Book Selection for 9/23/06

[madnak]

Since we're finishing The Gambler on the 23rd, I'm opening the voting for the next book. The members of the Club according to my records are (in order of sign-up):

FortunaMaximus
MrWookie*
pryor15
Enrique
TroutMaskReplica
captain2man
KOTLP*
Borodog
Triumph36*
Plato
tolbiny
katyseagull
MyTurn2Raise*
StevieG*
jester710
Bill C*
diebitter (green guys go last [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img])

* indicates tentative membership.

If anyone (Sniper, Mrs. Utah, dc_publius) isn't on the list and would like to be, let me know.

Next week's choices will be up to FortunaMaximus. Fortuna, please either PM me with your choices or set up a poll on this thread.

[FortunaMaximus]

Will do. I should have a rough list in half a day.

[FortunaMaximus]

Poll as requested. My thoughts on the titles to follow. Tossed in Other as a choice for better ideas.

[FortunaMaximus]

A couple of contemporary works:

"Market Forces", Richard Morgan.

Morgan's a mostly far-future hard sci-fi author with emphasis on warfare. This most definitely is not sci-fi. It's set in the 2040's, and is an accurate look into class divisions between the upper and lower classes. Set in England, primarily. Main issues: Globalization, corporate samurai, road raging, explosive action. Think Fast and the Furious meets Boiler Room meets Tombstone with heavy emphasis on funding insurgency and wars as a corporate philosophy. He cites works by Chomsky, Michael Moore, William Easterly among others as conceptual references in writing this novel.

It's got sex, violence, greed, money, degeneracy. Appealing to gamblers.

"Pattern Recognition", William Gibson.

Another book that's out of the ordinary for the author. William Gibson is the father of dark cyberpunk. His writing style has been described as the Road Runner on crack. That's a fairly apt description. This, while, not cyberpunk, revolves around the 'net of today. Forums, blogs, and if you recall a recent fascination about people leaving snippets of video to be attached for a final product, the idea probably came from this book. It's a post-noir mystery, I guess you could say.

A few favorites by Hemingway in keeping with the classical theme. And those aren't as thick page-wise.

Islands in the Stream, A Farewell to Arms, and if it isn't too cliched for a book club, The Old Man and the Sea. I don't think espousing Hemingway's virtues would add too much here.

A classic that gets overlooked sometimes is "The Good Soldier", Ford Maddox Ford.

It's an entirely narrative novel, and the narrator is one half of an American couple that get entangled with an English couple on a few levels including adultery. This was published in 1915 and is set in that era. It can be found at Gutenberg, whilst the others aren't public domain.

[FortunaMaximus]

Mornin', wormies.

Shall I break the impasse? Market Forces would evoke fresh discussion of some old ideas.

[Sniper]

Did we finish discussion of The Gambler?

[FortunaMaximus]

Bumped according to thread date. We in a hurry?

[Enrique]

[ QUOTE ]
Did we finish discussion of The Gambler?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, but the format is to decide the next book at the same time as discussing the present one. That way there is no delay between finishing a book and starting reading the next one.

[madnak]

Market Forces it is.

[madnak]

It looks like the book is ~460 pages, so we'll read ~115 per week. I won't be getting the book until Monday, so Fortuna, will you choose the first stopping place? A chapter break close to page 115.