Reading the Chunksters discussion

Well summer is well under way now. Personally I'm finally catching up with The Name of the Rose.

So let's have some nominations for a Summer Chunky reading selection. Let's go with your favorite summer chunky reads.

What are your favorite chunky summer reads? Those books you just love to sit on the porch and read or take to the beach or sit by the lake.

Let's get this summer on its way with some good chunky reads.

Nominations:

It's not a favorite, since I haven't gotten to it yet, but it was recommended to me some time ago, I got a copy, and just haven't gotten to it yet.

It's probably a more than summer chunkster, since summer is already underway and it's a daunting 1,176 pages long. But the reviews of it here on Goodreads are stellar. Comments like "My favorite book of all time." It " was my whole world in the summer of ’04. I drank in the lives of the characters,..." "I was on bedrest for my 2nd pregnancy, my first ended in miscarriage. It took almost my entire pregnancy to read this book. I would lay there on the couch, w/this big, fat heavy book resting on my stomach & the baby would kick it, so I would try to find another position. I loved this book & was sad when it ended." "I can't pin it down precisely, but I have always loved this book." "I know exactly where I was when I began to read this book. I was in Kensington Gardens in London on a long awaited trip to England. Yet, sitting there, I was already so engrossed I didn't want to put this book down!" And on and on.

So, what is this book? One you may well never have heard of. I hadn't in 50+ years of a reading life until it was recommended to me. Maybe the same is true of others?

But maybe it's time for me to buckle down to it, slowly and lovingly, over months with friends here.

And Ladies of the Club

Helen Hooven Santmyer

You can hear another recommendation for it in this Youtube piece on great chunkers by Steve Donoghue. If you don't want to listen to it all (though it might have some ideas for future reads here!), his comments on And Ladies of the Club start at about 3:45.

That sounds like a great book!

Ha! I had a book club copy of And the Ladies of the Club back in 1983 or so and I just couldn't get into it. I was probably too young. Now I probably AM one of the ladies. Funny how that works.

I am sitting here with a brand new HUGE paper back copy of A Little Life thinking about how nice it will be reading my big, new, shiny, smells-so-good book on my patio on warm summer nights. I have no idea what it is about huge books that make me so excited to read, but i can't wait to start this one! I'm nominating so i can maybe have some friends read along with me!

Sounds good. Two good nominations for sure so far.

We have two great nominations. Since that's it I'd say we read both books. I don't have a copy of either book but I will go look this weekend. I may need someone else to make a reading schedule for one or both if I have trouble finding them.

Before we commit to either one, I would be interested in knowing how many people would plan to read and discuss the books. If we aren't voting, we don't know whether anybody other than you and the nominator is interested in either book.

Personally, I like to see a committed group of at least five readers before I'll put a book on the top of my reading pile ahead of other books I also want to read.

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

The Poll has been created.

What is the time frame for reading the book that is voted in? And the reading pace?

I think that depends on the book, but somewhere between two and three months I think would be a good reading pace.

OK, thanks jennbunny. Both books look good, but I don't want to over-commit, so that's why I'm asking. I'm still trying to catch up on a book that I'm over a month behind in. I think I'm going to have to refrain from voting in this round.

jennbunny wrote: "I think that depends on the book, but somewhere between two and three months I think would be a good reading pace."

Ssssummer is a time for sssslow reading!

LOL well...for the most part...yes it is. I like a nice long slow read.

Well my used bookstore didn't have either book sadly. Neither did my library. Looks like the votes are even.

jennbunny wrote: "Well my used bookstore didn't have either book sadly. Neither did my library. Looks like the votes are even."

abebooks has a number of copies of And Ladies of the Club for about $4 including shipping
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Searc...

So does alibris (they have 59 softcover and 17 hardcover)
http://www.alibris.com/And-Ladies-of-...

And I expect that other online sources do, too.

As to A Little Life, abebooks has a number of copies starting at about $8.00, including several new copies for that price (was the book remaindered?), as does alibris.

So either book is readily available by mail, though I don't know the cost to countries outside the US.

I will definitely be ordering them. But at the moment in in the middle of a big move from Florida to Kentucky. All this packing of books is tiring. LOL

Both books are a big hit. I am needing some volunteers to make up a reading schedule or we will have to wait until after my move so I can order the books.

jennbunny wrote: "Both books are a big hit. I am needing some volunteers to make up a reading schedule or we will have to wait until after my move so I can order the books."

