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Water Cooler Book Club

zeke4ahs said:
Ooh Joe, this explains so much. There is not a better way in the world ( except for maybe travel) to get outside your bubble and learn about the world. My main goal as a teacher was to get kids to enjoy reading. I would go to the ends of the earth to find books that interested them. Now I’m on Goodreads with several of my former students and nothing makes me happier than sharing boom reviews with them.
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What is ironic about Joe's post is that he is one of the more colorful writers on here and he gets his points across not in the most efficient manner but with a lot of imagery and style (even if it is a sometimes inscrutable style).
 
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BradStevens said:
What is ironic about Joe's post is that he is one of the more colorful writers on here and he gets his points across not in the most efficient manner but with a lot of imagery and style (even if it is a sometimes inscrutable style).
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The board’s David foster Wallace
 
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mcmurtry66 said:
The board’s David foster Wallace
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Not enough footnotes.*

*Footnotes are odd little things. They first appear in the early 17th century, acting as a marriage of history and philology.

Perhaps no one has mastered this melding of narrative and erudition, of utile and dulce, like Edward Gibbon (EG) the venerated 18th-century English historian.

EG wrote the sublime six-volume The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. (TDFRE) "The footnotes [of Gibbon]," writes historian John Clive in his book Not by Fact Alone, "must not be forgotten. . . . They contain those flashes of wit and humor that help to ease the reader's long trek through the centuries, from the reference to the Abbé le Boeuf as 'an antiquarian, whose name was happily expressive of his talents,' to the comment on the learned Origen, who, eager for perpetual chastity, thought fit to castrate himself ('to disarm the tempter,' in Gibbon's phrase)."

In another footnote, Gibbon skewers St. Augustine, noting that his "learning is too often borrowed and . . . [his] arguments are too often his own." Elsewhere, he jabs at his friend Voltaire: "M. de Voltaire, unsupported by either fact or probability, has generously bestowed the Canary Islands on the Roman empire." The last note is classic Gibbon: accurate, acerbic and informative.

More than anything, Gibbon should make us rethink our attitude toward footnotes and the attendant deathwatch. emphasis in our schools has been to replicate the form rather than the content or style of a good footnote. We should remember that reading Gibbon without the footnotes is like listening to Mozart without the 16th notes; the music of each lacks its distinctive, ineffable magic when the little notes are taken away.
 
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BradStevens said:
Not enough footnotes.*

*Footnotes are odd little things. They first appear in the early 17th century, acting as a marriage of history and philology.

Perhaps no one has mastered this melding of narrative and erudition, of utile and dulce, like Edward Gibbon (EG) the venerated 18th-century English historian.

EG wrote the sublime six-volume The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. (TDFRE) "The footnotes [of Gibbon]," writes historian John Clive in his book Not by Fact Alone, "must not be forgotten. . . . They contain those flashes of wit and humor that help to ease the reader's long trek through the centuries, from the reference to the Abbé le Boeuf as 'an antiquarian, whose name was happily expressive of his talents,' to the comment on the learned Origen, who, eager for perpetual chastity, thought fit to castrate himself ('to disarm the tempter,' in Gibbon's phrase)."

In another footnote, Gibbon skewers St. Augustine, noting that his "learning is too often borrowed and . . . [his] arguments are too often his own." Elsewhere, he jabs at his friend Voltaire: "M. de Voltaire, unsupported by either fact or probability, has generously bestowed the Canary Islands on the Roman empire." The last note is classic Gibbon: accurate, acerbic and informative.

More than anything, Gibbon should make us rethink our attitude toward footnotes and the attendant deathwatch. emphasis in our schools has been to replicate the form rather than the content or style of a good footnote. We should remember that reading Gibbon without the footnotes is like listening to Mozart without the 16th notes; the music of each lacks its distinctive, ineffable magic when the little notes are taken away.
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$10.00 fine for 'Ineffable'.
 
BradStevens said:
Not enough footnotes.*

*Footnotes are odd little things. They first appear in the early 17th century, acting as a marriage of history and philology.

Perhaps no one has mastered this melding of narrative and erudition, of utile and dulce, like Edward Gibbon (EG) the venerated 18th-century English historian.

EG wrote the sublime six-volume The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. (TDFRE) "The footnotes [of Gibbon]," writes historian John Clive in his book Not by Fact Alone, "must not be forgotten. . . . They contain those flashes of wit and humor that help to ease the reader's long trek through the centuries, from the reference to the Abbé le Boeuf as 'an antiquarian, whose name was happily expressive of his talents,' to the comment on the learned Origen, who, eager for perpetual chastity, thought fit to castrate himself ('to disarm the tempter,' in Gibbon's phrase)."

In another footnote, Gibbon skewers St. Augustine, noting that his "learning is too often borrowed and . . . [his] arguments are too often his own." Elsewhere, he jabs at his friend Voltaire: "M. de Voltaire, unsupported by either fact or probability, has generously bestowed the Canary Islands on the Roman empire." The last note is classic Gibbon: accurate, acerbic and informative.

More than anything, Gibbon should make us rethink our attitude toward footnotes and the attendant deathwatch. emphasis in our schools has been to replicate the form rather than the content or style of a good footnote. We should remember that reading Gibbon without the footnotes is like listening to Mozart without the 16th notes; the music of each lacks its distinctive, ineffable magic when the little notes are taken away.
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Have you read Infinite Jest? I’ve had it on my bedside table for at least 5 years. Hoping to absorb through osmosis, I guess. I’ve read several of his essays and short stories, but just can’t tackle that one.
 
zeke4ahs said:
Have you read Infinite Jest? I’ve had it on my bedside table for at least 5 years. Hoping to absorb through osmosis, I guess. I’ve read several of his essays and short stories, but just can’t tackle that one.
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Yea I stopped. I’m like you and I can count on one hand the number of books I didn’t finish. That’s one
 
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zeke4ahs said:
Have you read Infinite Jest? I’ve had it on my bedside table for at least 5 years. Hoping to absorb through osmosis, I guess. I’ve read several of his essays and short stories, but just can’t tackle that one.
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I've read all of DFW's non-fiction, but only one or two short stories. I haven't been able to get into his fiction and, quite frankly, don't want to ruin my view of him by being disappointed. He's one of my favorite writers.
 
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have you guys decided on a book? What are you thinking? Phil Robertson’s The Theft of America’s Soul?
 
larsIU said:
Twilight
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Okay welcome to the first edition of the Water Cooler Book Club. I'm "Brad Stevens;" hang on. not great with zoom. not sure i have the camera right

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larsIU said:
Orange laptop seems appropriate
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i was trying to find a zoom with a big group of goof balls. one of my old college teammates coaches and teaches high school and during the pandemic he used to send us what he sees teaching by zoom. was absolutely hilarious. one of hte best parts of the pandemic
 
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BradStevens said:
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.
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I think a book club is a great idea and I commend you for trying to bring it to life.
 
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