A Year's Worth of the Most Celebrated Novels

[Philip Coates]

> Scanning your list (and of course I haven't read them all) the longest I see is the Hemingway (which I recall as interminable when I slogged through it in High School), and it's still less than 500 pages. It may be beyond what a reading group can get through in a month. [ND]

We've been reading some pretty long ones recently - "Light in August" was 507 pages in my (Vintage) edition. This month we're reading "The Idiot" which is 540.

My concern is not so much length as I don't like to read a 'negative' book too regularly, one that is tragic or depressing book, or one about confusion or neurosis or failure. Especially if that's becoming a major portion of my regular reading.

[caroljane]

Since you're familiar with the O'Hara, maybe you can tell me if there's any connection between Julian English and the Emperor Julian? Emperor Julian was killed near Samarra, in modern day Iraq, he was in his early thirties, and that's about it as far as similarities go. He wasn't a drunk, he didn't commit suicide, he wasn't a seducer...it all seems like a red herring to us addicts of Gibbon's Decline and Fall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_apostate

I'm not aware of any but that's very interesting ..I read Gore Vidal's novel about Emperor J but never thought of that possible connection . But thinking about it now,...well, O'Hara famously didn't get to go to university so was an "apostate" from both the Yale- gentleman cult he wanted to join, and to the Catholicism he rebelled against. And his fictional Julian is apostasizing from the rigid code of his father and tribe. There may well have been a connection. And the choosing of the name English says a lot about O'Hara's beginning his lifelong creative analysis of his own Irishness and its contrast with the then Anglo upper crust.

I wonder if there was anything about it in the McShane bio, which I have not read.

I'm a Gibbon fan too, though I haven't read him in about 25 years. Want to get back to him...if I could just get off this durn computer.

[9thdoctor]

I'm a Gibbon fan too, though I haven't read him in about 25 years. Want to get back to him...if I could just get off this durn computer.

There's a solution, and you don't have to get off the durn computer, just click the link:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm

[caroljane]

I'm a Gibbon fan too, though I haven't read him in about 25 years. Want to get back to him...if I could just get off this durn computer.

There's a solution, and you don't have to get off the durn computer, just click the link:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25717/25717-h/25717-h.htm

Oh, oh, oh. There just isn't any chapter you can open without wanting to grab somebody and quote from it... you'll probably be sorry you gave me this link!

Just visited the wilds of Tartary where "the lonesome traveller can find a sort of comfort and society in the presence of vegetable life."

Reminds me a bit of remotest Randroidia.

[caroljane]

Not only Gibbon but today's CBC opera is my value-swoon Juan Diego Flores in l'Elisir d'Amore. O real life where is thy sting, O Monday morning where is thy victory?

[Xray]

O real life where is thy sting, O Monday morning where is thy victory?

LOL!!

Daunce, your erudition combined with your wit is a simply irresistible cocktail!

Edited April 9, 2011 by Xray

[caroljane]

O real life where is thy sting, O Monday morning where is thy victory?

LOL!!

Daunce, your erudition combined with your wit is a simply irresistible cocktail!

Humble thanks X, drink up. I enjoy your cheerful impertinence to the various Keepers of the Keys of Knowledge also. Probably only another teacher could appreciate the full victory of Monday morning. In my case it usually presents the bracing challenge of a class half comprised of new students. Not that they don't come in and register the rest of the week too. It is most inconsiderate of the government not to just make the immigrants all wait till September to enter the country.

Friday we endured a truly stupefying workshop on Ongoing Learner Assessment; painstakingly and redundantly worked out and articulated by pedagogues who do not realize that the one and only skill of every ESL teacher is to adjust the day's lesson to the students who are present, some of whom she will never have seen before. We can assess them all right, but the only ones who are Ongoing are the teachers, and the students who actually stay in class for a whole term, let alone a whole year, could do their own assessment better than we could. We are learner-focused, after all.

This is actually a proof that the system works, however. The newcomers learn the English they need to learn and get jobs, or move or start families. They can come back at any time and a great many of them do; the lessons are free-lifelong.

Upside, it was a paid workshop.

Prosit!

Carol (that is the only German I know outside of Schiller's ode to Joy, which I can only sing, and I can't sing)

[caroljane]

shouldn't have had that double

Edited April 10, 2011 by daunce lynam

[Selene]

Anyone want to guess at etymology on the word "cocktail"? <<<< also what is the rule on whether that question mark should go inside or outside the last "quote" mark.

