Author Topic: The Library (Read 2313029 times)

Babi · « **Reply #10400 on:** January 07, 2013, 09:02:36 AM »

The Library

Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.

We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).

Let the book talk begin here!

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It occurs to me, reading these posts, that there is one good reason women are more likely
to form a club than men. Though it's not as true as it once was, women are more confined
to their homes (children) while men are around people at work all day. The women need a way to get out and socialize, and the men have had all, or more, than they want.
'Enjoy your club, dear. I'll watch TV with the kids.'

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #10401 on:** January 07, 2013, 11:26:29 AM »

Bookmarks Magazine featured an all-male book group at somepoint last year. I think there were others mentioned too.
Our f2f club has two regular members (male) and mystery club has 1 regular, but have had other men as visitors off and on.

ginny · « **Reply #10402 on:** January 07, 2013, 11:44:02 AM »

We're a "club" here, aren't we?

I think of us as one, tho some people think "club" is exclusionary, ours is not.

I like to hear everything everybody has to say, no matter the subject.

Marjifay, I like Gone Girl too! So FAR.

Jonathan, I was delighted somebody read that post. hahaha Thank you. I loved the glorious and the fireplace! hahahaa

PUFF piece? You are the second person I have ever known to use that term, (Pearson was the first). I had to look it up, it means: Puff piece or fluff piece is an idiom for a journalistic form of puffery; an article or story of exaggerating praise that often ignores or downplays opposing viewpoints ...

(Of course that's Wiki so we know it's wrong but is that what you meant by the term?).

If you do read Gone Girl, I really want to hear your thoughts on about page 120.

Steph I know what you mean, but a lot of people do not know that Stephen King is considered one of the best literary critics alive and his book On Writing is a treasure. However he does tend toward the dark as we all know. In On Writing for instance he lauded Anne Rivers Siddon's The House Next Door which I also loved, but it has not only horror but the supernatural in it. So far Gone Girl is neither but again I'm only 1/4 of the way thru it. As far as Gone Girl, I do think there is some very deep anger in it from some of the characters, concealed in others.

Jonathan, I have the biography of Highsmith, and I'm really glad to find somebody else reading it, would you agree from what you've read so far that she was quite strange? When you think of her Ripley character and you realize that she manages somehow to make the reader eventually pull (while grimacing) for a psychopath, that's a pretty amazing feat in itself, but one has to wonder how much of that was in her to start with?

I looked at the photo of the author of Gone Girl, and she doesn't look the least bit off or odd. I'm going to read up on her earlier books because she really CAN write well. You have to wonder where this stuff comes from, tho, sometimes. Stephen King said it was his form of free psychotherapy, he got his fears out in writing them down. Think about what he's written!

Yesterday, for a lighter approach, I picked up my old yellowing copy of The Egg and I, and have begun reading it again. What an upbeat person she was, the movie, while cute, didn't tell the entire story. She was positive thru adversity, divorce (didn't you wonder where that relationship was going in the movie?) and illness and managed to write wonderful books. I am now looking for her book of her life on Vashon Island, was it Onions in the Stew? Can't find it but I have it. Time for a reread, since we now have chickens and I can relate once again to a lot of what she's saying in both.

It does feel good to have so many books just waiting around the corner to read, like a full refrigerator!

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #10403 on:** January 07, 2013, 11:48:21 AM »

Ginny, for me one of the good differences about this 'club' is that there are no prescribed reading lists - we can read what we like and chat about it, and we can also pick up lots of new book ideas from everyone else. I like the freedom coupled with the fellowship. The library book group was starting to feel too much like GCE English to me.

Rosemary

JeanneP · « **Reply #10404 on:** January 07, 2013, 12:36:24 PM »

For men I suppose, clubs are meant to be "Places to meet Chicks" as I hear the young people say.

ginny · « **Reply #10405 on:** January 07, 2013, 01:01:45 PM »

Yes my goodness, or the Shriners or the Masons or the Mummers or the Knights of Columbus or the innumerable "men groups" out there which have functioned forever.

Rosemary, I like that! Another super thing is the opportunity here to talk books with people you'd never ever have met in your lifetime, from all over the world. I treasure that.

Jonathan · « **Reply #10406 on:** January 07, 2013, 02:33:45 PM »

Lots of books around waiting to be read - like a full refrigerator.' I love that Ginny. What a wonderful comparison. And how fortunate. How many in this world have to content themselves with one or the other. I've known men who have starved themselves while adding to their hoard of books. Men, not all, of course, have always been great bibliohpiles. Proud of their libraries.

