Reading the Chunksters discussion

Wow what a close race!!! And all of the nominations were so great! But The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution emerged as our winner!

I haven't researched this book at all yet- what do you all know about it?

Also, while I'd love as many people as possible to participate in this group read, keep in mind that if a sub-set of you would like to establish a buddy read of one of the other nominees (or any other book) then we can accommodate that; I'd prefer to keep a max of one buddy read at a time so we don't dilute our discussions too much. If there's an interest let me know and I'll set up threads for a buddy read although I likely won't have time to join it.

House of Government has a lot of characters and it's a pseudo non-fiction meaning that it's a fiction book but heavily reliant on journals and memories of those involved. When reading, don't worry about keeping everyone straight since most folks drift in and out of the narrative. Just like in real life, we encounter a lot of people for only a few moments and never see them again, they drift in and out of our lives.

Excellent - I am looking forward to this one...

I am also! The more I read about it the more I am looking forward to it. My copy arrives today! We will have to think about a good reading schedule. I'm hoping Feb 12 thru end of March, does that work? That's about 156 page a week.

Yay for House of Government.

The book is over 1000 pages (twice as long as my copy of Moby Dick). There are pictures, though, and space on the pages.

Also, good summary Biblio - although "drifting out" is quite a euphemism.

My understanding is that it's more non-fiction (Slezkine is a history professor) with some fictional leeway - but this might be an interesting discussion point once we start reading.

I've received my copy, and here is a little note from the author:

"This is a work of history. Any resemblance to fictional characters, dead or alive, is entirely coincidental."

My library classifies it as a biography and it has won awards as a history book. I'm going to go with non-fiction. For what it's worth, our current 'chunkster' definition is only in reference to page length and so the book doesn't have to be a novel. So we can totally read an encyclopedia next if you guys want ;)

incidentally, my book has been declared 'undeliverable'. What on the earth is that about? This one book?

My library has it under "nonfiction". I don't think I'm going to have time to participate in this one, although there is an audio book available. Hmmm....

Dianne - where does it say your book is undeliverable? The library? Or did you order it online?

Dianne wrote: "So we can totally read an encyclopedia next if you guys want ;) "

The first volume of Britannica? :P

Dianne wrote: "incidentally, my book has been declared 'undeliverable'. What on the earth is that about? This one book?"

Too chunky to fit through your letter-box?!

Linda wrote: "My library has it under "nonfiction". I don't think I'm going to have time to participate in this one, although there is an audio book available. Hmmm....

Dianne - where does it say your book is u..."

amazon. They are not invincible!! but really, undeliverable?

Roman Clodia wrote: "Dianne wrote: "incidentally, my book has been declared 'undeliverable'. What on the earth is that about? This one book?"

Too chunky to fit through your letter-box?!"

could be!

Dianne wrote: "incidentally, my book has been declared 'undeliverable'. What on the earth is that about? This one book?"


Perhaps they know that you are a moderator in "Chunksters"? ;-)
Informers you know....

Haaze wrote: "Dianne wrote: "So we can totally read an encyclopedia next if you guys want ;) "

The first volume of Britannica? :P"

Huzzah!

Dianne wrote: "My library classifies it as a biography and it has won awards as a history book. I'm going to go with non-fiction. For what it's worth, our current 'chunkster' definition is only in reference to pa..."

I would describe House OG as a non-fiction saga.

Dianne wrote: "Linda wrote: "My library has it under "nonfiction". I don't think I'm going to have time to participate in this one, although there is an audio book available. Hmmm....

Dianne - where does it say ..."

You might want to check your email. Amazon is pretty good at following up. They will try again, but best to find/fix the issue. It is a big thick book. A real Chunkster.

Dianne wrote: "amazon. They are not invincible!! but really, undeliverable? ."

Hmm, you must have too many books in your house? You have reached the Amazon quota! *gasp*

Haaze wrote: "Dianne wrote: "amazon. They are not invincible!! but really, undeliverable? ."

Hmm, you must have too many books in your house? You have reached the Amazon quota! *gasp*"

seriously the mailman does hate me. Once he shoved a box in the mailbox that I literally had to spend 30 minutes extracting. It was totally deliberate. Not like someone is going to steal a chunkster from my doorstep, mail(person). I think.

Dianne wrote: "amazon. They are not invincible!! but really, undeliverable?"

