The Second 2006 Big Read

rathbone · Post by **rathbone** » 10 Mar 2006, 14:45

Suggestions please for the April - June Big Read

Jackson Priest · Post by **Jackson Priest** » 13 Mar 2006, 11:52

I would like to suggest the following, my favourite book of all time (apart from Fifth Term At Malory Towers, obviously), if only to give me an excuse to read it again:

Geek Love by Katharine Dunn

This is the blurb on the back cover:

Lil Binewski, born a Boston aristocrat, was in her time the most stylish of geeks. That is to say she made her living by biting the heads off live chickens in front of a carnival audience. This she gave up for doting motherhood, because she and her fairground-owning husband had a money-spinning idea. Throughout each pregnancy Lil gobbles pesticides, experiments with drugs and douses herself with radiation to ensure that she produces infants grotesque enough to keep the turnstiles clicking. She does. Arturo the Aqua Boy is a limbless megalomaniac, Electra and Iphigenia are musically gifted Siamese twins with a penchant for prostitution and Fortunato is possessed of strange telekinetic powers. Their story â€“ by turns shocking, tender, touching and cruel â€“ is narrated by their sister Olympia. She is a bald, hunchbacked albino dwarf.

mr magnolia · Post by **mr magnolia** » 13 Mar 2006, 13:06

um, (rather than yum...)

I had an old book thought of my own a week or two back:

'Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter' by Mario Vargas Llosa

I first read it in a hurried manner in 1990 on a Feve train with holes in the floor and snow coming up through them and then in the airport at Santiago de Compostella, fuelled only by the free buns you get when the plane is very late in leaving and the knowledge that my pal Ivor had refused to allow me to retain his copy that I was reading, on the flimsy basis that it actually belonged to a very scary lady elsewhere in his life and he had to give it back when we got back to Blighty.

I learned four things on that trip:

San de Comp is apparently called the 'piss pot of Spain' locally as it rains all the time.

Dogs out in the farmlands of NW Spain are fierce and generally chained at the end of VERY long farm tracks but with just enough chain to reach you if you are on the wrong side of the road.

Cycling from San de Comp to Santander makes your legs hurt.

People can be tightwads with their books.

bellybabe · Post by **bellybabe** » 13 Mar 2006, 16:35

I could lend it to you if you like.

mr magnolia · Post by **mr magnolia** » 13 Mar 2006, 23:02

Very kind, BB, thanks.

But I have my own now, you know. That's why it's all so fresh in my mind!

mr magnolia · Post by **mr magnolia** » 13 Mar 2006, 23:04

ps

do you think the Book Club could one day become so famous that it gets its own forum?

Then I would be able to trawl through past reviews <cough> and suggestions...

bellybabe · Post by **bellybabe** » 14 Mar 2006, 12:50

mr magnolia wrote:Very kind, BB, thanks.

But I have my own now, you know. That's why it's all so fresh in my mind!

Ah well, you're welcome anyway. Have about three of his others if you're interested, and I'm pretty sure they're all in English.

rathbone · Post by **rathbone** » 24 Mar 2006, 11:55

So far we've got:

Geek Love by Katharine Dunn
A story of gifted grotesques told by a bald, albino dwarf hunchback.

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
18 year old Mario falls for his aunt Julia to episodes of radio soap operas.

and I would like to suggest:

Pointless by Jeff Connor
The story of East Stirlingshire FC. The action on and off the pitch is unmissable, unlike their shots at goal.

Stuart, A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters
The story of Stuart Shorter, thief, hostage taker, psycho and street raconteur.

Further suggestions, endorsements of any of the above or even an indication that you are out there, are welcomed. Otherwise a totally undemocratic selection will be made on 31 March.

rathbone · Post by **rathbone** » 03 Apr 2006, 09:36

Jackson Priest wrote:I would like to suggest the following, my favourite book of all time

Okay Jackson, the floor is yours:

Geek Love by Katharine Dunn

mr magnolia · Post by **mr magnolia** » 06 Apr 2006, 18:57

Geek Love by Katharine Dunn

Oh rats...

I've just come back from waterstones with a 3 for 2 that doesn't iblude this one...

I shall look out for it though.

Jackson Priest · Post by **Jackson Priest** » 11 Apr 2006, 23:59

rathbone wrote:
Jackson Priest wrote:I would like to suggest the following, my favourite book of all time
Okay Jackson, the floor is yours:

Geek Love by Katharine Dunn

Oh, marvellous. Perfect timing too, as have just finished Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square, and couldn't decide what to read next.

If anyone wants to buy Geek Love, I can recommend a website I have just found which sells books. Just click here, and you'll find it. I have managed to negotiate a POL discount, so they will sell the book to members of POL for only Â£7.19, not including p&p. You can read a few sample pages too. I've reserved 508 copies, which was probably a bit silly, considering how many people here have multiple identities.

Mr M, I'll probably finish it in a week or 2, if you would like to borrow it after me.

Has anyone started reading it yet? What d'you think of it so far, Mr Rathbone?

mr magnolia · Post by **mr magnolia** » 12 Apr 2006, 08:45

Jackson Priest wrote: Mr M, I'll probably finish it in a week or 2, if you would like to borrow it after me.

Many thanks JP.

