2021 challenge : Falling in Love with Books Again ! discussion
Month 1 : a book in a day !
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Welcome, and first category
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Have you chosen your book ? Let me know here in the comments !
PS : it seems only 5 people saw this post about our first category. You can choose how you are notified when there is a new topic or post in your account settings : make sure you allowed some sort of notification (email, app...) if you don't want to miss the activity on this group !
i'm just back from the library, and it'll be either 'le principe' by jérôme ferrari, or paul auster's 'leviathan' for me! i'll make my choice tomorrow.. @Shiro good luck with dorian gray!
Hi!I read Tristan from Clarence Bouley. I took it at the library only because it was short, I did not know what to expect of it. It was such a delight that it took me only one evening to devour it !
Tristan is an island situated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, between South Africa and the South of Brazil, in the middle of nowhere. A boat only comes every two to three months and is the only link to the continent. Tristan is inhabited by 200 people, all of them are fishermen. The exchanges with the world are limited to the boats and the regular shipwrecks. Truly an isolated world.
Ida sails onto this island, probably searching for herself. She encounters the inhabitants, and among them Saul, a married fisherman.
This book is full of poetry. It describes the lives, without describing them, of the inhabitants who must bear with themselves from their birth to their death. The sea and the birds are omnipresent. The rough environment, the loneliness shape the minds of the inhabitants.
This book really took me onto a journey on a remote world. This was exactly what I needed at the moment, when I am dreaming about travelling.
The writing style is smooth, giving just the hints to let the imagination give shape to the characters and the landscape.
If I had a critic to do, is that the second part has been written and re-written. Well, the poetry and the landscape give it more depths and another look, but this part is quite expected. Ida has a pale fade character -which allows the reader to imagine her, but I also found that her choice are not consistent, she swallows everything without chewing it, which I do not find very realistic.
But really, I did love this book. A very nice discovery!
(I just want to add a remark on the website) : Please be careful that your e-mail adress is not lookable by anyone. A porn website has been following me and probably have had access to my e-mail adress... I cancelled my first account after finding out but well, you can imagine that this was not welcomed.
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I read Tristan from Clarence Bouley. I took it at the library only because it was short, I did not know what to expect of it. It was such a delight that it took me only one evening to devour it..."
Thank you for this review Emeline ! I love when an unexpected encounter with a book ends up surprising you and revealing a whole new world to discover !
I had never heard of the author or the novel before. Is it recent ?
Also, I find your review beautifully written ! It was a pleasure to read :)
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And thank you for this piece of advice ! I never would have thought such malevolence could roam a bookclub website... Make sure to protect yourselves friends !
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With this book, it got worse before it got better.
I was planning on reading The picture of Dorian Gray, but time went by so fast I reached today not having started it... and not having enough time to read it before tonight. So I turned to my shelf, and stumbled upon this book. Thin, brand new, never-opened; I got it as a present a few years ago and, as I do every time someone advises me to read something, I didn't read it. I waited for the right time... and it seemed to be today.
I knew they had made a movie about that story, but I hadn't watched it, and I didn't know what it was all about.
The mention of Scotland seemed like a good omen. A story set in my dream country... The style was special, poetic, vibrant and snappy. Sometimes swearwords came up, stinging, surprising, but it all made for a pleasant reading.
Then, slowly but steadily, it got weird. Jack lives with a clock instead of a heart, because his heart had to be replaced when he was born. This, and a few other slightly odd details, make you dive suddenly into a very different world. It's not just Edinburgh, 1874. It's Edinburgh, 1874, with a tint of bizarre in the air.
After reading the first third of the book, I thought I would stop. The slightly odd makes me quite uncomfortable, and this book was perfect in that department. It was terrible and sweet at the same time. But I read on, because I wanted to be able to write a full review.
And I did well, too. Without noticing, I crossed a line and found myself reading on and on, fascinated by the story, the characters, and carried on by this very special style. The sense of fate growing heavier, as the question raised at the beginning of the book resonates : can a cuckoo-clock heart resist love ?
