mind. I must leave off here, as the dogs have curled themselves tightly in the snow, which the Sherpas claim means the night will be especially cold. (http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/01/0...) Considering the distance from their native land, I cannot see how they would know anything of the beasts, and I'm quite sure I saw a copy of Siberian Huskies For Dummies jutting out of Pemba's pack this morning. The fibbers must be watched at all times; I shall have to keep watch over the Imperial Tokay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaji#...) with loaded pistols to keep the rogues from drinking the entirety of it to keep warm tonight. I fear more Ice lies in store for us.

Well the only ice I want to see is ice in a glass of Rye and 7. They can have the gin.

Normally I would have agreed with you, or at least until I learned more about gin. There's an astonishing number of them that range across a map of flavors. You might not have met the right one is all. That said, I'm more of a rum or bourbon man. They always said I was an old-fashioned type of guy.

That said, I bet scurvy would change your mind.

I do recall some adventures many lifetimes ago with lemon gin. And you are certainly correct in surmising that a choice between scurvy and gin would have me leaning heavily towards whatever disinfectant that was available.

Ah, but I don't just mean added flavors. There's so many artisian spirit makers in the US now, you can choose from amongst many lovely spirits of all kinds, including gins. I often times can be seen in the aisles of stores berating young men to never buy inferior spirits. It angries up the blood and leads to a perverted nastiness of mind.

Take this review of St. George's Dry Rye Gin (I admit, I know the PR person there a little, but they really are amazing) -- http://theginisin.com/gin-reviews/st-... --you can see on the graph there's different categories such as floral or spice, citrus, etc. Gin is one of those spirits where too many decades have passed where only rotgut was available to us, and generations have to rediscover all our traditional spirits. Beer and distilled spirits are as fine and as varied as wine now. Go forth all gentle readers and sully not thine lips with inferior tipple.

A place in Hobart (where Kat's from/visiting) make Pepperberry gin, which is a native berry from the Mountain Pepper plant. Incredibly similar to juniperberry (what gin's traditionally made from) and tastes so so so much better.

We have to buy it from the distillery directly (Lark's Distillery if you want to see if they have a US shipping option/supplier). Otherwise our store bought option is Hendricks, tastes of cucumber and coriander (what do you lot call it? Cilantro?).

I may need a G&T now...

Will wrote: "But I've secretly had a supply sent up from Quebec City, I'll not fall prey to the fates of so.."
Expect it in May, when the ice melts.

I love all of the "spirited" information being exchanged here!
You are an old fashioned guy, huh, Will? ROFL!
I don't drink often, but I'm considering a G & T after all that.

Beer. Just give me a book and a beer.

Thing Two wrote: "Beer. Just give me a book and a beer."

That's what I've been doing this evening! They go very well together.

See, I was avoiding bring beer up, I didn't want to be a dork. Around Thanksgiving I bought cases of Barley Wine, my favorite style..but most don't brew it except briefly in the winter, I guess it's a pain to make. 12% ABV too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barley_... beer

Best of all, it ages! So you can cellar it. I highly recommend Lagunitas' Brown Shugga, and Bell's Third Coast Old Ale.

Did you just call me a ... dork?

Thing Two wrote: "Did you just call me a ... dork?"

If you are going to have a fight, don't be throwing beer around the place. Broken glass is one thing. But the smell, is a completely different matter.

Mmm stale beer smell.

not.

No, of course not.. (Captain Underpants)

I meant that I was restraining myself from going dork mode about beer until somebody opened the bottle, as it were.

Seriously though, if you've never tried, taste barley wine when you get a chance to. Nothing quite like it, flavors way more complex than any other beer.

One chunkster down, via combining. The next begins at once, and this time combines two to make the required length.

You guys are funny! Thanks for the entertainment... mmm stale beer!

... checking in. You've got some updating to do, my friend. I appear to be ahead of you.

I know! It's daunting, I've sat down with this list twice since Saturday, and haven't made progress. As far as the actual reading goes, I think I'll have a strong ending to the year..