Does that mean you're planning to do both?

If you let me know how long you think Ladies should be scheduled for, I can work on a schedule by the weekend (we're going off island tomorrow, so that's a gone day). It will be a bit complicated because there is no table of contents. But the early part of the book seems to be broken up into sections of roughly 60 or so pages each, big pages (it's a large book) and fairly small type, so 60 pages is a bunch of reading. If it continues in that pattern, and we did one section a week, it would take about 19 or 20 weeks. If that's considered too long, we could try doing two sections a week, for about 10 weeks (always assuming that the pattern continues roughly the same), which would be on the 120 pages a week level. Given the size and density of the pages that's a bit stiff for some of us with limited reading time and other Goodreads discussion groups wanting attention, but OTOH, the reading is fairly easy. Personally I would like a long, slow leisurely read, but I will defer to the group if people want to chunk through it at a faster pace.

Or if anybody else is willing to take on dividing it up, I'll gladly hand over the job! I'm only volunteering because I already have a copy and I nominated it.

Yes we will read both. Once I get moved I can work on ordering the second book and getting that done. But if you could work on And Ladies of the Club that would be awesome. I agree with a slow pace, but use your discretion of you think it's an easier read. I think 60 pages or so a week is a great pace. I really appreciate you taking time to work on this. No rush. I'm gonna try to check goodwill this weekend for both books. Otherwise I will order them and ship them to my new house in KY.

Hi Jennbunny! I have "A little life" and can work on the pages for that. I have family in town for the next 1.5 weeks, though, so it might not be done before then. If someone else was anxious to start and wanted to set up the schedule, that is also fine. Otherwise, expect it after next weekend sometime!

Thank you Kaycie! I really appreciate you taking the time to do that.

Now that the kiddo is (somewhat) on a schedule and is going to sleep at a decent hour i am hoping i will be able to join you for at least one of these reads. I will probably be a LOT slower than everyone else but i will try to keep up (and comment) the best i can!

Tanya wrote: "Now that the kiddo is (somewhat) on a schedule and is going to sleep at a decent hou..."

Oh, that gave me a GREAT belly laugh! Very good for relieving stress!

Sorry. But as a parent of three and grandparent of four living next door and sleeping over occasionally, the idea of a kiddo on even a somewhat regular schedule and going to sleep at a decent hour is worth a good long rolling laugh!

Kaycie wrote: "Hi Jennbunny! I have "A little life" and can work on the pages for that. I have family in town for the next 1.5 weeks, though, so it might not be done before then. If someone else was anxious to st..."

Hi all! I'm new and this is probably a strange place to introduce myself but since I've read A little life and am leading the discussion for another group now I thought I'd chime in that I am happy to come up with a reading schedule by tomorrow if you'd like. I'll try to read the other summer book as well and am looking forward to discussing with you all!

If we read A Little Life for the rest of July through August, this could be a sample schedule, but anyone feel free to modify!

July 11-17: Part I, Lispenard street pp. 1-94
July 18-24: Part II, The Postman, pp. 95-240
July 35-31: Part III, Vanities, pp. 241-320
August 1-7: Part IV, The Axiom of Equality, pp. 321-480
August 8-14: Part V: The Happy Years, pp. 481-600
August 15-21: Part V, cont'd, pp. 600-712
August 22-31, Parts VI and VII, Dear Comrade and Lispenard Street, pp. 713-814

Dianne wrote: "If we read A Little Life for the rest of July through August, this could be a sample schedule, but anyone feel free to modify!

July 11-17: Part I, Lispenard street pp. 1-94
July 1..."

I don't know how dense the reading is, but just based on page counts, that seems a bit heavy for me, personally -- sections of 140 and 160 pages would be a lot for me on top of my other reading (which includes my moderating Brothers Karamazov during that same period). But maybe others like the more rapid reading schedule.