That's crazy and makes no sense. lol.

Extracting a book from the mailbox sounds daunting, Dianne!
You simply need to get a bigger mailbox. We can get a fund together for you! :)

From Amazon, I ordered cat litter, a tiny box of staples and a plastic thing of cat treats. They tossed them all in a giant box together. I had staples, cat treats and shards of plastic everywhere with a hole in the box. Damn!! If only I had a car to buy the damn cat litter myself.

Inside the cover of HoG,

"This is a work of history. Any resemblance to fictional characters, dead or alive, is entirely coincidental."

Maybe it's 'creative non-fction' that's a newish genre?

I got a copy today. Ooh I don’t know about this. It looks an awful lot like a text book! I’m not sure this is a book I can read from beginning to end so at this point I’m not committing to the read but may dip in and out.

Amanda wrote: "I got a copy today. Ooh I don’t know about this. It looks an awful lot like a text book! I’m not sure this is a book I can read from beginning to end so at this point I’m not committing to the read..."

that's totally fine to dabble! I know you didn't even vote for this one. Personally I'm a huge nerd so the history lesson sounds fun :)

Haaze wrote: "Extracting a book from the mailbox sounds daunting, Dianne!
You simply need to get a bigger mailbox. We can get a fund together for you! :)

"

ha! true! well I live in a complex with tiny mailboxes that open with a key. If I had a bigger one then my neighbors would hate me, which would be a far bigger problem ;)

Dan wrote: "Dianne wrote: "Linda wrote: "My library has it under "nonfiction". I don't think I'm going to have time to participate in this one, although there is an audio book available. Hmmm....

Dianne - whe..."

they refunded the purchase. I guess I'll just buy it elsewhere or re-order and see if the new mail(person) is up to the chunkster task.

Amanda wrote: "I got a copy today. Ooh I don’t know about this. It looks an awful lot like a text book!"

Now I'm curious! I'm going to get it from the library just to look at it. I can't commit to reading it next month, though.

It does look like a textbook, but it reads like a novel. The description in the early pages remind me of someone trying to recall memories from their childhood. You know when thinking back on happier days, you can try to capture the fragrances or know the layout of the neighbourhood very well so you can say what the bakery smelt like or the cracks you tripped over. Slezkine's writing is exquisite from what I've read of him.

Biblio wrote: "It does look like a textbook, but it reads like a novel. The description in the early pages remind me of someone trying to recall memories from their childhood. You know when thinking back on happi..."

How much have you read so far?

I'm really looking forward to this read!

I sampled the 1st 50 pages then decided to just buy a copy. I haven't had a chance to get back to it. It's been sitting near my reading desk ever since.

Biblio wrote: "I sampled the 1st 50 pages then decided to just buy a copy. I haven't had a chance to get back to it. It's been sitting near my reading desk ever since."

Is this your desk, Biblio?

Well... that could be the spill over into the 'next up TBR' bookcase beside my desk ^.^ My actual desk is the neatest place in the house, I'm crazy about keeping my reading spot spic & span otherwise I just can't concentrate!

I just can't understand how University professors can have a messy desk like that picture O.O

Biblio wrote: "I sampled the 1st 50 pages then decided to just buy a copy. I haven't had a chance to get back to it. It's been sitting near my reading desk ever since."

I was not going to spend $20+ for a book about Communism. But now I have to sample it. Also a nerd.

I finally got my book. It is definitely a history book, but flipping through it, every passage had some interesting anecdote. How long should we read it you guys? I am torn. 150 ish pages a week might be too much?

I'm certainly not pro communism. Your comment though, it's glorious!!! GR is all about us nerds :P

Hummingbirder wrote: "I was not going to spend $20+ for a book about Communism."

It's about history and humanity itself...

Haaze wrote: "Hummingbirder wrote: "I was not going to spend $20+ for a book about Communism. But now I have to sample it. Also a nerd."

It's about history and humanity itself..."

I did a "Surprise me!" sampling from the middle of the book. I like history, but I am going to pass on this one. I've read about the revolution, many Russian novels, and Ayn Rand. This is too heavy for me to enjoy, and I feel like I've been here somehow already.

Fair enough hummimgbirder! Thanks for checking it out

It certainly has received AMAZING reviews!!!!