Clearly, Phil is eliminated from answering this question.

"H. L. Mencken did extensive research on the topic but in the end came up short, saying the origin of the word cocktail is 'quite as dark as the origin of the thing itself.'"

[caroljane]

Anyone want to guess at etymology on the word "cocktail"? <<<< also what is the rule on whether that question mark should go inside or outside the last "quote" mark.

Clearly, Phil is eliminated from answering this question.

"H. L. Mencken did extensive research on the topic but in the end came up short, saying the origin of the word cocktail is 'quite as dark as the origin of the thing itself.'"

Girl talk, Adam. You wouldn't be interested. Not that we're giggling talking about you or Phil, or anybody.

Edited April 10, 2011 by daunce lynam

[Selene]

Anyone want to guess at etymology on the word "cocktail"? <<<< also what is the rule on whether that question mark should go inside or outside the last "quote" mark.

Clearly, Phil is eliminated from answering this question.

"H. L. Mencken did extensive research on the topic but in the end came up short, saying the origin of the word cocktail is 'quite as dark as the origin of the thing itself.'"

Girl talk, Adam. You wouldn't be interested. Not that we're giggling talking about you or Phil, or anybody.

Nice try Carol.

I am serious about the etymology of that word.

My father, impish person that he was, once taped a gathering of the women of the family for a baby shower. I was about twelve (12). He thought as I did that it would be amusing.

Girl talk! You guys put men to shame!

So spare me.

Adam

[caroljane]

Anyone want to guess at etymology on the word "cocktail"? <<<< also what is the rule on whether that question mark should go inside or outside the last "quote" mark.

Clearly, Phil is eliminated from answering this question.

"H. L. Mencken did extensive research on the topic but in the end came up short, saying the origin of the word cocktail is 'quite as dark as the origin of the thing itself.'"

Girl talk, Adam. You wouldn't be interested. Not that we're giggling talking about you or Phil, or anybody.

Nice try Carol.

I am serious about the etymology of that word.

My father, impish person that he was, once taped a gathering of the women of the family for a baby shower. I was about twelve (12). He thought as I did that it would be amusing.

Girl talk! You guys put men to shame!

So spare me.

Adam

Adam,

Your father was a bolder man than mine. On Ma's card club nights he always took me to Uncle Percy's or Aunt Charlotte's or somewhere and we visited until the cackling was over. He was also witty, and a war veteran of the type who never talked about the war, and utterly respected by everyone who knew him. But on those Wednesday nights he wore a wry resigned, baffled, defeated expression.

[caroljane]

Forgot the main point, silly me. I don't know where cocktail comes from either, I can only think of peacock feathers or suchlike, or the ends of cockfights which sounds really disgusting. But it would seem to derive from poultry somehow, which is weird.

[Selene]

Forgot the main point, silly me. I don't know where cocktail comes from either, I can only think of peacock feathers or suchlike, or the ends of cockfights which sounds really disgusting. But it would seem to derive from poultry somehow, which is weird.

For some reason, Ms. Xray's use of the word in her post and her being a non-native English speaker made me wonder where the hell such a word came into being.

"We do know that the term originated in America, showing up in publications around the early 19th century.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest definition of the word appeared in the May 13, 1806, edition of Balance and Columbian Repository, a federalist newspaper[George will love this part of the mythology] in Hudson, New York, where the editor printed an answer to the question “What is a cocktail?”

To which he answered: “A cock-tail, then, is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind—sugar, water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to a Democratic candidate: because, a person having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow anything else.”

There’s a lot of speculation about the actual etymology of the word cocktail, but none of the theories have been verified.

Of all the ones Mencken researched, he thought this to be the most likely: During the Colonial period, tavern keepers stored their spirits in casks. When the casks got near empty, the dregs, or tailings, would be mixed together into one barrel and sold at a reduced price—poured from the spigot, which was referred to as the cock. Patrons wanting this cheaper alcohol would come in asking for “cock tailings.” <<<<This one seems to have some validity.

Another popular story comes from New Orleans, where an apothecary by the name of Peychaud (of bitters fame) served a mixed brandy drink in a French eggcup. Eventually the drink was named coquetier, the French term for an eggcup. Peychaud’s guests shortened the name to “cocktay,” and eventually it became “cocktail.”