Yeah maybe I shouldn't have chimed in since I was guessing that 'summer' meant July and August. Anyways, when Kaycie or whoever else is more familiar with these things checks in they can change it to what best suits the group, especially since there is another group read here too! (And i also want to read brothers k)

I did up a possible reading schedule for And Ladies of the Club. I prepared it in an Excel worksheet to calculate the pages for each of the many sections (since there's no table of contents), but can't find a way to get it to print here. Finally published it to HTML, and I think it's readable, but far from perfect. It's all here, but a bit hard to read. If it looks good, once we have an assigned start date I'll rewrite it to work in more easily readable format.

I'm using the J.P. Putnam edition printed in 1984, fwiw.

Here's how to read it.

The second column is the sections in the text, which are all single or multiple years. The third column, mostly for calculation uses, is the page number the section starts on in my copy. The next column is the number of pages in that section.

I then tried to break the book up into roughly 60 page sections, per Jeanbunny's message 20. So I marked each section in the first column as the week of the reading, and in the far right column is the cumulative number of pages in that week's reading. I didn't assign actual weeks yet since I have no idea when Jennbunny wants to start this book, whether we're doing them sequentially and if so which first, or what.

As an example week, 1 would be the first three sections, all titled 1868 (so I made them 1868(2) and (3). They have 28, 16, and 22 pages respectively, for a total reading that week of 66 pages. Going down, as another example, week 9 would read 1886 (28 pages) and 1886-87 (30 pages), total 58 pages.

The total is 18 weeks

If I can find a way to copy in an excel spreadsheet and not lose the formatting it would be much easier, but I'm not that computer savvy. But I hope this gives enough information to get a general look at the possible schedule.

And Ladies of the Club Proposed Reading Schedule 

Week Section Page Pages Week Pages
1 1868 3 28 
1 1868 (2) 31 16 
1 1868 (3) 47 22 66
2 1868 (4) 69 12 
2 1869 81 26 
2 1870 107 16 54
3 1872 123 34 
3 1873-74 157 34 68
4 1875 191 36 
4 1875-76 227 46 82
5 1877 273 40 
5 1878 313 32 7
6 1879 345 40 
6 1879 (2) 385 28 68
7 1880 413 44 
7 1880-81 457 30 74
8 1884-85 487 34 
8 1885-86 521 34 68
9 1886 555 28 
9 1886-87 583 30 58
10 1887-88 613 46 
10 1892 659 24 70
11 1892-93 683 48 48
12 1895 731 32 
12 1985-96 763 28 60
13 1898 791 54 54
14 1900-02 845 44 
14 194-05 889 46 90
15 1908 935 54 54
16 1909 989 40 
16 1913 1029 28 68
17 1914-16 1057 20 
17 1916-24 1077 26
17 1925-29 1103 18 64
18 1929 1121 20 
18 1930-32 1141 35 55
 End 1176

Welcome and thanks Dianne. I think that might be a bit steep for a summer reading pace. I thought we'd take the books at least through the end of September. If you want to try again feel free. If I get two reading schedules for the same book, we can post both. I will set up the threads this weekend for the reads as well (I am in the process of packing and moving to a new state so things are a bit jumbled).

That is a great reading schedule Everyman! I think we can start Sunday if that sounds good for everyone. I can set up the threads Friday or Saturday. Thank you so much for taking the time. I hate when I can't get the computer to do exactly what I want. LOL

Thanks jennbunny and good luck with the move! Where are you going to/from?

Appreciate the input on the schedule, here is a revised one with 10 pages a day but again anyone feel free to modify!

A Little Life

July 11-17: pp. 1-70 (Part I)
July 18-24: pp. 71-140 (Part I, Part II)
July 25-31: pp. 141-210 (Part II)
August 1-7: pp. 211-280 (Part II, Part III)
August 8-14: pp. 281-350 (Part III, Part IV)
August 15-21: pp. 351-420 (Part IV)
August 22-28: pp. 421-490 (Part IV, Part V)
August 29-Sept. 4: pp. 491-560 (Part V)
Sept. 5-11: pp. 561-630 (Part V)
Sept. 12-18: pp. 630-700 (Part V)
Sept. 19-25: pp. 701-770 (Part V, Part VI)
Sept. 26-30: pp. 771-814 (Part VI, Part VII)

jennbunny wrote: "That is a great reading schedule Everyman! I think we can start Sunday if that sounds good for everyone. I can set up the threads Friday or Saturday. Thank you so much for taking the time. I hate w..."