_______________________________________________________
One of The Spectator 2017 Books of the Year

One of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2017

Selected as a New York Times Editors’ Choice, 8-24-17

One of The Times Literary Supplement’s Books of the Year 2017

One of the Times Colonist Favorite Books of 2017 (chosen by Adrian Dix)

One of The Australian’s Books of the Year 2017 (chosen by Louis Nowra)

Selected for Le Monde’s “Monde des livres” 2017 (chosen by Nicolas Weill)

One of London Review Bookshop’s Best History Books, Christmas 2017

One of the Millions.com “A Year in Reading 2017: Stephen Dodson”

One of the Economist.com "Wise Words 2017 Books of the Year" in History

One of Open Letters Monthly’s “Our Year in Reading 2017

One of The Guardian’s Best Books of 2017

One of World’s 2017 Books of the Year in “History”

"A Must-Read."--Margaret Atwood

"This panoramic history plotted as an epic family tragedy describes the lives of Bolshevik revolutionaries who were swallowed up by the cause they believed in. The story is as intricate as any Russian novel, and the chapters on the Stalinist Terror are the most vivid."--New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)

"Magisterial. . . . A twelve-hundred-page epic that recounts the multigenerational story of the famed building and its inhabitants--and, at least as interesting, the rise and fall of Bolshevist faith."--Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker

"Yuri Slezkine, Mercurian par excellence, has caught an extraordinary set of lives in this book. Few historians, dead or alive, have managed to combine so spectacularly the gifts of storyteller and scholar."--Benjamin Nathans, New York Review of Books

"The author’s command of the narrative, woven together with innumerable testimonies, is compelling. The effect is like Solzhenitsyn with photographs."--Tom Stoppard, Times Literary Supplement

"What more fitting monument to a millenarian movement could there be than a thousand-page 'saga'? Yuri Slezkine’s guiding argument in this remarkable, many-layered account of the men (rarely women) who shaped the October Revolution is that the Bolsheviks were not a party but an apocalyptic sect. The House of Government is a compelling microhistory of the interwar Soviet elite, but it is also a literary-rhetorical tour de force."--Stephen Lovell, Times Literary Supplement

"A Soviet War and Peace."--Sheila Fitzpatrick, London Review of Books

"A brilliant retelling of, mainly, the first two decades of the Soviet era in a sprawling saga centered around a famous and infamous Moscow apartment building created for the new elite."--Andrew Stuttaford, Wall Street Journal

"[The House of Government] is a dizzying book, a hall of mirrors, panoramic and bizarre, as puzzlingly esoteric and thrillingly fervent as the doctrines it describes."--Owen Hatherley, The Guardian

I think I will have to join you guys. After reading Solzhenitsyn the last two months I feel as if this is excellent historical context. Will this be a ten week read or less?

Yay! I don’t know what do you think makes sense haaze? I can’t decide.

980 pages without notes/index. I would go for 8 weeks at least - it seems more like a nonfiction history. Perhaps a tentative schedule and leave it flexible depending on participation?

Good idea. I’ll work on one.

I won't say anything about the schedule - chances are I will start late and read the whole thing in one go, but it does look a rather heavy book to read on the move...

Hope everyone has a great time with the book! Unfortunately, I'm passing on this one. Its not in my local library system and it's also out of my price range!

I read The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore last summer and absolutely loved it! So this would be a good follow up read. I’ll be reading this on the kindle ha ha. My postman is very much like yours Dianne! My copy of Anna Karenina was undeliverable because it didn’t fit through my mail box... He could have just rung the bell or left it outside (if someone wants to steal Anna Karenina, I’d like to meet them!) haha

Well, I thought we'd need at least six weeks for Moby Dick, and it turns out 4 would have been enough for me. This is a much longer book, and I think 6-8 weeks is about right.

Also, read Montefiore's Romanovs - last fall. Terrific. Its end will just about be this books beginning.

I didn't get to Romanovs last year, my copy is still sitting on my shelves, waiting patiently. I sampled it before buying and it does look exquisite ^.^ I just wish I could read faster!!

I'll start reading House on Feb. 1 and try to not fall behind.

I’m in on this one and I’ve already received my copy from Amazon. I saw it on the NewYork Times best fiction of 2017 list and apparently some of it is taken from history?? I have read a little on the Russian Revolution but besides that I don’t know much about Russian History- I won’t know what is taken from history or is complete fiction. I’m glad to be reading this with a group.