All in all, I am glad I read this book. The beginning might make you feel uncomfortable, but only until your brain agrees to start believing. Then you are taken on a true odyssey, through Europe and emotions, and you will not be able to put the book down. And if you feel a little dizzy, the ending will bring you back to your senses, before the book closes and releases you into the world, slightly changed.
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So, which book did you end up reading ? :)
hi everyone! i read paul auster's 'leviathan', having read and really enjoyed the new york trilogy a few years ago. this is the story of a man named ben sachs, who is the narrator's best friend and who is found dead at the beginning of the novel: they are both writers, and the narrator attempts to put in writing his account of his friend's life and of what led to his death.i liked the way this premise made room for suspense to be built and sustained, because the main element driving the narrative is that the narrator wants to give a fair and balanced account of the story, out of admiration and love for his friend, and as a reader you have to accept that he refuses to rush things, which i think is a pretty good in-story justification for suspense
if you're like me and you've read the new york trilogy, i think this is a way less cerebral take on the genre of the detective story, and much more character-oriented: i found that there was a couple of really good, moving, and even inspiring characters, but the downside to this focus on the characters' psychological evolution is that a lot of it ends up revolving around middle-aged people's marital issues, which i don't find particularly exciting
but again, the main thing i'm taking out of this novel is its way of slowly and respectfully approaching someone's life story and secrets: in the end, the way the narrator presents his own writing throughout the novel seems to tell us that literature can be an exploration that's almost an act of devotion - one has to write, and write well, because one owes it to one's characters
Hi everyone! I only found this group today. Surprisingly on the 25th I started reading (and finished) the book “New York in 1979” by Kathy Acker.
The book is a doozy. Personally I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped I would but it was the first book I started and finished reading after a long time.
It was an experience and kept me off social media. I dragged myself to finish it and I was constantly losing myself. I kept going back a page or two to reread and understand where it was heading.
It is definitely an experience worth trying, even if you might not enjoy it. It gives you the chance to see a different style of writing and storytelling, and yes it does show how New York was back in 1979.
Thank you for accepting me here and cheers to more reading! ☺️
Ana Costin
It has been 13 days since the last post, and I will admit, although the first few days were meant to give people some time to join, I was also kept very busy by work. Preparing Agreg this year, some periods are busier than others (and I am sure it is also tru for you), but I will always find some time to come on here and keep this group alive and reading !
Speaking of reading, here is what you've been waiting for : the first category of this challenge ! It's all in the title : a book you can read in one day. Since today is already the 25th of January, I thought it would allow us to read and then exchange our views on the books we picked without having to wait too long. I then suggest that we give ourselves about two weeks to read this first book (or short story, that is up to you), and on the 7th of February, exchange quick reviews of the books we will have read, to maybe inspire others to read them too ! We can also discuss the next category then.
A reminder : the book you choose to read can be any genre, any language, any subject, as long as it submits to the category. Ideally, do not pick something you have to read for work or school - the whole point of this group is to escape our daily routine to dive into other worlds ! But it can be about a subject you studied in class and are curious to explore further. Comic books, mangas and other illustrated works of literature are also welcome.
Also, you are not compelled to produce a book review if you don't want to. You can just read other people's reviews, and those can be long or short. Again, the whole point of this group is to have fun and connect together in a relaxed way : no homework, no pressure. If you don't know where to begin a book review, there are ideas in the Group rules.
Finally, I will encourage you to comment under this post what book you are about to read, to maybe give other people ideas if they don't know where to start : it can be interesting to have two people read the same book and then exchange their views on it. I hope it is possible to comment, and for everyone who wishes, to post reviews; I am still discovering GoodReads, so there might be some technical shenaningans to figure out along the way ^^
Anyway, I hope you are all excited for this first (late) month of the challenge !
Good reading,
Shiro