"In 2005, Dr, David Wondrich stated that the earliest use of the word in print of the word “cocktail” was from “The Farmer’s Cabinet.”

Published in 1803, “The Farmer’s Cabinet” made mention of the cocktail as being a drink of choise.

The second earliest use of the word “cocktail” in print was from the 1806 edition of “The Balance and Columbian Repository.”

Many believe that the term “cockail” was first coined in the village of Elmsford in New York. It is said that a local bar ran out of stirrers and began to use cock’s tail feathers to stir drinks.

The first printing of a bartender’s guide that included recipes for cocktails was printed in 1862 by Prof. Jerry Thomas. The book included several recipes for cocktails and noted that the use of bitters to make cocktails was the thing that differentiated cocktails from other drinks.

Bitters are not generally used in modern cocktail-making. Cocktails were set aflame when they contained a trace amount of high-proof alcohol which was set aflame by the bartender prior to its being served.

In the years of Prohibition in the United States which lasted from 1919-1933, cocktails were prepared in speakeasies with far less care because the quality of good alcohol available was limited. This is because alcohol was illegal in the United States during prohibition."

Finally, the weirdest one is ...

My favorite theory is that "cocktail" was derived from the 16th century drink "cock-ale," which had as an ingredient--I kid you not--a dead rooster. A recipe from the 1500s:

Take 10 gallons of ale and a large cock, the older the better; parboil the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar until his bones are broken (you must gut him when you flaw him). Then, put the cock into two quarts of sack, and put to it five pounds of raisins of the sun-stoned; some blades of mace, and a few cloves. Put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has been working, put the bag and ale together in vessel. In a week or nine days bottle it up, fill the bottle just above the neck and give it the same time to ripen as other ale.

Lest you think that was just an example of The Funny Stuff People Did A Long Time Ago, people actually still make this stuff. Boston Beer Co. recently whipped up some cock-ale from a recipe from Compleat Housewife (a British cookbook from 1736), out of 12 gallons of beer, "one large and elderly cockerel," raisins, mace and cloves. According to Koch, the founder of Boston Beer Co., the beer was a great success. "People loved the idea (after they got over a little shock) and were surprised at how tasty it was," he claimed. I'm sure. Given the coffee-, maple-, and hazelnut-flavored beers that crowd our shelves, can poultry-flavored beer be far behind?

There were some really undocumented items going back to Roman history which did not seem credible to any of the researchers.

How fascinating words and language can be.

Adam

[caroljane]

Forgot the main point, silly me. I don't know where cocktail comes from either, I can only think of peacock feathers or suchlike, or the ends of cockfights which sounds really disgusting. But it would seem to derive from poultry somehow, which is weird.

For some reason, Ms. Xray's use of the word in her post and her being a non-native English speaker made me wonder where the hell such a word came into being.

"We do know that the term originated in America, showing up in publications around the early 19th century.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest definition of the word appeared in the May 13, 1806, edition of Balance and Columbian Repository, a federalist newspaper[George will love this part of the mythology] in Hudson, New York, where the editor printed an answer to the question “What is a cocktail?”

To which he answered: “A cock-tail, then, is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind—sugar, water, and bitters—it is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also to be of great use to a Democratic candidate: because, a person having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow anything else.”

There’s a lot of speculation about the actual etymology of the word cocktail, but none of the theories have been verified.

Of all the ones Mencken researched, he thought this to be the most likely: During the Colonial period, tavern keepers stored their spirits in casks. When the casks got near empty, the dregs, or tailings, would be mixed together into one barrel and sold at a reduced price—poured from the spigot, which was referred to as the cock. Patrons wanting this cheaper alcohol would come in asking for “cock tailings.” <<<<This one seems to have some validity.

Another popular story comes from New Orleans, where an apothecary by the name of Peychaud (of bitters fame) served a mixed brandy drink in a French eggcup. Eventually the drink was named coquetier, the French term for an eggcup. Peychaud’s guests shortened the name to “cocktay,” and eventually it became “cocktail.”

"In 2005, Dr, David Wondrich stated that the earliest use of the word in print of the word “cocktail” was from “The Farmer’s Cabinet.”

Published in 1803, “The Farmer’s Cabinet” made mention of the cocktail as being a drink of choise.

