spoko’s Comments (group member since Mar 05, 2021)

spoko’s comments from the EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club group.

I second The Martian.

Mary Ann wrote: “I am going to read this book. I have never read this before.
When I was in high school we had a choice about which book we wanted to read for our IRP (independent reading project). Most of my clas...”

It’s a shame that your teacher took such a narrow view, because these books are plenty powerful even if they are short! Why deny something good just because it’s not difficult?

Anna wrote: “@spoko I made a discussion board for the Woman in White—I hope you can see it on my feed and can then comment under it:) I’m starting reading this afternoon.”

Anna—I can’t see the board you created, but you prompted me to give it a try. I’ve created a feed in the Buddy Reads section, here. Can someone try and tell me whether that’s visible/useable for you? Thanks!

This is a Buddy Read for The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

We don’t really have a schedule, but we begin today, July 5. I’m listening to this version, which is 28 hours long, so I’m shooting for listening to an hour or so per day.

If anyone wants to come up with a schedule, and certainly if anyone has any impulse to moderate, please feel free! Otherwise, let’s just discuss as we go along!

I might give it a start this weekend, but let’s try to start the discussion on Monday the 5th. I’ve never started a Buddy Read, so I’m not sure how to go about it. Is there somewhere I officially request a thread?

María and Anna—When would be a good time to start, and what kind of timeline would work for you?

I would like to start as soon as we can—for my part, I could start as early as this weekend.

I second The Vanishing Half.

I second Double Indemnity and Our Man in Havana.

I second Guns, Germs, and Steel.

I nominate A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (489 p.).

Just finished this yesterday, and enjoyed it quite a bit.

I honestly think the person who suffers most might be Baba. I can’t imagine living like that—unable to show (or really even fully feel) my love for one of my own sons, while at the same time forced to raise him next to another son that I do acknowledge. The immense guilt he must have felt, and the grief at having Hassan ripped away from him. And unlike Amir, he never gets a chance to find any redemption.

I nominate Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (1977, 337p).

So, The Woman in White has been nominated a couple of times in a row now, and not quite won the poll. (I suspect the length is off-putting for some.) Is anyone interested in doing a Buddy Read of it? I’d like to start some time in July, if anyone’s interested. And this might need to span some time, since it is a pretty long book.

Shelley wrote: “Not sure if I was distracted, or just too unfamiliar with the time and place in which it was written, but I felt confused and kept having to listen to tracks over and over and still wondered if I understood what was going on.”

It’s a pretty surreal narrative, so I think a bit of that reaction is to be expected. My approach was just to kind of hold it loosely and be comfortable with the idea that I wouldn’t get it all on the first pass. I read it about 6 years ago, and haven’t returned to it, but a lot of individual bits and pieces do still stick in my mind.

I'll second The Song of Achilles.

I second The Vanishing Half.

I nominate A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (112 p.).

I second The Woman in White.

I second Pachinko.

I nominate Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (345 p.)

I second The Henna Artist.