Water Cooler Book Club

[BradStevens]

Interest?

Meet over Zoom once a week.

Assign about 70 pages per week. MUST READ.

Tackle Great Books. Discuss deep issues and interpretative questions (like, what the fvck is going on here???). Inquiry focus, not show- off-your-intellect focus.

No personal attacks or lack of courtesy.

Books can be chosen by vote or rotating selection of members, but need a list of potentials (Top 100 novels/books of All-Time?). I'm more focused on fiction, but love historical fiction.

If enough interest, I'll run it in the beginning, but hoping others would moderate as we get going on some chapters/weeks to spread the workload.

 

[kurt cloverdales]

Interest?

Meet over Zoom once a week.

Assign about 70 pages per week. MUST READ.

Tackle Great Books. Discuss deep issues and interpretative questions (like, what the fvck is going on here???). Inquiry focus, not show- off-your-intellect focus.

No personal attacks or lack of courtesy.

Books can be chosen by vote or rotating selection of members, but need a list of potentials (Top 100 novels/books of All-Time?). I'm more focused on fiction, but love historical fiction.

If enough interest, I'll run it in the beginning, but hoping others would moderate as we get going on some chapters/weeks to spread the workload.

A book club with most of these jokers, makes as much sense as a bathing suit contest in Saudia Arabia

 

[BradStevens]

A book club with most of these jokers, makes as much sense as a bathing suit contest in Saudia Arabia

Is this your version of IU's "we won't be accepting an NIT invitation this year" statement?

 

[Joe_Hoopsier]

A book club with most of these jokers, makes as much sense as a bathing suit contest in Saudia Arabia

You could go in drag.

 

[JamieDimonsBalls]

A book club with most of these jokers, makes as much sense as a bathing suit contest in Saudia Arabia

You'll be drunk anyway...

 

[JamieDimonsBalls]

Interest?

Meet over Zoom once a week.

Assign about 70 pages per week. MUST READ.

Tackle Great Books. Discuss deep issues and interpretative questions (like, what the fvck is going on here???). Inquiry focus, not show- off-your-intellect focus.

No personal attacks or lack of courtesy.

Books can be chosen by vote or rotating selection of members, but need a list of potentials (Top 100 novels/books of All-Time?). I'm more focused on fiction, but love historical fiction.

If enough interest, I'll run it in the beginning, but hoping others would moderate as we get going on some chapters/weeks to spread the workload.

It's a nice idea, but I have zero time for books at the moment. Even my shitposting frequency has fallen off.

 

[mcmurtry66]

It's a nice idea, but I have zero time for books at the moment. Even my shitposting frequency has fallen off.

The difference between this board and books is this you can do while multitasking. Skim board in five seconds. Post in five secs. Move on.

Books you can’t do anything else. You have to focus

 

[NPT]

The difference between this board and books is this you can do while multitasking. Skim board in five seconds. Post in five secs. Move on.

Books you can’t do anything else. You have to focus

And you can't argue with a book.


By the way McM.... better be glad you don't live in Texas..

Pornhub suspends site in Texas due to state’s age-verification law

Legal experts say a 5th Circuit decision to uphold part of a Texas law regulating adult entertainment websites conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court precedent regarding minors’ access to obscene material online.

www.texastribune.org

 

[Univee2]

It's a nice idea, but I have zero time for books at the moment. Even my shitposting frequency has fallen off.

Well, I’m re-reading Tom Clancy’s The Bear and the Dragon, all 1494 pages in large print . . . . so, I got that going for me, which is nice . . . .

 

[NewGuyToTheBoard]

Give me a list of “great books” in your mind OP.

 

[mcmurtry66]

Give me a list of “great books” in your mind OP.

There a difference between great books and classics. Richard Ford vs John Steinbeck

 

[NPT]

Well, I’m re-reading Tom Clancy’s The Bear and the Dragon, all 1494 pages in large print . . . . so, I got that going for me, which is nice . . . .

Is it a pretty good book? I've read several of his older books... Hunt for Red October, Sum of All Fears, Clear and Present Danger, & Patriot Games to name a few.

 

[NewGuyToTheBoard]

There a difference between great books and classics. Richard Ford vs John Steinbeck

You don’t have to tell me twice. Hemingway books are a ****ing chore.

But count them among some of the greatest books of all time supposedly.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird

2. The Great Gatsby

3. Tom Sawyer

4. Merchant of Venice

That about does it for the classics that are actually entertaining reads.

Otherwise you are correct that people are better off reading Tom Clancy dreck.

 

[Univee2]

Is it a pretty good book? I've read several of his older books... Hunt for Red October, Sum of All Fears, Clear and Present Danger, & Patriot Games to name a few.

Read Debt of Honor and then Executive Orders, in that order, beforehand. All good. All long. But you have to like Clancy - and I do - to enjoy them and be able to suspend disbelief, as some say.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

Read Debt of Honor and then Executive Orders, in that order, beforehand. All good. All long. But you have to like Clancy - and I do - to enjoy them and be able to suspend disbelief, as some say.

