BOOK CLUB - Galway

Ms. Ka

Sorry, sorry, sorry I was meant to do the review but due to the lovely virus that is floating around the country my entire Christmas/New Years/Birthday was ruined and I didnt have the energy to do it.

Review to follow once I make it up as I cant remember alot of what we said about the book and I didnt write it down.

Happy New Years!:)

pseudonym1

Ms. Ka wrote: »

Sorry, sorry, sorry I was meant to do the review but due to the lovely virus that is floating around the country my entire Christmas/New Years/Birthday was ruined and I didnt have the energy to do it.

Review to follow once I make it up as I cant alot of what we said about the book and I didnt write it down.

Happy New Years!:)

Ah you poor pet - that sounds awful! Its a nasty dose I hope you are almost over it. Belated christmas/new years/birthday wishes.

Tawny

Hey all, sorry I have missed out on a few - whats the current book and next meet?

rumplestiltskin

could i join?? wats the story with books and meeting??

pseudonym1

Hi Twany
afaik tomorrows book discussion is Oryx and Crake by MArgeret Atwood!
Then Slaughterhouse 5 but not certain if there is one in between- you will need to confirm.
As MrsK I ve been knocked out with flu so didnt get the book read - didn't even get it tbh
Am looking forward to seeing all you guys soon.




Rumplestilskin - new members are always welcome. Bar 8 between 8 and 8.30 every second tuesday - tomorrow is next meeting!

Ms. Ka

Pants I cant count! I thought the next meeting was next week. I wont be there tonight as I'm still at home and hadnt started reading the book yet.

Enjoy...

PopeBuckfastXVI

Hi all,

I don't think anyone read the book, and a lot of people are still away for christmas so I'm going to push out the dates by two weeks to give people a chance.

The updated date/book list is here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58486464#post58486464

Xiney

Maybe editing the first post in this thread with the updated book list would be a good idea? At the bottom there?

Having two stickies for the book club is too much (imo) and that way the information is easy to search for. Alternatively, set up a blog for the bookclub on blogger to post the summaries to. You can still post them here as well, but it might make the club more accessible to non-boards members if you were looking to expand it by a couple members. Also, anyone with an RSS reader has the possibility of being reminded every couple of weeks that they were meaning to join that club at some point....

Edited to add: The Galway Mod can quite easily (although it is a bit of a pain in the bottom) put a post of yours at the top of this thread to make it editable by you.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Xiney wrote: »

Maybe editing the first post in this thread with the updated book list would be a good idea? At the bottom there?

Having two stickies for the book club is too much (imo) and that way the information is easy to search for. Alternatively, set up a blog for the bookclub on blogger to post the summaries to. You can still post them here as well, but it might make the club more accessible to non-boards members if you were looking to expand it by a couple members. Also, anyone with an RSS reader has the possibility of being reminded every couple of weeks that they were meaning to join that club at some point....

Edited to add: The Galway Mod can quite easily (although it is a bit of a pain in the bottom) put a post of yours at the top of this thread to make it editable by you.

Problem is that you can only edit a post for a couple of weeks after you've made it, otherwise we would have done exactly that!

We didn't want this thread stickied, but instead wanted the other one, but p00k stickied this one, so what can you do... I don't want to annoy him about it, he's enough to do.

We have a blogger blog, but people (including new people) kept using this thread.

To be honest people come to the thread and hit last post then reply with 'what's the details' etc, and there's not a lot we can do about that except keep repeating the details.

Thanks for the input, I don't think any way is ideal, and I agree that it would be nicer to have a single thread that people actually read to find out the upcoming books and info, but I don't have much control over that, so I have set up a seperate thread which is only for the upcoming book list.

In the end of the day if you aren't interested in the book club you don't have to read either thread.

