Book THREE.

So.. it's Gretta's turn to pick a book. Her pick is:



Mans Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl From B&N:

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of those he treated in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory—known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")—holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.



Not a terribly cheerful sounding synopsis. But it does sound incredibly interesting. Happy reading.

New book!

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides

All the synopses that I found were too long to put here. It's about a hermaphrodite. So yeah... There you go.

Mel recommends this book because "It's good." It did win the Pulitzer Prize... so she's probably right. Happy reading!

On deck...

Well, the first book was a pretty big success I'd say. And the next one will be thrown out in the near future. Mel is picking next, and will present it in the next week or two.

A few reminders: if you want to receive an email for new comments as they're posted, just let me know. Also, if you ever want to post anything here independent of the current conversation, just email it to me (i.e. book websites or thoughts) and I'll put it up here for you.


Happy Reading kids...

I'll leave you with a cat fighting a watermelon. It was going to be Puppies Dressed as Cats... but NBC sucks.

First book... go!

Jen throws out the first book for our reading pleasure:

The Hunger Games

~ Suzanne Collins


Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.

Jen says we should read it because:

"Read it because it's good. I can't think of any real intellectual comments to make."

So.. go forth, read it. Comments here on what you think.. feel free to post during reading or after you've read it. Fair warning on spoilers/plot points, if you're going to give something away, let folks know you're going to; that way they can wait till they've read it.

The List.

Ok. So, the list of people who have informed me they will be participating is as follows. Feel free to introduce yourselves in the comments section, for those who don't know each other.

Abbie W.
Laurie F.
Mary B.
Jen R.
Natalie H.
Greta T.
Joanna K.
Mel S.
Brandon W.
Emily F.

Jen R. will pick the first Book.... which means Mel is up after that, then Greta. Post coming next Wednesday about what the book is.

If you're not on the list, let me know, the more the merrier.

Bookkeeping (he he)

I can set the blog up to email you whenever a comment is posted to the entry. If you want this to happen, just let me know what email address you want it sent to.

Also, keep in mind that this is a group experiment: if you have any suggestions on the way anything is done, throw them out there.

First Post.

This seemed to be the most logical way to start this reading circle, book club, group.. what have you. First a few introductory type things:

If you have a better idea for the name of this page/group, by all means throw it out there, I picked the current one simply because creativity eluded me.

Leave a comment to let us know that you're in for the first book. In the comments of this post we should try and decide the length of time given for reading books, and other ground rules. My suggestions are these:
*1 book = 1 month.
*Rotate who picks the book, go in alphabetical order, starting at a random letter for last name.
*Genre and style do not matter for your suggestion (unless you're suggesting a Danielle Steele novel or Sarah Palin's book.. if that's the case: this is not the website for you), the point here to to be exposed to books that we wouldn't normally encounter.
*You pick the book, you write the post that kicks off the conversation for it.

Hopefully this works, and I look forward to this little experiment.

We'll aim for picking the first book Wednesday, March 10th. That way everyone will have time to log their name here and we can know how many people will be participating.

~Brandon.