As for the use of 'puff ', I recognize that the word is ambivalent. But I saw only your enthusiasm in telling us about the book. I took it as a five-star recomendation of a specific reading pleasure. And challenge. Pass the cookies, please.

Jonathan · « **Reply #10407 on:** January 07, 2013, 08:46:11 PM »

Ginny, I regret the faux pas. Your post caught my imagination and my interest and caused me to use an expression that carries a lot of meaning. I saw only your positive interest in the book, and your eagerness to share a reading experience.

I owe all of you a huge debt of thanks for all the good reading I've been put on to over the years. It's always fun to come in here and and get 'the goods' on what's good to read.

Steph · « **Reply #10408 on:** January 08, 2013, 08:59:02 AM »

Yes,,,The Egg and I, The Plague and I, Onions in the Stew, and Anyone can do Anything. I have all of them.She died too early. A lovely funny writer. We visited Vashon when we were in Seattle, just for me.. It is as pretty as she said.
I put Gone Girl on my wish list on my book swap.. We will see. I know that Stephen King is supposed to be many things.. I love that he once ( and may still) owned a corgi that he adored. He writes well, but oh I simply do not like to read dark dark books..
I have started "Dearie".. a biography of Julia Child, that I asked for and got at Christmas.. A bit wordy, but fun.

ginny · « **Reply #10409 on:** January 08, 2013, 09:07:33 AM »

hahaha Jonathan, not to worry, I did not know what it meant, and as you say apparently it means a lot of things.

MAJOR caveats with that book, tho? MAJOR! Up to page 120 there's almost (almost) nothing to fault. Apparently at the end there's a lot of darkness and maybe something else one does not want to read. I don't know but Tome and marjifay do, and apparently it can be very offputting. So for the good bits, 5+ stars till page 120 for what's coming, maybe minus stars. That's the problem with writing something BEFORE you finish the book. Caveat lector!

I wonder if there is a term for "Started out brilliantly, I'm now embarrassed to say I read it, ended like Hannibal Lecter on sexual steroids."

THAT'S the kind of book it might be, so forewarned is forearmed.

pedln · « **Reply #10410 on:** January 08, 2013, 10:46:08 AM »

Computer fixed, finally catching up. My router was dying and my lovely nephew came for a visit just in time to pick me out a new one and set it up for me.

Rosemary, what wonderful news for both you and Anna. I know you're proud of her, and we will all watch her progress through the University into the concert hall and on to the stage. Many congratulations to her.

Book clubs -- I love this one here. It was my first and it will always rate such. But locally, things are good too. One f2f club, a group of friends, we've met in various places, and started out as a "Mystery" book club, but now we're not held to just mysteries. Once a year (or so -- we hang kind of loose -- it might be 13 or 14 months) we eat lunch out and plan the next year, everyone suggesting a title or two they've read and would be willing to lead. Once in a while we need to change the schedule, but so far, all has worked well.

Mabel/Jean -- I understand your political problems. The Dems here just don't run locally. Everything gets done in the Rep. primary. Statewide -- thank goodness for Claire McCaskil. Of course, I don't really understand why local positions have to be party-related .

kidsal · « **Reply #10411 on:** January 09, 2013, 02:09:34 AM »

Have been to shy to ask -- but what is f2f?

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #10412 on:** January 09, 2013, 02:27:58 AM »

Not completely sure but I think it means Face To Face - I hate all these initials - it is like a second language and I see no value in it as a means to conversation - reading posters like ads is what it has become. grrr I know twitter but honestly we can talk on SeniorLearn.

Steph · « **Reply #10413 on:** January 09, 2013, 06:22:11 AM »

face to face.. I don't mind the easy ones, but my granddaughter seems to use a second language when she texts.. Oh well.
Dearie.. finally got to where she and Paul meet.. This is one of those authors who has to give you every breath,,, but I am learning to skim..
I dislike taking a book apart, so don't really participate in a lot of book discussions.. Reading for me is my private world.

ginny · « **Reply #10414 on:** January 09, 2013, 08:16:56 AM »

Page 250 of Gone Girl and counting. Major twist. I knew it! But I see a part III coming up and I dread it for what twist i am afraid is coming. So far I still love it, such a clever author. But now one reads in a great hurry, can't bear not to see what's coming, like a tongue keeps pushing a sore tooth.

Will we be able to stand the end?

I don't think Oprah would have it as her first return Book Club selection if it's what I think it is, but we'll see.

Silly me, found self getting up and double bolting all the doors when reading it late at night. hahahaaa

I think the issues the book raises go way beyond the plot. Perhaps that's why Oprah picked it. To this point it would make a great discussion. From this point on, who knows?