I loved Clancy up until Ryan became president. that ended it for me.

 

[NPT]

Read Debt of Honor and then Executive Orders, in that order, beforehand. All good. All long. But you have to like Clancy - and I do - to enjoy them and be able to suspend disbelief, as some say.

I've read Debt of Honor but not Executive Orders. His books got so someone else was doing a lot of the writing and they weren't near as good.

 

[BradStevens]

Give me a list of “great books” in your mind OP.

For fiction, of those I have not read all the way through and would be interested in doing so and discussing (which means I'm going on other's opinions):

War and Peace
Moby Dick
Lolita (just can't get past the young girl thing, though)
Crime and Punishment (read in high school but can't remember and probably didn't really "get")
Brothers Karamazov (same)
Ulysses
Don Quixote
pick a Dickens novel
Blood Meridian
Les Miserables
maybe something from the Quran
any history or tragedy by Shakespeare (although I've read or seen most)

In my definition, I consider books that have been though worth reading, struggling with, and talking about throughout time and by essentially different cultures.

 

[snarlcakes]

Interest?

Meet over Zoom once a week.

Assign about 70 pages per week. MUST READ.

Tackle Great Books. Discuss deep issues and interpretative questions (like, what the fvck is going on here???). Inquiry focus, not show- off-your-intellect focus.

No personal attacks or lack of courtesy.

Books can be chosen by vote or rotating selection of members, but need a list of potentials (Top 100 novels/books of All-Time?). I'm more focused on fiction, but love historical fiction.

If enough interest, I'll run it in the beginning, but hoping others would moderate as we get going on some chapters/weeks to spread the workload.

I only have enough time to fulfill the Jeffrey Toobin role. The kids currently have basketball, tee ball, and gymnastics. I also never really did shined in a library. Always getting shushed. Let me know if you do make it to central Indiana this summer. Beers on me.

 

[NPT]

Read Debt of Honor and then Executive Orders, in that order, beforehand. All good. All long. But you have to like Clancy - and I do - to enjoy them and be able to suspend disbelief, as some say.

Have you ever read Last of a Breed?

 

[Univee2]

I've read Debt of Honor but not Executive Orders. His books got so someone else was doing a lot of the writing and they weren't near as good.

Agree. But these are all Clancy, not the later “franchise keepers.”

 

[BradStevens]

I only have enough time fulfill the Jeffrey Toobin role.

 

[BadWakeboarder]

Interest?

Meet over Zoom once a week.

Assign about 70 pages per week. MUST READ.

Tackle Great Books. Discuss deep issues and interpretative questions (like, what the fvck is going on here???). Inquiry focus, not show- off-your-intellect focus.

No personal attacks or lack of courtesy.

Books can be chosen by vote or rotating selection of members, but need a list of potentials (Top 100 novels/books of All-Time?). I'm more focused on fiction, but love historical fiction.

If enough interest, I'll run it in the beginning, but hoping others would moderate as we get going on some chapters/weeks to spread the workload.

 

[Univee2]

I loved Clancy up until Ryan became president. that ended it for me.

I don’t think the Kangaroo Court has ever fined you, but this is beyond egregious, using the little IT smudging thing, which then in my response shows the un-smudged wording.

Beyond the pale. Courage of your convictions and all that.

Fine of $7.46 .

 

[BradStevens]

 

[BadWakeboarder]

I only have enough time fulfill the Jeffrey Toobin role. The kids currently have basketball, tee ball, and gymnastics. I also never really did shined in a library. Always getting shushed. Let me know if you do make it to central Indiana this summer. Beers on me.

Can’t pay for them beers with crypto.

 

[Univee2]

Have you ever read Last of a Breed?

Nope. But I’ll give it a try. As with movies and tv, have run out of things and always looking for something new and worthwhile.

 

[BradStevens]

Ok, so if you want to do this, DM me and avoid the bullying of these barbarians.

If I get enough interest, I'll set it up.

And the first rule of WC Book Club is that we don't talk about WC Book Club.

 

[larsIU]

You don’t have to tell me twice. Hemingway books are a ****ing chore.

But count them among some of the greatest books of all time supposedly.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird

2. The Great Gatsby

3. Tom Sawyer

4. Merchant of Venice

That about does it for the classics that are actually entertaining reads.

Otherwise you are correct that people are better off reading Tom Clancy dreck.

Canterbury Tales
Brave New World
1984
Animal Farm
Catch-22
Lord of the Flies
Heart of Darkness
Call of the Wild
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

plus several more. These are just the one's I've read of course. Agree on Hemingway. Never got into it myself. I've tried Ulysses enough times to know Im not ever going to actually read it.

For fiction, of those I have not read all the way through and would be interested in doing so and discussing (which means I'm going on other's opinions):

War and Peace
Moby Dick
Lolita (just can't get past the young girl thing, though)
Crime and Punishment (read in high school but can't remember and probably didn't really "get")
Brothers Karamazov (same)
Ulysses
Don Quixote
pick a Dickens novel
Blood Meridian
Les Miserables
maybe something from the Quran
any history or tragedy by Shakespeare (although I've read or seen most)

In my definition, I consider books that have been though worth reading, struggling with, and talking about throughout time and by essentially different cultures.