The second earliest use of the word “cocktail” in print was from the 1806 edition of “The Balance and Columbian Repository.”

Many believe that the term “cockail” was first coined in the village of Elmsford in New York. It is said that a local bar ran out of stirrers and began to use cock’s tail feathers to stir drinks.

The first printing of a bartender’s guide that included recipes for cocktails was printed in 1862 by Prof. Jerry Thomas. The book included several recipes for cocktails and noted that the use of bitters to make cocktails was the thing that differentiated cocktails from other drinks.

Bitters are not generally used in modern cocktail-making. Cocktails were set aflame when they contained a trace amount of high-proof alcohol which was set aflame by the bartender prior to its being served.

In the years of Prohibition in the United States which lasted from 1919-1933, cocktails were prepared in speakeasies with far less care because the quality of good alcohol available was limited. This is because alcohol was illegal in the United States during prohibition."

Finally, the weirdest one is ...

My favorite theory is that "cocktail" was derived from the 16th century drink "cock-ale," which had as an ingredient--I kid you not--a dead rooster. A recipe from the 1500s:

Take 10 gallons of ale and a large cock, the older the better; parboil the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar until his bones are broken (you must gut him when you flaw him). Then, put the cock into two quarts of sack, and put to it five pounds of raisins of the sun-stoned; some blades of mace, and a few cloves. Put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has been working, put the bag and ale together in vessel. In a week or nine days bottle it up, fill the bottle just above the neck and give it the same time to ripen as other ale.

Lest you think that was just an example of The Funny Stuff People Did A Long Time Ago, people actually still make this stuff. Boston Beer Co. recently whipped up some cock-ale from a recipe from Compleat Housewife (a British cookbook from 1736), out of 12 gallons of beer, "one large and elderly cockerel," raisins, mace and cloves. According to Koch, the founder of Boston Beer Co., the beer was a great success. "People loved the idea (after they got over a little shock) and were surprised at how tasty it was," he claimed. I'm sure. Given the coffee-, maple-, and hazelnut-flavored beers that crowd our shelves, can poultry-flavored beer be far behind?

There were some really undocumented items going back to Roman history which did not seem credible to any of the researchers.

How fascinating words and language can be.

Adam

Adam,

Thank you so much ! I love this stuff. the prosaic theory about the barrels is indeed probably the real derivation but the political embroidery is hilarious. I am glad to see that poultry are only peripherally involved.I am still nervous about larger, flocking type animals (you know [/i]what I mean)

Carol

Granddaughter of Stillman

no mystery there

[Philip Coates]

> According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest definition of the word appeared..May 13, 1806 [Adam]

The Oxford American Dictionary is both more definite and traces it back further: to the early 17th Century. [i'm transcribing and paraphrasing from my pocket-sized electronic OAD]: cock + tail...a horse with a 'docked' tail (looking like that of a cock)suggesting not a thoroughbred.

Hence, by analogy, a drink that was adulterated (not a thoroughbred).

[Xray]

Forgot the main point, silly me. I don't know where cocktail comes from either, I can only think of peacock feathers or suchlike, or the ends of cockfights which sounds really disgusting. But it would seem to derive from poultry somehow, which is weird.

I always assumed the multicolored feathers of a rooster's tail

[I shy away from writing "cock"'s tail because of its slang meaning; in the mid-1960's we still learned at school that "cock" was BE and "rooster" AE, but this may have changed due to "cock" aquiring the slang meaning] -

could have inspired the name for a drink containing multiple ingredients, but gather from Selene's #64 post on Mencken's research that this is not the case.

From the Online Etymology Dictionary:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cocktail

first attested 1806; H.L. Mencken lists seven versions of its origin, perhaps the most persuasive is Fr. coquetier "egg-cup" (15c.; in English cocktay). In New Orleans, c.1795, Antoine Amédée Peychaud, an apothecary (and inventor of Peychaud bitters) held Masonic social gatherings at his pharmacy, where he mixed brandy toddies with his own bitters and served them in an egg-cup. On this theory, the drink took the name of the cup. Used from 1920s of any mix of substances (e.g. fruit, Molotov). Cocktail party first attested 1928.

From "coquetier" 'eggcup' would be a metonymy, where the term for the container is used for its content.

Edited April 10, 2011 by Xray

[Xray]

Vida by Marge Piercy, which has the whole student protest world also, brilliantly done.

