So...book club

[jeregenest]

A while back I pondered doing a book club. I've been mulling it over in my mind this summer and I've decided that if I was going to do one I'd do something like this:


This book club will look at books who have, at their core, a story about uncovering a secret history of the world through the fantastical. Books set in the mundane world, either now or at some point in the past or perhaps even in the future that fundamentally alter our understanding of the mundane world may be rewritten through the revelations of the tale. These are tales of elaborate conspiracies and supernatural explanation often with a vivid sense of the past that can imbue these novels often with a sense of the gothic, where secrecy is used to buffer and protect the past from the full knowledge of the past.

The Reading List (and Preliminary schedule)

The book club will start out in September by reading two very important novels that both define and underpin the sub-genre we’re examining

• Foucault's Pendulum,Umberto Eco


• Possession, A.S. Byatt

We’ll then look at Tim Powers two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award, who just recently had a new book.

• Last Call, Tim Powers


• Declare, Tim Powers


• Three Days to Never, by Tim Powers

Elizabeth Hand will give us a good Halloween treat:

• Waking the Moon, Elizabeth Hand

And then we’ll end October and spend November by looking at John Crowley

• Little Big, John Crowley


• The Aegypt Quartet (trilogy really), John Crowley

To celebrate the new Pynchon novel we’ll read two of his works.

• Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon


• Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon

And from there is really no limit of other cool books.

• The Mysteries by Lisa Tuttle


• Trip to the Stars by Nicholas Christopher


• Vellum : The Book of All Hours by Hal Duncan


• Secret History : A Novel by Donna Tartt


• Waking the Moon, Elizabeth Hand


• The Paper Grail by James P. Blaylock


• The Chymical Wedding by Lindsay Clarke


• Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov


• Jerusalem Poker, Edward Whittemore


• Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter


• Observatory Mansions, Edward Carey


• Arc d'X, Steve Erickson


• The King's Last Song, Geoff Ryman


• The Land of Laughs, Jonathan Carroll


• The House on the Borderland, William Hope Hodgson


• The General in His Labyrinth, Gabriel Garcia Marquez


• The Seven Who Fled, Frederick Prokosch


• The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, Jeffrey Ford


• Deluge, Albertine Strong


• Views From the Oldest House, Richard Grant


• The Chess Garden, Brooks Hansen


• The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, Angela Carter


• The Master & Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov


• Mother London, Michael Moorcock

I wonder what sort of interest there would be.

Comments

[ptevis.livejournal.com]

I'm in. It helps that I've read some of these already, so keeping up might actually be possible.

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

Gravity's Rainbow as part of a book club?

Many of these books are extremely thick and useful for smashing fragile art objects with.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

One every two weeks baby. I can't stand namby-pamby hold your hands book clubs.

Though Gravity's rainbow is probably a two ssesion book.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

I'm up for it, as long as there's a reasonable sure way to get the book in time.

[redtint.livejournal.com]

Man I would love to be in on that. Already read Foucaults Pendulum, although it was long and ago and I've wanted to read a few others on that list. But between working to pay the bills, taking care of my son and trying to do a little bit of writing myself I don't have the time.

Three years ago I would've been all over it.

Ah well. Times change I guess.

[badger.livejournal.com]

Sounds an interesting idea. I've read most of these, so as previously remarked, keeping up wouldn't be hard.