The Modern Library 100 Best Novels Challenge discussion

The January 2012 read will be The Stand by Stephen King.

Awesome, I look forward to reading this book. Yours Gregory D. Rothbard

My book just arrived. Seems a little thick-- anyone think we need to spread it out into two months?

I was hoping that would be the case. Are other readers with us. Just wondering if anyone is out there besides Shawn and Gregory; or have they all got the virus. Hmmmm... Please respond if you are out there reading the stand.

I'm certainly fine with spreading over two months. Enjoying the book very much, and must say it makes me think every time someone sneezes!

Two months it is!

John wrote: "I'm certainly fine with spreading over two months. Enjoying the book very much, and must say it makes me think every time someone sneezes!" I also think oh oh the boy's a gonner...when anyone sneezes.

I hope they make a remake of the movie... the movie from the 1980's was so hokey(contrived; phoney) to the heart of King's epic. The book holds up, the movie does not.

Hey here is a resource for the Hymn on page 380 of the complete book. The one that is 1176 pages long. http://www.hymnlyrics.org/mostpopular...
Just thought I would share it. Thanks Greg

I'm not reading The Stand because I've read it 4 times before. I LOVE, LOVE this book and it's one of my favorite of all times. I hope you like it as much as I did. I believe it to be his best.

This is my first post, however, this book is one of my favorites of all time. It is a classic that has it all. If you are a Stephen King fan, you should know that this book was severely edited by his publisher when the published it and after he became a well known writer, he made them run it again in an unedited version. This is what you will be reading.

Thanks. Here's how I see it and probably will stir the waters. The unedited version is great but I also am reading the edited version because at times King goes off onto rabbit trails which are great but man they consume a lot of time. To me there should have been a mix between the edited and the unedited, because of this to read both books allows the reader to read in the details where they need more explaining and less when they don't.

Marylu wrote: "I have read both versions and while there may be a few rabbit trails, the unedited version is more complete than the unedited on.

This is still one of my all time favorites of the good versus evil..."

Agreed.... I also think it is one of the good versus evil novels of all time. Stephen King rocks! I agree the unedited version is more complete than the unedited one. But both have their merits. Greg

I read this novel last year and I LOVED it! I have read King's books before and, though this one was not as supernatural, it was definitely scary, especially in the midst of flu season! I read through it a lot quicker than I thought I would. Don't be concerned about the length, it moves very quickly.

I wasn't a member when this club was formed. What list are you using as the 100 Best Novels. I assume that the next selection must be one of them, correct ?

Marylu wrote: "I wasn't a member when this club was formed. What list are you using as the 100 Best Novels. I assume that the next selection must be one of them, correct ?"

Hi Marylu,
If you look under the Introductions discussion, there should be a thread titled "list of books" or something like that. That lists all the books that the group is working through, but I don't think we are reading in any order.

Yep, Trisha is absolutely right.

The list is http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/....

Each month or so we ask for nominations from this list. I then create a poll from the nominations and the winner is selected for the next month's read.

In general, I try to adhere to the following timeline:

The 15th, ask for nominations.
The 20th, create a poll from the nominations.
The 25th, update the group with the selected book.

Hope that helps!

-Shawn

I noticed that Stephen King often quotes the modern Library books that we have read. If he does not quote them he references them. So reading in this club and reading Stephen King at the same time is quite a blast. I am reading The Wasteland the third book in the Dark Tower series and found a mention of The Bridge of the San Louis Rey. pg 90 in the book. Wowzer. Would it be cool to cite the references to books in this club cited in other books? Maybe make it a subject separate from regular discussion. It fascinates me.