The Eagle Time Book Club: Now reading Whatever

Fun idea that spawned on IRC after I mentioned Godbot having Catch 22 as required reading for writing COFCA's shenanigans.

Basically, we'll talk about books we've read. The catch is, the thread's focus will shift from fortnight to fortnight/month to month/whatever - as we all choose a book to read at the same time. After we've all been given ample time to read it, we can have a big ol' discussion with people who have been guaranteed to read the books we have - without worrying about spoilers!

People should suggest books to bring to the book club, then we'll choose one with a poll or something. Then we'll pick a date from which people can start talking about it in this thread, under the assumption they read the whole thing through.

When suggesting a book, give some indication of how long it'll take to read, and how easy it would be to find for your average college student. A bit of preamble as well if it's not on your average list of "50 books to read before you die" type list.

Books we've read:
-Catch-22: Now reading.

I'm definitely into this idea, and I'll brazenly suggest Robert Heinlein's "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" with little to no preamble.

Moon is a Harsh Mistress is great. Heinlein is adorably idiosyncratic, and when he's actually being smart and compelling it makes for some really good-ass books. Mistress is probably my favorite thing he's written.

I'll throw in Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut, cause Vonnegut was a thing I was discussing, and Cat's Cradle is a thing I was going to read.

Other things I was planning on reading soon include: the Jerry Cornelius quartet by Michael Moorcock; a bunch of Philip K. Dick books; a whoooooooole lot of comics. But I'll leave Cat's Cradle as my hyper-official Recommend.

I suggest Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. It's a really great post-apocalypse novel that no one knows about, but I don't know how easy it is to find places, and I've already read it (although a reread would be nice). As a last resort, I suppose people could find a copy via the internet (this applies to other books, too, I suppose).

Oh, yeah. When suggesting books, drop an indication of how easy it is to pick up a copy (maybe use your college/university catalogue as a benchmark for that?) and how long it'll take to read.

I'd personally be keen for some Vonnegut, although by the sound of things in IRC I'd be best off finding and reading Slaughterhouse Five in my own time.

I'm very keen to have Joseph Heller's Catch-22 as my suggestion - I don't care if over half of us have read it already, the other half still need to and I'd be down for having a good natter about it afterward. Easy enough to find (I think?) and a week of sold reading, tops. A fortnight should be plenty of time if you sit down once a day and truck through it, I reckon.

I'm not sure how easy it'll be for me to find most of these books but you know what I'll have some incentive to try so let's do this.

As for my contribution to books to read, I'm gonna go with A Wizard Of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin. It is the tale of a young wizard, Ged, who makes a mistake and then finds out how difficult it is to fix. According to elpie it is "everywhere" despite being rather old. I think that a week would be plenty of time to read it, but that's not counting daily interruptions such as eating, sleeping, school, etc.

Voting for Cat's Cradle so I can get started on a Vonnegut binge.

Very in for this~

Could totally try this out. Maybe. Sort of.

oh man I'm going to express my enthusiasm for this as Catch-22 is my favorite book!!

Cat's Cradle is another great choice though.

Just finished Vonnegut's Galapagos; definitely gonna have to track down a copy of Slaughterhouse Five, now.

Also I forgot how delicious books smell. I have a twenty-year old copy of Hocus Pocus and maybe it's just 1am but it's taking most of my self-control to not lick the damn thing.

Unrelatedly: How's everyone's quests for finding a copy of Catch-22 going?

Managed to pick up a copy from my local library. Now I have to find the time to reread it.

!!! Just managed to get my library card back from the library so a search for Catch-22 is defs in order

Picked up Catch-22 from the library, I'm currently reading it.

I am so in for this. Now to scourge the earth for a copy of Catch-22.

Major Major Major Major is credit to team.

Oh hey we're a few days out from our alloted three weeks. How's everyone been going with this? Need some extra time? (Answer: I sure do!) I could quite conceivably devour the whole damn book in one night after I finish this essay, but I did kind of have plans tonight.

I...have yet to find a copy in this exam madness >< I'll prolly just not check this thread come the due date and come back once I've read it

I need more time. I'm at about the same point Wheat is. D:

I haven't had any luck finding a copy. I'll probably just read it on my own time.

More time's good. Another week for everyone, then? We'll now get to nakking on September 17.

Excellent! I just ordered a copy off the Book Depository ^^

I finished the book a couple of days ago. I liked it a lot but felt the ending dropped off a bit. How's everyone else doing?

Well, I just finished the last 100 or so pages of the book and I've got to say that while I liked it, and I could tell that it was written well, i spent most of it confused!
I didn't really 'get' why some things happened the way they did, what was the point of some things, or that kind of stuff.
Also the way that the entire first half just jumped around everywhere served to further my confusion.
And as for the ending, I don't really know what to think about it.. on the one hand it was a lot more positive than what I expected, but on the other hand I don't know if it should have been that way. (?)

It was good, but I feel that I missed a lot because of how little of it I got.

I can also see how reading the penultimate chapters and then reading the last chapter would be disorienting though I don't feel that there was a big drop, just a sort of mood change?

<sunny is bad at lit sometimes okay>

RAWR

I think the book club could stand another read! Does anyone agree/have time/have books/all of the above?

in no way related to the large number of books being received by me from the Book Depository