Looks like this is a must-read. I googled a bit and virtually all comments about the book were enthusiastic. Thanks for the tip, Daunce!

Lobby for The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon, it’s surely reached classic status and is quite short. See how many people figure out the ending.

Your post inspired me to finally start reading it (the book has sat on our bookshelf in the German translation, yet unread, for ages).

I think I'll get the English original though.

See how many people figure out the ending.

It looks like the story has an open ending which allows different interpretations. But I'll rein in my impatience and wait until I get there.

Edited April 10, 2011 by Xray

[Xray]

We're just about to select next year's reading list for "Great Books" discussion. Any thoughts on this 'candidates' list? [i will probably add "The Fountainhead" and "Emma".] ==>

Dear Great Books Discussion Group Members at South Shore Regional Library, It is that time of year again when we begin the process of making selections for ou..reading list for 2012. ...select SEVEN titles from the nomination list below...... A TITLE THAT IS NOT ON THE LIST BELOW, PLEASE ...MAKE SURE THAT YOUR SELECTION MEETS OUR CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION IN A GREAT BOOKS GROUP. These criteria include the following: there is mention of the work in critical circles as either "great" or a "classic"; it has had a significant cultural, historical and/or literary impact; it lends itself to varied interpretations; and it raises important questions and issues that different generations continue to deal with....

SELECTION LIST OF READING TITLES FOR GREAT BOOKS GROUP AT SOUTH SHORE--2012: CHOOSE SEVEN FROM THIS LIST

1) A TALE OF TWO CITIES (Charles Dickens)

2) AMERICAN PASTORAL (Philip Roth)

3) THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS (Isabel Allende)

4) MY ANTONIA (Willa Cather)

5) PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Jane Austen)

6) JULIUS CAESAR (Shakespeare)

7) THE HEART OF THE MATTER (Graham Greene)

8) TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES (Thomas Hardy)

9) THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA (Friederich Nietzsche)

10) FRANKENSTEIN (Mary Shelley)

11) THE GREAT GATSBY (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

12) NANA (Emile Zola)

13) THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (Mark Twain)

14) THE JUNGLE (Upton Sinclair)

15) BELOVED (Toni Morrison)

16) OEDIPUS REX (Sophocles)

17) THE CRUCIBLE (Arthur Miller)

18) THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (Oscar Wilde)

19) BARTLEBY THE SCRIVENER (Herman Melville)

20) ETHAN FROME (Edith Wharton)

21) FATHERS AND SONS (Ivan Tugenev)

22) THE ODYSSEY (Homer)

23) THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH (Leo Tolstoy)

24) THE WAY OF ALL FLESH (Samuel Butler)

25) WUTHERING HEIGHTS (Emily Bronte)

26) SELF-RELIANCE AND OTHER ESSAYS (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

27) GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN (James Baldwin)

28) THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

29) MEDITATIONS (Marcus Aurelius)

30) DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE and THE CONSTITUTION OF THE U.S.

31) ON LIBERTY (John Stuart Mill)

32) THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE (Betty Friedan)

33) THE BOOK OF JOB (Bible/Old Testament)

34) THE SCARLET LETTER (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

35) SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS (David Guterson)

36) CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE (Henry David Thoreau)

37) THE PRINCE (Machiavelli)

38) THE CONFESSIONS (St. Augustine)

39) MAJOR BARBARA (George Bernard Shaw)

40) AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (Henrik Ibsen)

41) A LESSON BEFORE DYING (Ernest Gaines)

42) SISTER CARRIE (Theodore Dreiser)

43) CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY (Alan Paton)

44) FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (Ernest Hemingway)

45) A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN (Virginia Woolf)

46) 1984 (George Orwell)

47) ANTIGONE (Sophocles)

48) MEDEA (Euripides)

49) SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE (Kurt Vonnegut)

50) A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (play by Robert Bolt)

I would add THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (Fjodor Dostoyevskij), MADAME BOVARY (Gustave Flaubert), MIDDLEMARCH (George Eliot /real name: Mary Ann Evans), and LOLITA (Vladimir Nabokov).

From the above, # 23) THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH (Leo Tolstoy) is among my top choices.