Babi · « **Reply #10415 on:** January 09, 2013, 09:06:59 AM »

Sometimes just saying a weird phrase out loud helps, STEPH. A lot of the text language is
like that. C U, phonetically, is 'see you'.

JeanneP · « **Reply #10416 on:** January 09, 2013, 01:32:32 PM »

They have a dictionary out now I believe telling what all those Initial words mean. The kids are even using them to talk now. Most of the past 20 years perfect English has been gone. Even the American way of speaking. Spelling can be phonetically. (Glad about that as I am not a perfect speller.) Little English taught in Schools now and no penmanship at all. People coming in from other countries having been taught English there (Most have). they speak it much better than US children. Many speak 3 or 4 languages.

Steph · « **Reply #10417 on:** January 10, 2013, 06:16:17 AM »

Hmm, you obviously don't live in Florida.. Many of our immigrants or central and south American and no,, they have zero English.. The children learn it in school.. The parents mostly don't..But then I got my pedicure the other day and I wont go back to that one. All of the help had little or no English and they chatted away in whatever oriental language they spoke.. Made me uncomfortable sitting there while all around me, I did not understand a word. I can see why my friends have all given up on this place. Used to be owned by a wonderful funny lady who spoke at least three languages and her children worked for her. Welcoming and friendly,, now.. forget it..

marjifay · « **Reply #10418 on:** January 10, 2013, 08:22:47 AM »

Ginny, I've had Gillian Flynn's earlier book SHARP OBJECTS on my TBR list. Just moved it up to the top of the list after reading her Gone Girl. Per Pub. Wkly review, "Flynn gives new meaning to the term "dysfunctional family" in her chilling debut thriller. The horror creeps up slowly, with Flynn misdirecting the reader until the shocking, dreadful and memorable double ending."

Definitely not an Oprah book, LOL.

Marj

ginny · « **Reply #10419 on:** January 10, 2013, 08:48:12 AM »

I'm up to 330, got up at 4 to read it and went to bed after midnight, it's a wonder I can think straight. Other than the flying F word, there is some potty mouth, but it's a fascinating psychological study. What other twists does she have in store, one really cannot put it down.

Let us know how you like Sharp Objects? I don't know about shocking and dreadful hahaha and I dread THAT tendency here, too.

This one is a lot like Joy Fielding's Run, Jane, Run, which I also liked very much.

MaryPage · « **Reply #10420 on:** January 10, 2013, 02:53:43 PM »

Interesting, someone else said that a while back.

Steph · « **Reply #10421 on:** January 11, 2013, 06:20:46 AM »

I am not a Jane Fielding fan at all..

ginny · « **Reply #10422 on:** January 11, 2013, 07:49:17 AM »

I think it was I, MaryPage.

I must stop repeating myself.

Oh I like Jane Fielding, at least I liked (way back then) See Jane Run. We had the opportunity to have her speak at one of our Bookfests, her publicist wrote us, think of that, but we had a speaker and we were not in her area.

I finished Gone Girl. I went to bed after midnight with it and got up at 4 am two days in a row with it and let me tell you, that's SOME book. That's a BOOK there. It would make a fascinating psychological study or debate.

I loved it. BUT I have strange taste. If you like the Ripley books, not just the first one but all of them, then you need to get it and read it. If you don't like that kind of thing (and we're all entitled to our taste) then I'd pass it by. Depends on your taste.

I was WAY off tho I began to suspect about half way thru that something wasn't right. How clever she is. No wonder it's on the top of everybody's list, (and yes it has unpleasant language in it. On occasion). Not a cozy, not uplifting, sending you singing out into the sunshine but a HECK of a book. 5 thumbs up! (

Babi · « **Reply #10423 on:** January 11, 2013, 09:45:04 AM »

I've been very divided on whether or not to try "Gone Girl". Now that you have likened
it to Ripley, GINNY, the issue is decided. I am not a Ripley fan, so I'll concede the
lady's genius and let it go at that.

Jonathan · « **Reply #10424 on:** January 11, 2013, 02:14:16 PM »

Ginny, can I borrow your copy? What a relief to hear that you've come out of it emotionally and mentally intact. I've been following your progress through the book with amazement and wonder. The reader reviews are equally enthusiastic: 'it has become part of the zeitgeist', 'sharp-edged wit...chilling prose', 'marriage has never looked so menacing', 'a hurricane of horrors', and best of all, whatever you raced past on a first reading will look completely different the second time around.'