However, I have a perhaps obsessive desire to own a copy of the books that I read (except of course for Cloud Atlas, which is still looking for a loving caring home), so will probably buy one in due course

Epykat · Post by **Epykat** » 12 Apr 2006, 09:35

mr magnolia wrote:except of course for Cloud Atlas, which is still looking for a loving caring home

Do you think they'd be worth more as a pair

Sandra · Post by **Sandra** » 12 Apr 2006, 09:35

rathbone wrote:
Jackson Priest wrote:I would like to suggest the following, my favourite book of all time
Okay Jackson, the floor is yours:

Geek Love by Katharine Dunn

think I'll pass on this one, just read the description on amazon, bizarre.

mr magnolia · Post by **mr magnolia** » 12 Apr 2006, 11:10

Epykat wrote:
mr magnolia wrote:except of course for Cloud Atlas, which is still looking for a loving caring home
Do you think they'd be worth more as a pair

certainly not - can you imagine the horror if breeding should occur?

Jackson Priest · Post by **Jackson Priest** » 12 Apr 2006, 12:02

mr magnolia wrote:
Jackson Priest wrote: Mr M, I'll probably finish it in a week or 2, if you would like to borrow it after me.
Many thanks JP.

However, I have a perhaps obsessive desire to own a copy of the books that I read (except of course for Cloud Atlas, which is still looking for a loving caring home), so will probably buy one in due course

I'm the same. I've got a friend who always leaves books on buses/trains etc after he's read them, so that the book will be picked up and read by someone else, ad infinitum, but I can't bear to part with them, even if I don't like them.

Sandra wrote:think I'll pass on this one, just read the description on amazon, bizarre.

The description on the back of the book does make it sound like some kind of sicko gorefest, but it really isn't. It's page-turningly thrilling, funny, sad etc etc. The bizarre genetic make-up of the characters is really by-the-by once you get into it, although is of course integral to the whole plot(s). Why don't you borrow my copy instead, then if you don't like it by a third of the way in, you can give it back to me, and I will buy you a packet of smash to make up for it.

JP.

Sandra · Post by **Sandra** » 12 Apr 2006, 12:46

Jackson Priest wrote:

Why don't you borrow my copy instead, then if you don't like it by a third of the way in, you can give it back to me, and I will buy you a packet of smash to make up for it.

JP.

sounds like an excellent idea, thanks!

rathbone · Post by **rathbone** » 13 Apr 2006, 09:00

Jackson Priest wrote: What d'you think of it so far, Mr Rathbone?

I haven't been able to locate a copy out here in the sticks....... but Mrs. R and I are going to Oxford for easter, so hopefully one of those obscure antiquarian bookshops might have a dusty copy on a back shelf.

Sandra · Post by **Sandra** » 13 Apr 2006, 09:52

rathbone wrote:
Jackson Priest wrote: What d'you think of it so far, Mr Rathbone?
I haven't been able to locate a copy out here in the sticks....... but Mrs. R and I are going to Oxford for easter, so hopefully one of those obscure antiquarian bookshops might have a dusty copy on a back shelf.

You can buy JP's choice on Amazon

Mate of Marya · Post by **Mate of Marya** » 16 Apr 2006, 13:28

I realise I am too late to make a suggestion for the April to June big Read.

However, I have just returned from holiday and spent a lot of time reading. One of my favourite books was called "44 Scotland Street" by Alexander McCall Smith. This is an entertaining and witty portrait of Edinburgh society. It reflects a student's life and her colourful neighbours. I particularly appreciated his wry social comments and endearing characters.
One quote which I found quite appropriate; "The most surprising people lived in Portobello, including at least some creative people."
Worth a shot!

rathbone · Post by **rathbone** » 20 Apr 2006, 15:19

Success in St. Albans ..... there on business this morning and found a copy in Borders

rathbone · Post by **rathbone** » 03 Jun 2006, 09:59

So, what did people think of Geek Love?

Reviews, please, before the end of the month.

rathbone · Post by **rathbone** » 13 Jun 2006, 09:48

Jackson Priest wrote:I would like to suggest the following, my favourite book of all time

Geek Love by Katharine Dunn

Thanks J.P. I enjoyed Geek Love. It made me think, in places, made me laugh, in a lot of places, and I did find myself getting caught up by the characters in a big way all over the place.

But therein lies the main fault of the book:

Katharine Dunn also got caught up by her own characters and didn't know how to get away from them. Ultimately she had to end it in what, for me, was a very contrived manner, which I didn't believe or want to accept (even within the bizarre world of Arturo the Aqua Boy and his siblings.)

I also suspect that Ms. Dunn wasn't happy with it either, which is why she tried to graft on the superfluous story of Miranda and Miss Lick in an attempt to provide "motivation and resolution". That didn't work. It would have been a really good book without Miss Lick, a better one without Miranda and may even have been a little cult classic if only she'd worked out how to end it before she started.

mr magnolia · Post by **mr magnolia** » 19 Jun 2006, 22:32

How can I put this without appearing like a lazy buffoon?

oh, I can't.

Well back in April I supported the beast of corporate capitalism, global economic growth and helped feed the forthcoming problems of Portobello caused by the consequent global warming by getting a 3 for 2 from waterstones (none of which were geek love). I've yet to finish the first one, and I've yet to even glimpse a copy of geek love...

but hey, the end of June is a long way aways yet, and the nights are kind of long just now, so you never know.

mr magnolia · Post by **mr magnolia** » 10 Sep 2006, 23:15

er, I've got a copy of this now.

Um, I'll read it soon...