Introducing Reading Matters' Online Book Group
After a slow start, it looks like Reading Matters' Online Book Group is going to really take off! Yay!
Many thanks to Book Girl's Nightstand for sending some extra traffic my way. And thanks also to those who came from my day-to-day blog after I wrote a fairly shameless plug begging for members!
Because I've never done this before, I'm sure there'll be some teething problems, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't be too time-consuming, exhausting or fraught with difficulty.
If you've already expressed an interest in joining I've added you to my email distribution list and will contact you whenever anything about the Book Group is posted here. If you'd prefer to be left off the distribution list, please let me know.
If you've not expressed an interest yet, then the following "instructions" may convince you to do so... Otherwise, I'd suggest skipping all this and going to the extended post where this session's reading selections will be revealed.
WHAT IS READING MATTERS’ ONLINE BOOK GROUP?
It’s a “virtual” book group for anyone who loves to read and wants to discuss great literature. There’s no joining fee, no need to turn up at someone’s house for a book group meeting – you do it in your own time and respond to the discussion as and when you see fit. There’s no obligation to take part, but if you love books and sometimes need to be kick-started into reading something “interesting”, then you really have nothing to lose… except the cost of a book or two – although if you’re clever enough to beg, borrow or steal the tomes in question even that won’t be a problem.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Every six-to-eight weeks, two books are introduced on Reading Matters. Then it is up to you to decide which book you wish to read. If you’re particularly keen you may want to read both, it’s entirely up to you. You will then have around six weeks to read your chosen tome/s. When the time is up YOU will be invited to comment and discuss the books in question on Reading Matters. Couldn’t be easier, right?
WHAT SELECTION CRITERIA IS USED TO DETERMINE WHICH BOOKS ARE “INTRODUCED”?
There is no formal selection process, but the books do have to meet certain criteria: they have to be in English, readily available in the main English-speaking book markets (the UK, USA and Australia/NZ), published in paperback (who wants to read a heavy hardback on the train?) and in print.
Generally speaking, all books featured will be available to buy from Amazon.co.uk; Amazon.com; and Angusrobertson.com.au But chances are the books selected won’t be so obscure that you can’t borrow them from your local library or a book-loving friend.
If, at any time, you have any suggestions for consideration then please do email me.
DO I HAVE TO REGISTER TO TAKE PART?
No, you don’t have to register. But if you have left a comment on the July 6 post entitled “Book Group: want to join?” then I have already added your email address to my distribution list. I will use this distribution list to circulate news relating to the book group – for example, the names of the books that have been “introduced” and when the discussion for each relevant book has been opened. Alternatively, you can just keep checking Reading Matters for updates.
BOOK GROUP: SESSION 1
The inaugural book group session kicks off with two very different novels: a classic piece of American literature and a dark, surreal award-winning Japanese crime story. Which one are you going to read?
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster Fiction – paperback; Faber and Faber; 320pages; 2004. [Note, cover image may alter depending on country of purchase and publication date.]
Author Paul Auster is synonymous with New York where he lives, works and bases many of his novels. This book brings together three previously published novels in one tome: City of Glass, Ghosts and Locked Room.
Synopsis: Three stories on the nature of identity. In the first a detective writer is drawn into a curious and baffling investigation, in the second a man is set up in an apartment to spy on someone, and the third concerns the disappearance of a man whose childhood friend is left as his literary executor.
Snapshot reviews: ‘A dazzling achievement’ (Time Out); ‘Seductive metaphysical thrillers…As stylish, urgent and unnerving as the best in the detective genre’ (Literary Review); ‘A shatteringly clever piece of work… utterly gripping, written with an acid sharpness that combines Tom Wolfe with Raymond Chandler, and it leaves an indelible dent in the back of the mind’ (Sunday Telegraph).
OR...
Out by Natsuo Kirino, translated by Stephen Snyder. Fiction - paperback; Vintage; 520 pages; 1997. [Note, cover image may alter depending oncountry of purchase and publication date.]
Japanese author Natsuo Kirino has written 13 novels and three collections of short stories, but Out is her first to be translated into English. This critically acclaimed crime novel won Japan’s top mystery award (the 51st Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1999) and was nominated for the 2004 MWA Edgar Allan Poe Award in the Best Novel Category.
Synopsis: In the Tokyo suburbs four women work the draining graveyard shift at a boxed-lunch factory. Burdened with chores and heavy debts and isolated from husbands and children, they all secretly dream of a way out of their dead-end lives. A young mother among them finally cracks and strangles her philandering, gambling husband then confesses her crime to Masako, the closest of her colleagues. For reasons of her own, Masako agrees to assist her friend and seeks the help of the other co-workers to dismember and dispose of the body.
The body parts are discovered, the police start asking questions, but the women have far more dangerous enemies - a yakuza connected loan shark who discovers their secret and has a business proposition, and a ruthless nightclub owner the police are convinced is guilty of the murder. He has lost everything as a result of their crime and he is out for revenge.
Out is a psychologically taut and unflinching foray into the darkest recesses of the human soul, an unsettling reminder that the desperate desire for freedom can make the most ordinary person do the unimaginable.
Snapshot reviews: 'Daring and disturbing’ (Los Angeles Times); 'OUT is a potent cocktail of urban blight, perverse feminism and vigilante justice.' (New York Times Book Review); 'No gritty urban American tale of violence can match the horror of OUT.' (USA today); 'A melodrama, beautifully observed… An exciting, disturbing read.' (The Daily Telegraph).
DISCUSSION WILL OPEN ON SATURDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2005