It's a mere 112 pages long, but how it describes both Ivan Ilyich's reaction to his (ultimately fatal) illness, and the reactions of Ilyich's professional and familial entourage is of astute psychological insight. It is about faking reality because one does not want to face reality, it is about opportunism, hypocrisy, about the constant human striving for elevated positions in society and about how absurd it all becomes in the face of death.

During the final dying scene, it is Ivan who comes to see the living as prisoners of life.

Edited April 10, 2011 by Xray

[9thdoctor]

Lobby for The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon, it’s surely reached classic status and is quite short. See how many people figure out the ending.

Your post inspired me to finally start reading it (the book has sat on our bookshelf in the German translation, yet unread, for ages).

I think I'll get the English original though.

Hmm, I wonder how well it translates. It uses some 60's California slang here and there, but most important is the translation of the title. In English you don't find out what the title means until the last page, and there's a lot of misdirection early on, so and so works on a used car lot, there are real estate lots, etc. Also, there are the different meanings of "Crying". It really is a neat book, but much simpler than his other, longer ones. He's known to have said, while writing it, that it was a "short story with gland trouble".

It was coded into semaphore and is being "broadcast" from the top of the Adobe building in San Jose.

http://www.bayareanewsgroup.com/multimedia/mn/news/semaphore_solution_081507.pdf

Edited April 10, 2011 by Ninth Doctor

[caroljane]

Vida by Marge Piercy, which has the whole student protest world also, brilliantly done.

Looks like this is a must-read. I googled a bit and virtually all comments about the book were enthusiastic. Thanks for the tip, Daunce!

Great, I'll look forward to how you like it. I have read it three times. In Vida you will find a complete human character and a real hero. Her work is her life, and her work is advancing her beliefs under constant duress and threat. Her beliefs are wrong, but she gives her life to them because they are her self, which she cannot betray.

This is also for Phil if you are reading this! Dump Betty friedan if you can -- Vida will not depress you or bore you, I guarantee. And it has the added value of a full portrait of the turbulent Youth Movement, antiwar protest, early feminist years.

[caroljane]

Not much from the last 50 years. Lobby for The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon, it’s surely reached classic status and is quite short. See how many people figure out the ending. Also, Middlemarch and Foucault’s Pendulum, so you can compare and contrast the “Casaubon” characters. Seeing 1984 on the list made me think of Darkness Before Noon, another must read. There's quite a few non-fiction books on the list, why not lobby for VOS?

I am also going to start Lot 49. The title immediately makes me think of "Lot in Life" or an auction lot. Are those clues?

Darkness before Noon? Is that the Koestler? I thought it was Darkness At.I agree it should be on the list, also Middlemarch instead of Mill although it is longer.

In Middlemarch there is a Hank/Lillian couple with a compelling storyline.

Edited April 10, 2011 by daunce lynam

[9thdoctor]

Not much from the last 50 years. Lobby for The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon, it’s surely reached classic status and is quite short. See how many people figure out the ending. Also, Middlemarch and Foucault’s Pendulum, so you can compare and contrast the “Casaubon” characters. Seeing 1984 on the list made me think of Darkness Before Noon, another must read. There's quite a few non-fiction books on the list, why not lobby for VOS?

I am also going to start Lot 49. The title immediately makes me think of "Lot in Life" or an auction lot. Are those clues?

Darkness before Noon? Is that the Koestler?

Correct, I meant Koestler’s Darkness at Noon.

The Pynchon’s real quick, under 200 pages, no sense giving anything away.

Don’t

ever

antagonize

the

horn.

[caroljane]

Don’t

ever

antagonize

the

horn.

I won't, I won't! Now I don't dare ask you what the symbol is. It sort of looks like the Sacred Igloo one except it slants to the right and ours slants to the left.

[Xray]

I am also going to start Lot 49. The title immediately makes me think of "Lot in Life" or an auction lot. Are those clues?

The Pynchon’s real quick, under 200 pages, no sense giving anything away.

Don’t

ever

antagonize

the

horn.

A cemetery lot? Maybe there's a double sense and the 'crying' could refer both to the crying at an auction and to the crying at a grave.

Daunce, I'm thrilled that you are going to start Lot 49 too! I'm glad the book is under 200 pages; I'm no fast reader, and also tend to deliberately linger with a book for a long time, especially if I like it. Some books I liked so much that I wished my mind could "stay" in the story forever, and I put off getting to the end.

Edited April 10, 2011 by Xray