Embarrased to Say...

[erisesoteric]

I don't know... I don't buy books because they're Oprah books, but the books I've bought that WERE Oprah books were good ones.

And anyone who supports reading is OK in my books...

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[Neophobic Man]

That I agree with...what I want to see Oprah do though is expand her genres...why oh why can't any of these so called book clubs find it in their hearts to promote some kick ass fantasy fiction, like, say George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series...oh yeah...

[dwim]

The Great Gatsby should have never been written... it's nothing but a bunch of nose up snobs.

But that aside, I enjoyed Steinbeck Cannery Row and was really into The Grapes of Wrath. Hemingway, I liked only one book and that was For Whom the Bell Tolls... The Sun Also Rises I plodded through and I never finished the one about the nurse and the soldier who fell in love with her... Kerouac, I am a big big fan of him, he's the one that gave me all this reading kick after years of teacher's book report that I got bored with. kerouac's writing injected some sort of literary drug that I'm still high off of.

And for those concerned I may never finished Moby Dick, no fear, I'll tackle that book again soon.

[Jadian]

I love Barney's Version by Mordeci Richler. I also love To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Of Oprah's club, I liked Fall On Your Knees but as I said, I read it before she got a hold of it.

And the orange O thing? I just find it tacky. Ditto books who have the made-into-movie covers with actors and actresses dressed up as the characters. Bleh.

[Ski]

*sigh* right over her head....Missed her by THAT MUCH.

[AsIs]

sorceress, I sit corrected. Sorry... [img]redface.gif[/img]

Lately I have been listening to a lot of Orson Scott Card. I've gone thru all of the Ender's Game series about to start another. In Ender's saga, he has some faults, some very consistant themes amoung his characters, not sure he can decently write a dumb character, they are all so damn brillant in their ways. But I find his character interactions to be a lot of fun to read/listen to.

[erisesoteric]

You're just disagreeable like that.

Hmm... if Oprah recommended the Sparrow, it would probably cause your brain to freeze up...

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[Weekapaug Groove]

the utne reader has a wonderful book club.

http://www.utne.com/pub/2002_si/promo/10152-1.html

[Enlanra]

You are forgiven, oh wise and virtuous KiSA.

Ender's Game was great but the rest of that series didn't measure up.

Ugh, Oprah. I've never read anything that she's recced that I enjoyed.

I seem to be saying that a lot in this thread...

[jones]

Random stuff...

I like Jack Kerouac, and I did put him on my list of "novelists," but I'm not really sure he ever wrote a novel after The Town & The City (the others seem to be life narratives with some names changed). I used to adore his prose, but then I read Thomas Wolfe and discovered that Kerouac is at his best only when trying to copy him.

Fantasy/sci-fi is enjoyable, but heavy handed themes and moralising seem to be an integral part of it. At times, that's a real turn-off.

The Catcher in the Rye may be the first revolutionary novel in both form and content since Tom Jones. Jace, you should definitely read it. And when you're done, you should read Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground. Those two books will screw with you for the rest of your life.

Considering Kate Chopin's The Awakening deals so directly and uniquely with so many stock feminist issues (and preceded even the idea of feminism by fifty years), I'm always amazed at how few feminists have read it.

In addition to being incredibly thought provoking, Frank Norris' The Octopus is a total page-turner. If you can get through chapter one (which is a little boring but necessary), you won't be able to put it down.

As for sending Works & Days to Oprah -- I don't think she could handle it. But either way, it's not a novel. It's a punk rock romance (like, it has a wandering narrative and characters who go on quests like in the Arthurian romances, but it doesn't have a single cohesive plot like every decent novel should).

take care

---jones()