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BOOK CLUB - Galway
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TristanPeter wrote: »I'll bet there are no problems picking the worst five
8:30 sounds good to me.
ye no problem on the worst 5 and the book club introduced me to at least two of them but ye got to kiss a lot of frogs etc.0 -
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TristanPeter wrote: »As far as I know, we are just meeting in the bar somewhere. Whoever is in first, if you could try to get a good table and keep an eye out for anyone looking lost
See you all around 8.300 -
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Hi Linda,
That's great news. I hope it goes well for you all. Galway BookClub is fine. I think it has been going for nearly 2 years now and we have managed to squeeze in quite a few books We were out last night actually. Great fun and I'm paying for it today.
How do you all meet up? In a house or pub? How do you nominate books? We were just talking about picking our Christmas book. Last year we read Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory. Surprisingly enough, it was difficult to find a Christmas choice. That's why we are thinking about it now, well in advance. Do you use Boards.ie as a forum?
tristan0 -
Finally, the long awaited Jude: Level 1 review. It has taken me a long time to get around to it so my apologies. Now, where to begin
Okay, I think I will do this in reverse order so I'll start with the other member's reviews first...and here they are:
Martina
"Very poor. No depth to story or main character. Absolutely no earthly interest in reading Level 2 & 3 in order to conclude story. Avoid!"
Maja
"Episodic structure, shallow and facile humour, almost non-existant story. Didn't like it."
Caroline
"No structure to story, too many far-fetched situations with very obvious conclusions. No sympathy for main character."
Breeda
"Only read first few pages - got good advice 'not good, not worth reading' so I didn't."
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Please bear in mind however that these are just member's opinions and as we all know...everyone is entitled to one
I did mention in a post previously that I felt that I was missing something with this book; that perhaps I wasn't picking up on some deeper meaning. Other members reassured me last night that I wasn't. In a way I was kind of hoping that I was because the story, the characters, the situations etc. were so poor and contrived and yet the list of high critical acclaim inside some of the covers was as long as arm. Why
If I remember correctly, Woman's Way (or something like that. Please correct me if I'm wrong anyone) called the book "a triumph!" There you have it; Woman's Way and Tommy Tiernan loved Jude Level 1. That speaks volumes IMO
Maja, at one of the previous club meetings did say that it's not nice to be overly negative about a book, even if it is pretty bad, and I agree with her. I have never written a book, but I would like to at some stage and I can imagine that it's a very difficult thing to do, to transfer correctly what's in your mind onto paper. So, on that note I'll leave it. Actually, just a couple of other things I still don't understand:
(1) Why does the main character (idiot) speak (read?) as if he's from the middle ages?
(2) Why are loads of the nouns capitalised e.g. page 19 "The water tank must have overflowed in the attic, and the subsequent Damp is causing a Crackling in the Circuits of the Record Player." These capitalised words are all over the book. That's done in German, but as far as I'm aware, not in English
I did like tha part about Dublin not having changed though, but that was the highlight for me.0 -
Well done, Tristan, though I do feel I have to insert a small correction here: it's not that I think it's "not nice to be overly negative" about a book, it's just that it is both possible and fair to be truthful and direct without actually insulting the author or his work - as I feel has been aptly demonstrated with our treatment of "Jude" in the Galway Book Club!
Thank you everyone for a great night out, BTW, I laughed so much and I could barely believe it was 3 am on my way home! :eek:0 -
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Hi Tristan,
Thanks for reply, we meet in my house, we haven't selected anything for Christmas reading, but we have arranged our Christmas party! Everything in perspective of course. I must check out Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory, have you read the Christmas Tree by Jennifer Johnston, I enjoyed it, read it years ago.
Have a good week.
Linda0 -
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Hi Martty,
I feel you will be missed by all in our BC, however it's not all bad as I am sure you will be enjoying doing the show, and time flies anyway, February is really only a few books away!
Good luck with those limelights :cool:, see you in a bit!0 -
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Thank you, Pope and Martty:)
germanSandra, hi! I'm glad you are enjoying our reading choices. I hope I am speaking for everyone in the Galway Book Club if I say that you are welcome to share your views on the books we are reading on here, maybe a written discussion could also evolve at times...
Our next read is Lionel Shriver's "We Need To Talk About Kevin", for 1st December. Hope it's good! 0 -
"As far as the weather in itself was concerned, things were becoming worse. It seemed to us that the rainfall was becoming more offensive with each succeeding year and an occasional pauper was drowned on the very mainland from the volume of water and celestial emesis which poured down upon us; a non-swimmer was none too secure in bed in these times. Great rivers flowed by the doorway and, if it be true that the potatoes were all swept from our fields, it is also a fact that fish were often available by the wayside as a nocturnal exchange. Those who reached their beds safely on dry land, by the morning found themselves submerged. At night people often perceived canoes from the Blaskets going by and the boatmen considered it a poor night's fishing which did not yield to them a pig or a piglet from Corkadoragha in their nets...It need hardly be said that the local people became peevish at that time; hunger and misfortune assailed them and they were not dry for three months...One day I put the matter tothe Old-Fellow and I entered into conversation with him.