Xiney

Ah, I see. I'd forgotten that you can only edit a post for two weeks or so because as a mod I think I can edit threads whenever I feel like it (on boards I moderate, that is)

I got Oryx and Crake today, hopefully I'll see you in a couple of weeks

araby

Just bowsing through the internet for a book club in Galway and came across this one, was just wondering how you choose books and how many members have you got?

PopeBuckfastXVI

Hi Araby,

I'd say at any given meeting you would have between 6 and 10 members present, there's probably twice that or a bit more who have been involved, but not everyone shows up every week. Most (all?) members are in their mid to late 20's or early 30's.

Books are chosen in the following way:

The names of anyone who does not have an upcoming book (including the one which has been discussed that night) go into a hat and a name is picked. That person then picks the next book.

We keep a 2 book lead at all times, so you should pretty much always know what the next 3 books are, giving you plenty of time to get them.

araby

Many thanks Your Holiness, what books are currently on the go and where and when do you plan to read again?

pseudonym1

It was cold and lonely in bar 8 on tuesday night!:(

PopeBuckfastXVI

araby wrote: »

Many thanks Your Holiness, what books are currently on the go and where and when do you plan to read again?

pseudonym1 wrote: »

It was cold and lonely in bar 8 on tuesday night!:(

8 posts back folks...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=58486497&postcount=368

pseudonym1

Realised it too late! Had a hectic day tuesday and didnt get to check post- typical tut the one day!

So to confirm what is the exact date of next meeting!

Ms. Ka

Sorry it took awhile to write the review and I have no excuse. Its very short and sweet!

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote.

A Christmas Memory is an autobiographical short story about Truman Capote’s childhood. It’s a glimpse at the relationship between himself, his elderly but childlike cousin Sook and Queenie the dog and of their last Christmas spent together. The story doesn’t linger on traditional Christmas memories but on personal ones like the special preparation of the cake, the collecting of the Christmas tree and the exchange of homemade gifts. Sadly it’s their last Christmas together as the narrator is sent to military school and eventually Queenie and Sook die.

A Christmas Memory is a lovely short story that was very fitting for the Christmas book club meeting.


I can’t remember exactly what we discussed but overall the book was enjoyed.


Tristan Peter gave it a 9/10.
Ms. Ka 9/10 I loved it.

See you at the next meeting:)

PopeBuckfastXVI

I also really enjoyed the book.

I'm interested to know if it was confirmed as an autobiography though? I'd like to think that it's possible to write a fictional story in the first person, and I thought this was an example? I've been on the receiving end of judgments of my principal protagonist in fiction before, where it was assumed author and charatcter were the same person, which kind of denies imagination somewhat! Any thoughts!?

TristanPeter

Hello everyone and a happy new year to you all

Just a friendly reminder that next Tuesday, the 20th of January, we will be holding our first BookClub meeting of 2009!

As usual, it will take place in Bar No. 8 at around 8pm and the book to be discussed is Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood.

I, on behalf of the club, would like to thank all the staff at Bar No. 8 for their hospitality in 2008. It's a great venue and a great bar to go to regardless (in my opinion anyway).

This year we hope to try and organize things a bit better in relation to planning ahead with respect to the nomination of books to be read, new members etc. etc.

Of course, new members are more than welcome and we are always open to suggestions that will help us to make the BookClub as enjoyable as possible for members old and new.

So, if you're interested, come along next Tuesday evening. Have a beer or a coffee or and a friendly chat

See you soon

Xiney

It was nice meeting everyone yesterday

I've picked my book!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
226 pp

PopeBuckfastXVI

Xiney wrote: »

It was nice meeting everyone yesterday

I've picked my book!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
226 pp

Xiney... I told you to read the thread

That was the third book we ever did

Edit: 3rd

coconut5

Sorry I couldn't make it last night lads, but I'll def be there for the next one!

Xiney

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

Xiney... I told you to read the thread

That was the third book we ever did

Edit: 3rd

aw damnit!

ok. I shall pick another one.

Xiney

Ok, I've made my decision.