Is GONE GIRL worth revisiting? I've checked the local library system. There are 1464 holds on 223 copies. Loved Highsmith. Flynn sounds like a worthy successor. Does either one qualify as the American Dostoyevsky?

ginny · « **Reply #10425 on:** January 11, 2013, 03:33:28 PM »

hahaha, this There are 1464 holds on 223 copies. Loved Highsmith. tells you all you need to know. It's not a Dostoyevsky tho, not that cumbersome.

You could have my copy, I'd love for you to borrow it, if I weren't going to reread it and then give it to my DIL. Maybe by that time the Wait List will be a bit shorter. I've often thought, when i finish these books, if we should try, like Tome did, to resurrect the, in a very limited way, Book Exchange or create a Book Borrow type of thing , because I think people would like to read some of these (maybe not this one) books? Shame for them if not keepers, to sit here or go to the Library.

This one is definitely a Keeper.

I dunno, do you think Highsmith is a Dostoyevsky?

Babi, I understand that reasoning.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #10426 on:** January 11, 2013, 04:52:32 PM »

So,ginny, I take it you actually liked "Gone Girl". (spoken w/tongue in cheek) Who was it that said, "there's no accounting for taste". LOL to each his/her own.

I have always been a "keeper" of books, now there are just no more spaces to put the ones I wish to keep, or the ones I don't wish to keep, but can't bear to part with. And, I just keep getting more. I do have a Kindle, but it's getting so crowded it has slowed to a snail's pace.

JeanneP · « **Reply #10427 on:** January 11, 2013, 06:17:31 PM »

No Gone Girl in LP yet at our Library and so just put name down for Regular. I am No 149 on the list.

salan · « **Reply #10428 on:** January 11, 2013, 06:18:44 PM »

Gone Girl is my ftf book club selection for May; but after reading all comments, I am not sure I want to read it. If it's too scary or creepy, then I definitely do not. Ever since my husband died, I steer away from books that make me scared at night. Is this one of those?? I think Stephen King is a good writer; but after reading a couple of his books many years ago, I don't read him. I still can't sleep at night unless my feet are covered up!! Please tell me whether this book is like that. I have an overactive imagination.
Sally

JudeS · « **Reply #10429 on:** January 11, 2013, 07:00:44 PM »

I read the last two pages of posts and will definitely read "Gone Girl". It sounds fascinating.

I have taken a break from fiction and have read two wonderful!!!! non-fiction books:

1:God's Hotel by Victoria Sweet

2:The Hare With the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

They both opened up new worlds for me.
Anyone else familiar with these either of these books/

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #10430 on:** January 11, 2013, 07:35:39 PM »

I consider Gone Girl more creepy than scary. Interesting plot line and way the story is told, but, not bragging, I had the finish figured way, way early in the book. Did not really enjoy the book at all.

Steph · « **Reply #10431 on:** January 12, 2013, 06:46:45 AM »

Oh me, well I am on the wish list on my swap club for it.. We will see. Ginny, you also like Preston, et.al and I simply cannot read them.. Just don't like books, I think of as horror books..

Babi · « **Reply #10432 on:** January 12, 2013, 08:54:40 AM »

Both those titles are new to me, JUDE. What are the books about? The DL's are looking
for a good book to discuss in February. Both non-fiction, right? Makes you wonder what
"God's Hotel" could be about.

MaryPage · « **Reply #10433 on:** January 12, 2013, 09:12:27 AM »

I have long planned to get a copy of Gone Girl, but since I have literally hundreds of books on hand to read I am able to wait until a book comes out in paperback, which, with my arthritic hands, I prefer. So it is on my Wish List at Barnes & Noble, and I think they have a set date of something like May when it will be published in that form and I will get it.

Books of non-fiction or poetry may stay in my library, but all fiction goes off to a family member, depending upon their likes and dislikes. Anything to do with France goes to daughter Debi. Almost everything else goes to granddaughter Paige, who is my soulmate. I don't bother to pass on to her anything that I do not enjoy. My tree books are going to be lugged off to great granddaughter Leah, who shares my adoration of those; and Oh Boy, do I ever have tree books. Some are too huge and heavy for me to pick up these days! Well, I could go on about books for like forever, so I will stop right here.

ginny · « **Reply #10434 on:** January 12, 2013, 09:16:57 AM »

I guess Preston and Childs, particularly in Relic and Reliquary , ARE horror. I never thought of them as that.

There is no supernatural horror in Gone Girl.

Salan, I would love to discuss Gone Girl, preferably with everybody reading along at the same place, nobody spoiling it by revealing the ending, and speculating what's about to happen. The best thing would be for two friends to read it together, stop, and say what they think, as they go, because they might change their minds.