Thanks. Are you planning to do both books simultaneously? Or should either Dianne or I hold off and let one go first and the other second?

Good schedule, Dianne! Thanks for doing that! Hopefully now we can get started faster instead of waiting for me!

Everyman - I'd really like if we could do both books simultaneously so we can have the max number of readers. If people want to read them in succession, they can always pick one to do in "real time" and then just follow the finished discussions for the second book. This group is generally great about replying to old threads once a book is finished and someone is catching up.

Just a note that I just picked up And Ladies of the Club at the library and it is INDEED a chunkster!!! Why do these huge books make me weirdly happy. And it was written over a FIFTY YEAR period!! I am looking forward to becoming immersed in Sally and Anne's world over the summer :) I thought the ny times obit of the author was interesting, here it is

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/22/obi...

Kaycie wrote: "Everyman - I'd really like if we could do both books simultaneously so we can have ..."

Okey dokey. If you'll set up the forum for the book in whatever format you prefer, I'll make a reading schedule thread.

I think simultaneously would work too.

I've set up two threads for the books. I will create their own discussion posts as soon as I can get to a computer. Feel free to post the reading schedule. Thank you both for your help!

jennbunny wrote: "I've set up two threads for the books. I will create their own discussion posts as soon as I can get to a computer. Feel free to post the reading schedule. Thank you both for your help!"

Thanks. I'll post the reading schedule there so people have it. But perhaps when you get to a computer you (or one of the other mods?) can set each one up as their own discussion forums (instead of being under the Nominations ideas) as has been done with books in the past? It helps, I think, because then we can title threads with the titles of the chapters which each thread covers. (Non-mods can't create new discussion forums or I would go ahead and do it.)

But in the meantime, I'll post the reading schedule to get people started.

I will definitely set up their own threads.

Ok one thread is now set up. I will get the other one set up tomorrow. Have a great evening.

Everyman wrote: "Dianne wrote: "If we read A Little Life for the rest of July through August, this could be a sample schedule, but anyone feel free to modify!

July 11-17: Part I, Lispenard street ..."

Everyman wrote: "Before we commit to either one, I would be interested in knowing how many people would plan to read and discuss the books. If we aren't voting, we don't know whether anybody other than you and the ..."

Everyman, I will join you. My book should be here on the 14th, so I'll see you in the threads soon after.

"Brothers Karamazov"
You're moderating this...When and Where?

Ami wrote: ""Brothers Karamazov"
You're moderating this...When and Where? ."

I think it's discourteous to mention one book group in another without the moderator's permission, so I'm responding to this by private message, and hope you know how to read those on this forum.

Hi folks! I'm glad there is a good group for And Ladies, it is great!

I wanted to check in on the other summer chunky to see if we have anyone who wants to join for A Little Life ? Jennbunny has her huge move and Kaycie had family visiting so I am going to push the start to August 1 to give us a lazy summer buffer :) so it will run August 1 thru October at about ten pages a day. Anyone in?

Dianne wrote: "Hi folks! I'm glad there is a good group for And Ladies, it is great!

I wanted to check in on the other summer chunky to see if we have anyone who wants to join for A Little Life ? Jennbunny has ..."

Hi! I thought it already started?

Ami, ha it did, in theory! The people who wanted to read it were busy and others didn't chime in yet so we were going to push it to August 1 and relabel the threads that are up.

Got it!

I'd love to read 'A Little Life', but as I am a slow
reader I couldn't manage both. Which one? 3 pages in, in And ladies ...' and nothing has yet happened, not surprisingly! I hope that I manage at least one of them ...

Hilary wrote: " 3 pages in, in And ladies ...' and nothing has yet happened, "

I agree that General Deming's speech isn't all that exciting; I think its purpose is to set the historical stage for the book. But things do start happening pretty quickly, and when they do, a lot happens!

Of course, in this book, at least so far, the happening isn't big dramatic stuff like war or murder or such; it's a very character -based book (again so far), but the things that happen to the characters are, in their lives, dramatic and even life-changing events.

Thanks so much, Everyman. Perhaps, I ought to toddle on and give this book a chance. I realise that I have not quite understood how the book is being divided for this reading. I shall have another look. :-)