Two Caravans
by Marina Lewycka
320 pp

bethm

that sounds a very good idea would love it hope to make the first meeting. keep us updated

bethm

bethm wrote: »

that sounds a very good idea would love it hope to make the first meeting. keep us updated

missed the meeting when is the next and is it the same vevue

PopeBuckfastXVI

Hi Beth,

Next meeting is Tuesday 3rd Feb at 8:30pm in Bar No. 8 on the dock road. The book for discussion is 'Slaughterhouse 5' by Kurt Vonnegut. You're more than welcome to come along

bethm

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

Hi Beth,

Next meeting is Tuesday 3rd Feb at 8:30pm in Bar No. 8 on the dock road. The book for discussion is 'Slaughterhouse 5' by Kurt Vonnegut. You're more than welcome to come along

thanks for that hope to be there

TristanPeter

Hi Everyone,

Just updating you in relation to our last BookClub meeting (Tue, 20th Jan) where we discussed Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. The book was nominated by Coconut_5, who unfortunately could not attend.

In terms of Dystopian, speculative-fiction novels (yes, I got these terms from Wikipedia :rolleyes: ) I think everyone who finished it, liked it pretty much. The story was very interesting overall, but I felt that it was a bit too slow and drawn-out. It seemed to me that Atwood was going to great lengths to create an atmosphere which was a bit superfluous, especially when I compare it to the short, descriptive, evocative language used in Fahrenheit 451 which we read a few months ago.

Many of the topics broached in the book, e.g. genetic engineering, globalisation and privatisation of policing services have all been developed and exaggerated by Atwood from current trends in society. This gave the story a scary, dark undercurrent even though on the surface one might think that that it was quite light-hearted, and obviously this is what Atwood was trying to achieve, even if she puts too much effort into it and in turn slows the pace of the story.

I really liked the genetic splicing of the animals into such things as "wolvogs" (wolves and dogs) and "pigoons" (pigs and baboons) etc. I also liked the idea of the extremely genetically engineered chicken etc. in fast-food outlets of the future as opposed to the relatively moderately genetically-engineered chicken of KFC today perhaps???

A few things in the story made me feel a little uneasy; perhaps it was supposed to. These were as follows:
* The whole online child porn scenario. This in itself is bad enough but what makes it worse is Oryx’s, the child victim’s approval of it! The world of the future where anything goes!

* The whole Craker mating ritual thing. It’s just weird!

* The characters themselves were not very likable.

* The over-imagineering (this word does exist!) on Atwood’s part. I felt at times in the book she was on a mission to prove just how imaginative she could be by coming up with completely over-the-top idea

Disclaimer: These are my opinions only

Member’s comments and ratings out of 10:

TristanPeter: 6/10
“Too long and dialogue-heavy for my liking. However, very interesting concepts with highly relevant parallels with modern society. In terms of dystopian novels, Fahrenheit 451 was way better with a much more cleverly constructed atmosphere from a book approx. half the length of this one!”

Pope Buckfast
“Didn’t read enough to rate, but read enough to want to finish.”

Pink Shoes
“Haven’t finished it. It seems really interesting. Will finish it!! Looking forward to it.”

Sec
“Didn’t get to finish the book either but I hope to soon.”

DamoGood
“Only starting the book. 4 weeks is never enough to read a book!!”

Xiney: 9/10
“Really thought it was full of commentary and interesting points of view. Plot was very well constructed and it was quite scarily true a lot of the time…”

I think too that this book could be discussed for ages and ages. There's a lot of messages in it and I suppose the very loud music on the night in Bar No. 8 didn't help; but it is a pub afterall. It's to be expected.

It was Sec's birthday too so Happy Birthday Sec The chocolate cake was lovely.

Tawny

Hi all,
Sorry for not showing up recently - I'm a bit swamped with other things going on at the moment. Looking forward to getting back into the books, but it will have to wait another month I think. See you all soon(ish)