[TTLG Book Club] An introduction and August's selection: The Life of Pi (discuss!)

scumble on 3/7/2006 at 09:00

Quote Posted by Stitch

I am truly delighted that this has generated so much interest!

Anything that makes this forum less dull is a plus...

I shall see if I can fish it out of the library or some bookshop today. Haven't read any fiction for years.

hopper on 3/7/2006 at 12:59

Life of Pi has been lying around in the house awaiting my attention for some time now, so this may be just the opportunity to take it on, although my girlfriend didn't seem to like it much.

I'm a sucker for Raymond Chandler and have read all of his novels several times. If it's going to be him next time, I'd suggest The Long Goodbye, which is his best, imo.

But I'd actually rather suggest the last book that really had me impressed, Mark Haddon's The curious incident of the dog in the night-time, which is both entertaining, moving, and brilliantly written. Although, if controversy is what you're after, it probably has less potential. :p

Scots Taffer on 3/7/2006 at 13:39

Ah yes, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time is another that was on my "if I had so much spare time that I could read really different stuff" list so I second it for the future - along with one of those crime novels by the South African dude.

daniel on 3/7/2006 at 16:17

the guy dies in the end of life of pi

kidding! kidding! i've never read it. anyway, i unsuggest "Fermat's Last Theorm", it was boring, unless you like to read about how it took several centuries and a ton of people to prove some equation was basically unsolvable

i will suggest "red, white and liberal" by alan colmes (you know, off of "Hannity and Colmes"), it's entertaining and has some good points in it

OnionBob on 3/7/2006 at 17:50

Quote Posted by Scots_Taffer

That's a great book, it's meant for teenagers as well so it's a really easy read. You could read it in a night easily, so I recommend picking it up regardless of whether it's a TTLG book club choice.

Alternatively, just take a look at (http://ulillillia.us) this guy's site. He is a high-functioning autistic / aspergers sufferer (a proper one, not just someone who spends all their time on the Internet and uses self-diagnosed aspergers as an excuse for being a soft cock). The site is mind-bogglingly interesting but also rather heartbreaking. He never spends time feeling sorry for himself or whining about things, he just blankly and objectively tells things how he sees them, normally with recourse to mathematics or highly-bounded structures and often through lateral, synaesthesic logic. For instance, check out one of the "tips and tricks" he lists for helping out in everyday life:

Quote Posted by ulillillia

How do I get the juiciest of meats?

type: tip
reliability: - very high
understandability: - high
time saving: - big loss
usefulness: - very low*
difficulty: - easy-medium
required skill: - beginner
overall: 27 of 48 points,

First off, this trick can ONLY be applied when you're shopping for meat. This particularly applied to a pot roast. When you go out to buy meat, look for the white stuff in the packages and feel it. When there's a lot of it and it's rather hard, the juicier it can be. There's one catch though you should be aware of [but it's rare]: it could have very little in the center, thus taking out the juice. This has worked 22 out of 23 times so far. The catch of this trick got to me, but looking at the chances of failure, it almost-always works.

WARNING:

This'll increase the fat content significantly, so if you're on a diet, do not attempt to go for the most, but go for the least instead as this'll decrease the fat content. If you want low fat and high juice, try cooking your meat in water [usually things like a roast in a crockpot]. You could also try the fat removal trick as it works on meats quite well [it works on hamburgers, and hamburger is meat, right?]

Footnotes:
* Usefulness is low due to the health-related reasons from excessive fat consumption.

That said, and perhaps most interestingly of all, like many aspergers/autistic sufferers, despite the high level of logic apparently demonstrated in their interpretation of the world, many of his foibles (and especially his fears) don't make rational, logical sense at all by prescriptive logical standards, except in the most lateral and idiosyncratic of ways, which is interesting to me because it begins to explode the mythology of the savant "Rain Man" autistic (many people with these issues do have remarkable mathematical or memory-related abilities but this does not necessarily imply some kind of genius on a linear scale, rather a different way of accessing or producing ontologies).

Aerothorn: thanks for the run down mang. I will give it a chance but I don't have the time to invest in it right now (who ever does). Incidentally I loved most of cryptonomicon but I actually found Lawrence's chapters more enjoyable than Bobby's.

CountMRVHS on 3/7/2006 at 18:17

Just picked up a copy of Life of Pi at the library today, and started reading.

I'd like to second Lolita -- although, I've already read it, so... :erm:

I'd like also to suggest we stay away from overtly political books, just because it seems like this is a great opportunity for discussion of *books* and literary qualities in themselves rather than strictly political themes. I don't mean any disrespect to daniel's suggestion, but I imagine that a book by Hannity/Colmes would probably generate posts that quickly move us away from a discussion of the book and into discussions of our own deeply-held beliefs -- which aren't likely to change in the first place, and which we can all talk about ad nauseam in the other threads here.

Of course, since this sounds like it'll be purely democratic, I guess we'll all just have to vote anyway when the time comes.

Steelman on 3/7/2006 at 19:35

This is a great idea. I've just ordered Pi from Amazons new and used section for 0.30p, with postage and packing £2.50. Hmm... Anyway, I never post much as I've never been very good at putting my thoughts down into words, but this could help change that as I do read alot and always feel quite frustrated after a particularly good read that there is no-one to share my thoughts with.

For next month could I nominate 'One flew over the cuckoos nest' by Ken Kesey (IIRC). It's a book that I have read but that was around 25 years ago and from what I remember of it it had some very interesting themes, great writing and was also side-splittingly funny in parts. In fact I think I'll pick it up anyway, It's long overdue for a re-read.

Thanks again for a great idea, I look forward to reading everyones comments and maybe adding my own.

Stitch on 3/7/2006 at 19:49

Quote Posted by CountMRVHS

I'd like also to suggest we stay away from overtly political books, just because it seems like this is a great opportunity for discussion of *books* and literary qualities in themselves rather than strictly political themes.

Agreed, although I think the same applies to other forms of nonfiction as well. The purpose of these book threads is not to discuss politics or mathematics or the Hell's Angels. American political books would be especially painful as only a fraction of our community is from the United States.

While we could vote to permanently barr certain genres, my general feeling is we should simply let democracy take its course. As long as the community drives the selection process I think we'll be fine.

Also: A lot of the suggestions here seem to be of the "I just read this book and it's fantastic" school. Keep in mind if you make a suggestion you are expected to participate, which means that the book will have to be fresh enough in your mind to discuss in detail two months from now (at the earliest). Is your memory really that good, or are you willing to reread the book if it is voted through?

Also also: I'm being strict on the whole "if you suggest you must read the result" but there are exceptions, of course. I know I'm certainly not going to reread some books (such as the mediocre <U>American Gods</U>, were it to win) and if a book is utterly failing to grab me I reserve the right to stop wasting my time. There are always legit reasons to drop out in any given month, ignatios and I just want everyone to approach this in good faith and not drop out if their suggestion fails to gather enough votes.

Schattentänzer on 3/7/2006 at 20:27

Just to be clear, neither Pattern Recognition nor American Gods was a suggestion of mine, I just wanted to know if those would classify as genre fiction - which I still don't know, btw.

I deliberately made no suggestions yet because, as I said, I'm not well read outside of the "geek boundaries". I love classics, but shied away from contemporary stuff for some reason.

On that note, are classics allowed?

daniel on 3/7/2006 at 21:03

you're right countMRVHS, best stay away from things that would detract from discussing the actual book. also, lolita and one flew over the cuckoo's nest sound good to me. lolita because one of my friends said i had a lolita complex and i heard the term was from that book, and cuckoo's nest because i saw the movie. i hate watching the movie and not having read the book.:p