by Meriadoc

Greetings everyone!

And so we have (theoretically) finished 2666. As such, the rotation ends and a new leader takes the role for the next book, and I've taken the lead this time. First things first, I think it's vital to give props to humanodon for his work on 2666. It set a high bar that I'm going to have a hard time hitting.

Secondly, I, like many others, really wanted to keep up with it as we went along but I, like many other people, unfortunately have a ton of things to do and tackling Bolano's work (or Rand's) was a eyes-to-stomach-ratio imbalance. This time around, I think it's universally agreed that we need something shorter. Humanodon hit the nail on the head in the previous post saying

So far, we have finished two books in this incarnation of hubski book club. Both of the books (*The Fountainhead* by Ayn Rand and 2666 by Roberto Bolaño) were very long, very dense books and we saw a precipitous drop-off as the reading stretched into months (this one took more than 2 months). Please remember when voting for a book that people have lives outside of hubski too! Try to base your choice not only on interest, but what you can realistically achieve. In short, do not let your eyes get bigger than your literary mouth. Please!

I believe it was thenewgreen that also suggested that if you suggested a book, really try your best to stick around for the whole time. I won't require it though, because obviously life sometime has other plans, but I do like it as a soft-rule.

So to the heart of it: We have to decide on a new book, and open up for more suggestions. The list so far includes:

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

Boss by Mike Royko

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson

Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

any books by Cormac McCarthy

Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

The River of Doubt by Candice Millard

The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek

Morvern Callar by Alan Warner

Lanark: A Life in Four Books by Alasdair Gray

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera

Zadie Smith - White Teeth

Doris Lessing - The Golden Notebook

Newly from the last post:

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Genesis

From the voting last time, Cormac McCarthy is the clear winner, followed by The Satanic Verses. I'm extremely interested in reading more of his work as well, so we should pick from his body of work. I'm leaning heavily towards Blood Meridian as that is widely considered his greatest work, but as always, voting is open. If there is no heavy dissent, we'll pick from his body of work, unless something else is voted far above it. Make your opinions known this this thread, make your alternate suggestions, give assent or dissent on McCarthy, and assent or dissent on Blood Meridian. I will tally it all up between the multiple threads and make a decision by Friday at midnight. From there, a new post will be made with a schedule and information on our choice.

As always, the list of people interested in at the bottom of this page. You can message them individually or copy this whole list here when making a post regarding book club. Use the tag #hubskibookclub and you can copy and paste the whole list here:

     @StJohn@, @DiamondLou86@, @AnSionnachRua@, @_refugee_@, @minimum_wage@, @flagamuffin@, @fuffle@, @b_b@, @hugitout@, @JakobVirgil@, @zebra2@, @AdSeriatim@, @mk@, @thenewgreen@, @SufficientGrace@, @ecib@, @kleinbl00@, @cliffelam@, @hootsbox@, @lil@, @rezzeJ@, @cgod@, @blackbootz@, @onehunna@, @AshShields@, @BLOB_CASTLE@, @insomniasexx@, @kuli@, @cowboyhaze@, @louderwords@, @Floatbox@, @maynard@, @hiss@, @NikolaiFyodorov@, @Meriadoc@, @wasoxygen@, @BlackBird@, @jayfixkleenit@,  @crimsonlight@

Cheers!

StJohn, DiamondLou86, AnSionnachRua, _refugee_, minimum_wage, flagamuffin, fuffle, b_b, hugitout, JakobVirgil, zebra2, AdSeriatim, mk, thenewgreen, SufficientGrace, ecib, kleinbl00, cliffelam, hootsbox, lil, rezzeJ, cgod, blackbootz, onehunna, AshShields, BLOB_CASTLE, insomniasexx, kuli, cowboyhaze, louderwords, Floatbox, maynard, hiss, NikolaiFyodorov, Meriadoc, wasoxygen, BlackBird, jayfixkleenit, crimsonlight