Possibly.

that's PANTS OFF. FIFY.

 

[Mas-sa-suta]

Interest?

Meet over Zoom once a week.

Assign about 70 pages per week. MUST READ.

Tackle Great Books. Discuss deep issues and interpretative questions (like, what the fvck is going on here???). Inquiry focus, not show- off-your-intellect focus.

No personal attacks or lack of courtesy.

Books can be chosen by vote or rotating selection of members, but need a list of potentials (Top 100 novels/books of All-Time?). I'm more focused on fiction, but love historical fiction.

If enough interest, I'll run it in the beginning, but hoping others would moderate as we get going on some chapters/weeks to spread the workload.

Ask again in November...

 

[BradStevens]

Canterbury Tales
Brave New World
1984
Animal Farm
Catch-22
Lord of the Flies
Heart of Darkness
Call of the Wild
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

plus several more. These are just the one's I've read of course. Agree on Hemingway. Never got into it myself. I've tried Ulysses enough times to know Im not ever going to actually read it.




Possibly.


that's PANTS OFF. FIFY.

I don't get it. I like Hemingway. I always imagined this might be the motto of the Dream Team:

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”​

― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

 

[Univee2]

Ok, so if you want to do this, DM me and avoid the bullying of these barbarians.

If I get enough interest, I'll set it up.

And the first rule of WC Book Club is that we don't talk about WC Book Club.

I’ll bet that most have not read more than one in your list.

A couple of years ago, helped The Kid Down the Hall get his boat out of Geist and helped a friend of his get a larger sailboat out. Went to Metazoa later, since dogs are allowed, with The Kid and the other boat owner and one other friend. After a few beers, I referenced “tilting at windmills.” These three 30-something IU grads - one with a J.D. and two with business/IT degrees from IU - had never heard the term. I said, “you know, Don Quixote. Cervantes? Really? Nothing?”

They had no clue. “Didn’t you guys learn stuff like this in high school?”

Lead to a long discussion about certain things about which it seems like everyone should have some knowledge, just so there are common reference points in a society. But I guess we just don’t do that anymore in education, thus furthering our balkanization.

 

[mcmurtry66]

I don't get it. I like Hemingway. I always imagined this might be the motto of the Dream Team:

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”​

― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

By author is another decent way to do it

 

[BradStevens]

By author is another decent way to do it

Agreed. As I started my list, I thought of a bunch of authors whose work I want to read but have not.

 

[Mas-sa-suta]

I don't get it. I like Hemingway. I always imagined this might be the motto of the Dream Team:

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”​

― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

My wife and I have been in The Hemingway home in Key West half a dozen times..one long time guide recognized me..
The last trip, we walked in and he asked me; 'you want to take this group, and I'll go smoke a cigarette?

 

[BradStevens]

My wife and I have been in The Hemingway home in Key West half a dozen times..one long time guide recognized me..
The last trip, we walked in and he asked me; 'you want to take this group, and I'll go smoke a cigarette?

I live about a mile from his childhood home.

 

[hookyIU1990]

It would really come down to the size of the print and amount of pictures for me.

Honestly, I've got a stack of books on my virtual nightstand that I've started but not finished. I think the Kindle started off as the greatest thing I've ever seen, but it has devolved into something that belies the actual number of books I've given up on and quit reading. If they were all physical books that I had to stare at every night before bed, I'd be a lot more diligent about finishing them. Out of sight, out of mind though.

 

[BradStevens]

It would really come down to the size of the print and amount of pictures for me.

Honestly, I've got a stack of books on my virtual nightstand that I've started but not finished. I think the Kindle started off as the greatest thing I've ever seen, but it has devolved into something that belies the actual number of books I've given up on and quit reading. If they were all physical books that I had to stare at every night before bed, I'd be a lot more diligent about finishing them. Out of sight, out of mind though.

Maybe not. I have physical stacks of books all over my bedroom (wife hates it) and on my kindle.

That’s kinda the point of this: incentive to get reading again.

 

[CO. Hoosier]

are You thinking an upper age limit? Otherwise I’m in.

However, books must be available on Kindle.

I prefer books post 1900. That old shit seems too much like school.

One of my favorites: Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.

My favorite Clancy is Without Remorse. Red October is a classic though.

Favorite genre is history or historical fiction. Killer Angles is terrific.

 

[larsIU]

Maybe not. I have physical stacks of books all over my bedroom (wife hates it) and on my kindle.

That’s kinda the point of this: incentive to get reading again.

I have bookshelves full.

Now, I mix in ones that I've read so when i gesture to the book shelf and say "I've read those" I'm not, technically, lying.

 

[NPT]

pick a Dickens novel

NO %&%& way
I remember when I was in high school we were supposed to read David Copperfield.. I tried but just couldn't make myself read it. Only test I ever failed while in high school.