-Do you think, oh gentle person, said I, that we'll ever be dry?
-I really don't know, oh mild one, said he, but if this rain goes on like this, 'tis my idea that the fingers and toes of the Gaelic paupers will be closed and have webs on them like the ducks from now on to give them a chance of moving through the water. This is no life for a human being, son!
-Are you certain that the Gaels are people? said I."
I think Flann O'Brien was on to something Not much has changed in the 68 years since The Poor Mouth was first published!
Extract from The Poor Mouth; pg. 99-100 by Flann O'Brien
First Published 19410 -
TristanPeter wrote: »"As far as the weather in itself was concerned, things were becoming worse. It seemed to us that the rainfall was becoming more offensive with each succeeding year and an occasional pauper was drowned on the very mainland from the volume of water and celestial emesis which poured down upon us; a non-swimmer was none too secure in bed in these times. Great rivers flowed by the doorway and, if it be true that the potatoes were all swept from our fields, it is also a fact that fish were often available by the wayside as a nocturnal exchange. Those who reached their beds safely on dry land, by the morning found themselves submerged. At night people often perceived canoes from the Blaskets going by and the boatmen considered it a poor night's fishing which did not yield to them a pig or a piglet from Corkadoragha in their nets...It need hardly be said that the local people became peevish at that time; hunger and misfortune assailed them and they were not dry for three months...One day I put the matter tothe Old-
Fellow and I entered into conversation with him.
-Do you think, oh gentle person, said I, that we'll ever be dry?
-I really don't know, oh mild one, said he, but if this rain goes on like this, 'tis my idea that the fingers and toes of the Gaelic paupers will be closed and have webs on them like the ducks from now on to give them a chance of moving through the water. This is no life for a human being, son!
-Are you certain that the Gaels are people? said I."
I think Flann O'Brien was on to something Not much has changed in the 68 years since The Poor Mouth was first published!
Extract from The Poor Mouth; pg. 99-100 by Flann O'Brien
First Published 1941
How poignant seems to fit the bill, any quote on the other big news re the hand of fate that deprived us of our trip to ~South Africa0 -
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Hi there, Sandra, Bethm and the rest,
I was just thinking the other day that I may post something about WNTTAK, as I am finding it quite a challenging read, as well. I am today exactly halfway through it and it is becoming increasingly difficult to proceed - the inexorability of where it is all leading feels quite punishing, and the whole issue is so overwhelmingly bleak and lacking in any meaningful redemption - just like life sometimes, I suppose; that's the scary thing.
So yes, Sandra, I agree with you that, for example, The Cloud Atlas was a book that is 1. easy to read and 2. easy to love, it is masterfully written, but, although touching upon some grave themes concerning human condition (trust/betrayal, artistic integrity, nature of dignity, savagery/civilization, do androids dream of electric sheep) it manages to stay light of touch and a joy to read. WNTTAK is a completely different kettle of fish, it is the opposite of Cloud Atlas on both counts.
Being a mother myself, I also find it very difficult to identify with the main character in this book - I find it utterly strange how she couldn't bond with her child right from when he was born, although I do believe it can happen - stranger things than that happen. My own experience of becoming a mother was so joyful and nothing short of falling in love in a very profound way, but then it is also "natural", as they say, because of all the hormones that are doing their job in both mother and baby at the time. I find this book really perplexing, this character really complex and enigmatic. On one hand, she is a strong and decisive woman and is so utterly honest about her feelings (or lack of thereof) for her child and everything else that comes to mind, really, and on the other, she doesn't seem to be capable to get the "home front" (as it were) under control, or establish a true, honest relationship of equals with her (much loved, albeit dangerously deluded) husband. It is as frustrating to read about all the power games going on among the three people in that household, as it is to have the knowledge of where it is all leading. It is like some kind of Greek tragedy, it is so unrelenting and inexorable.
Don't know... this is another one of my late night posts, feeling a bit tired, am I making any sense? This book is really depressing the heck out of me.
Laters 0 -
This book is tough-going alright...and I thought Berlin, the Downfall was a hard read. I find that I really need to pay attention to every word or else I wander off. Speaking of every word; I think I found a typo on page 20: "For me it would a relief to find something of consequence to spend it on." Shouldn't there be a be in there? Considering more than 1 million copies were sold, you would think they would have sorted that out. Tut tut That's what too much concentration gets you! Maja, you're the English scholar. Is that a typo or am I mistaken 0
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