Comments for Frisbee: A Book Journal

Comment on Hermann Broch & Summer Reading by Frisbee

Frisbee — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:44:58 +0000

I didn’t make it through The Last Days of Virgil. I love Virgil, but I do better with historical novels like John Williams’s Augustus. Well, not all historical novels make the cut either…

Comment on Hermann Broch & Summer Reading by Philip Brantingham

Philip Brantingham — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:26:12 +0000

Because it’s long, difficult, repetitive, as well as in German (the English translation is ok), does not make it a masterpiece. It’s a hard book to get through, and I’m not sure that “The Last Days of Virgil” is is a suitable subject for a long novel–since Broch has made up the detaisly. No one knows how Virgil spent his last days. That he was dying of fever is all we know of his condition We do know that Virgil asked his friend Maecenas to destroy the manuscript of the Aeneid because he considered it unfinished. Thankfully, Maecenas asked Augustus what he should do, and the emperor ordered him to preserve it. A wise man (also a personal friend of Virgil). So Broch’s novel is chiefly a fantasy–but a lovely one, if you have the patience to get through those maddening repetitions. Good luck!

Phil Brantingham

Comment on Frisbee Has Moved! by Judith

Judith — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 00:44:00 +0000

Colette has been a favorite since high school–so sorry she is dismissed by some because she doesn’t fit their view of how things should be. But isn’t that why we read, to experience how others view things differently?

Comment on What We Bought at the Book Sale & a Few Words about Book Groups by Judith

Judith — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:03:43 +0000

I belong to a book club with very nice and bright women. I also detest the book questions at the back of the book. The persons leading the discussions usually do not refer to these questions, but the included questions make me question the book itself! My real reading pleasure is elsewhere.

Comment on A Coven of Desperate Readers: Emily Books, Tin House Book Club in a Box, & Online Book Covens by Frisbee

Frisbee — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:30:18 +0000

Alix, you’re reading a great variety of books there, and these are the kind of book groups I belonged to in the past before we “broke up” (due to a lot of different reasons, having partly to do with jobs). I’d love to fly over, but alas…

Comment on What We Bought at the Book Sale & a Few Words about Book Groups by Frisbee

Frisbee — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:27:32 +0000

Alex and Silver Season, you describe the kind of book groups I would love to belong to Really, I have belonged to intelligent book groups with creative leaders. Although there wasn’t a democracy in choosing books, we read a wide range of types of books.

Comment on What We Bought at the Book Sale & a Few Words about Book Groups by SilverSeason

SilverSeason — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:51:32 +0000

Our book group (Ex Libris) is diverse and we meet afternoons, so most of us are retired or semi-retired. Once a year we have an election for the coming year. Each member nominates 3 or 4 books. Then we have a scaled vote as to our personal desire to read and discuss the book. The book may be entirely worthy, but you have just read it and don’t want to go around again — or you may think it is a dreadful book. The votes are scored and we then have a list of top choices from which we make up the calendar for the coming year. Longer works are broken up into two or more sessions (we meet every two weeks) because most of us need for other reading also.

It has worked well for us, but we are a self-selected group interested mostly in the classics. We have read books by Tolstoy, Dickens, Proust, Stendahl, Balzac, Zola, Homer, Mark Twain, Hawthorne and more others than I can remember. In recent years we are trying to be more international, including books by African and Asian writers. Usually we do not read current best sellers, although we did read Wolf Hall and enjoyed it very much.

We have our room at the local community college for 1.5 hours and there are no refreshments, just an annual barbeque at a member’s house.

Comment on What We Bought at the Book Sale & a Few Words about Book Groups by Alex

Alex — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:25:52 +0000

I don’t recognise either of the book groups to which I belong in the discussion going on here. One of the groups meets in a public hall and we’re invariably thrown out after our two hours are up because we’re still in the middle of heated debate about the book. Time is usually called on the other one when the poor husband of whoever’s house we’re meeting in can’t stop in the local pub any longer. Maybe I’ve just been remarkably lucky in the groups to which I belong.

Comment on A Coven of Desperate Readers: Emily Books, Tin House Book Club in a Box, & Online Book Covens by Alex

Alex — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:15:51 +0000

Frisbee, the link is:

https://sites.google.com/site/bookwormsbham/

Comment on What We Bought at the Book Sale & a Few Words about Book Groups by Frisbee

Frisbee — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:44:37 +0000

Ellen, at unadventurous book groups, you’re right, people go for books everyone might (kind of) like. It’s supposed to be relaxing. I’m trying to think how many book groups have read Peace like a River and The Tiger’s Wife. Yes, yes, the latter is a good book, but must every book group read it? They ARE short. Hmmm. Nobody is making it through Jonathan Lethem’s Chronic City, and why the hell not? And it’s a better book.

Ellen, Leaves and Pages, and Belle, I have been in some excellent book groups, which do read unusual, sometimes long books, but unfortunately these groups have broken up (the leader gets tired or something), and without the leader, people are less committed.

I don’t mind dissenting if people don’t get mad, but they do. Oh my God! How could I have not liked Peace like a River? (How could anyone have liked it?) Belle, why on earth don’t my book groups drink wine? Well, we don’t talk about personal things anyway. It focuses on the book till the end.

I just don’t like the idea that only SOME books are pushed for book groups. I’m just astonished. All the libraries, all the bookstores, and many other book groups are really going for this book group book thing.