However Gone Girl, is, to me, frightening. It's very hard to describe. The writing is wonderful. I found self, while reading it once while my husband was away, locking even the bedroom doors. Against what? I don't know.

It's about masks people wear. Big time.

It's noir.

It's different. It's hot and deservedly so. The reader needs to beware.

hahaha Tome, I don't know who said "there's no accounting to taste," but if they were trying to translate De gustibus non disputandum est, (in which this word order is more grammatically correct than the est slapped in the middle), that actually literally means (and is often misquoted): about taste it must not be argued. As you said, to each his own. Disputandum means must be argued (it's a Passive Periphrastic) and it's negative here (non). So it's essentially about taste there must not be an argument. There's no point in arguing about taste.

And that's true, there isn't.

JoanK · « **Reply #10435 on:** January 12, 2013, 02:07:59 PM »

"I do have a Kindle, but it's getting so crowded it has slowed to a snail's pace."

Do you put books you've finished or won't read for awhile in your archives? That way, they're stored on Amazon, not your machine, and don't take up space.

I only order the sample until i'm ready to actually read the book. Then as soon as I'm finished (or decide not to finish), it goes into archives. Only reference books and a few classics stay on my kindle. I haven't noticed any slowing at all on mine, as I have accumulate about 500 books.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #10436 on:** January 12, 2013, 02:37:33 PM »

I have pretty close to 500 books - - 490 to be exact. I delete the ones I have read. I guess I don't know where the "archive" tab is? Can you help?

marjifay · « **Reply #10437 on:** January 13, 2013, 08:35:59 AM »

Ginny, if you find Gone Girl frightening (I didn't), then for goodness sakes don't read THE SNOWMAN by Jo Nesbo! (I did find that one frightening)

Marj

ginny · « **Reply #10438 on:** January 13, 2013, 09:30:29 AM »

Oh no@!!!!! hahahah I just had read a huge piece on it in the New York Times, he's the new Girl With A...type author? From Norway? And paperback! So I used a B&N gift card to get that one, too! hahhahaaa

Other than scary do you recommend IT?

I have seen a lot of remarks in our book discussions on Jane Gardam recently, her new book, the third in the Old Filth trilogy, comes out...I think it's April of 2013? It's not out yet.

I have the Man in the Wooden Hat, which is #2 in the series, but have not read it; it's way down in one of the many To Be Read stacks. Would those of you who did read it let us know (even if you have to repeat yourselves) how you liked it?

I just found a very interesting new one (coming out January 15) that fans of Downton Abbey might like, I'll put it in the PBS Masterpiece area, it looks really good, to me.

Man it's some kind of low coming off Gone Girl, nothing to get up at 4 am for. What are you all reading that is good?

Frybabe mentioned in another discussion the book The House of a Thousand Candles, so, armed again with the B&N gift card, I ordered it.

It looks fabulous, thank you Frybabe and it's a reprint under a label called Forgotten Books, which also offers 1,000,000 free ebooks on their website www. Forgotten Books. org. But in the print book, you get the original appearance of the text and the illustration which appeared at the beginning of the first chapter, which is scrumptious, it looks wonderful. I am looking forward to starting it. I love the premise, because I love old books in general, and this is a nice clean not musty not foxed not dirty not worm eaten copy. So you can have the pleasure you would have had in 1907.

I really applaud this concept. The cover says:

Quote

Forgotten Books Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings.

Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the quality of the aged text.
__________________________

Philosophy~Classics~ Science~ Religion~ History~ Folklore~Mythology.

All digitally copied old books, however, are NOT good. I got a digitally remastered Smith's Dictionary a while back, not from these people, from somebody in Japan, which is pretty much unreadable. I have learned when these people say you have to take it as is and it might not be perfect, they mean it, it's awful.

But THESE people seem to be the real thing. THIS edition is wonderful. I love the back, they've even copied the library card from the University of California, Davis.

With the stamps. It was checked out on January 30, 1959 and again on April 7, 1984. hhhaaa

It says "an initial fine of 25 cents will be assessed for failure to return this book on the date due. The penalty will increase to 50 cents on the 4th day and to $1.00 on the seventh day overdue."

Like a lot of other things, the concept, if done right, is wonderful, and I appreciate hearing about it here. You can have it either way, you can read it free electronically or in print. And you're not out if you don't like it, either, as a million of them are free.

Win/ win!

Anybody reading anything good?

Frybabe · « **Reply #10439 on:** January 13, 2013, 09:38:53 AM »

Oh, that's interesting, Ginny. I didn't realize House of a Thousand Candles was in print anywhere. I am going to have to look into Forgotten Books.

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Author Topic: The Library (Read 2313029 times)