Metafilter discussion

Re the poll, apparently if you click on "first choice" you don't get to insert your book choice. BOOOO. Please add a "comment" to your poll answer, listing your book choice(s).

If we started a list and set it so anyone could add books to it, we could each vote for the books we would be interested in reading. Maybe as we read them, the list admin could remove them.

Haha, I like how eight people have voted for "First Choice Book". Such plebeian taste - real lit snobs always go for the Second Choice Book. :)

But seriously, my first suggestion would be for A Perfect Spy by John Le Carré. I've just begun it, and it's pretty fantastic so far. It appears to be more "literary" than even the usual JLC book, with a deeply autobiographical thread about growing up with a truly irredeemable con man for a father.

Nice retrospective review here; nice contemporaneous review here.

I'm open to pretty much anything, however.

I would love to re-read A Perfect Spy along with you.

As per Sarah's suggestion. I have made a list we can add suggestions to and vote on. It's here.

I'm not much for historical (or 19c) fiction and OD'd on LeCarre in high school, so I'll vote for Martel or Schlink ... or both! (I picked Martel first cuz it's the sort of book I'd never read otherwise. ;)

But I'm in for whatever... cheers.

You can vote for as many as you like and suggest new ones as well. You can even put your votes in order of preference!

I put some books up there to get the list started but I'd love it if people chipped in with their own ideas.

So far all the voters are male, so it'd be great to get some women making suggestions and voting.

So far all the voters are male, so it'd be great to get some women making suggestions and voting.

Interestingly enough, every IRL book club I've ever participated in (3) has been all women except for me. Comme ci, comme ca.

I voted for the Le Carre, because I haven't read it before and I alwasy find him difficult. But Angel looks interesting too. Thanks for putting up the list, philipy!

Do you want to add Pather Panchali to the list?

It seemed to popular in the original MeTa thread. Go ahead and add it if you feel inclined.

I certainly wouldn't be averse to reading it.

Is anyone up for a non-fiction read? I have no idea of what but just shooting the idea out there.

I'd be totally, totally cool with a nonfiction read.

I just added a non-fiction suggestion to the list: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, And Hope In A Mumbai Undercity.

I read Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion recently. It's a collection of essays but together it adds up to a particular, unique view of 1960s America. It's very readable and I think it might make for an interesting non-fiction reading group discussion fodder.