The Idle Book Club 1: The Sense of an Ending

[brkl]

Or maybe only read books that can be bought used for a dollar

[Wesley Thomas]

I vote for Gena Showalter's Heart of the Dragon next.

"Deep in the jungle on the trail of her missing brother, Grace never expected to find a secret world populated by mythological monsters -- nor guarded by a sword-wielding being whose beauty put mortal men to shame.

Darius en Kragin belongs to a race of shape-shifting warriors sworn to guard Atlantis and kill all travelers who stray within its boundaries. Yet when Grace stumbles into his realm, he finds himself tempted to betray his centuries-old vow.

Now their forbidden love will either bring their worlds together -- or tear them both apart."

http://www.amazon.com/Heart-The-Dragon-Atlantis-Book/dp/0373773501

[Salacious Snake]

I vote for Gena Showalter's Heart of the Dragon next.

That sounds pretty tight, but Chris isn't so much into that kind of genre fiction. I think we should go for something a bit more literary like

No Time To Lose by Carrie Weaver:

Jamie Tanner might appear more lingerie model than grease monkey, but she's actually a highly qualified mechanical engineer. No way is she going to let some struggling, chauvinistic NASCAR driver say her work isn't up to speed. Tanner Performance Motors is the best in the business--and so is she.

But Ryan Pearce can't afford to make nice. He's counting on Jamie to find out why his performance engine keeps failing...and there's no time to lose. Ryan is only a race away from tanking his career. Jamie has never been bested by an engine--or a man. But spending long nights working closely with Ryan, trying not to be distracted by his presence, she wonders if she's met her match....

And if it goes over well, there are plenty more books in the "Harlequin NASCAR" series to choose from!

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Harlequin-NASCAR-Romance/zgbs/digital-text/700124011

[Patters]

That sounds pretty tight, but Chris isn't so much into that kind of genre fiction. I think we should go for something a bit more literary like

Isn't the point of a book club to step outside of one's usual genre/style? If they are simply reading books that appeal to them there will be nothing of interest in the podcast, meaning it will be a relative failure.

[toblix]

Adult Thumbs

[Chris]

Isn't the point of a book club to step outside of one's usual genre/style? If they are simply reading books that appeal to them there will be nothing of interest in the podcast, meaning it will be a relative failure.

Part of the point of our cast is to focus more on literary fiction than genre fiction. I think there's a deficit of attention paid to the former. It's likely the majority of our audience already trends heavily towards genre fiction--and, as you say, one should try to expand one's horizons. Also, there are three of us; we aren't one single collective brain. I recommended the first book we'll be discussing, but Jake and Sean will be recommending others.

To your point more broadly, we generally take the attitude on Idle Thumbs to talk about games we're interested in. I don't think this has made the podcast a relative failure!

[juv3nal]

I vote for the deep end of experimental lit fic: something by Milorad Pavic or David Markson or Roberto Bolano.

Ooh. All died within the last decade. Does that say something about my tastes?

[Patters]

Completely, but the immediate dismissal of "The Hunger Games" pointed in the other direction. I'm not suggesting that you should read "The Hunger Games", but maybe there is a book targeted at "young adults" which would suit the cast, a novel which is less in the public eye and closer to literary fiction. Straying from the beaten track makes the most sense in the Idle Thumbs approach, You aren't focussing on the Call of Dutys of games, so why would you go with the Harry Potters of novels. The only thing I'd suggest is keeping the variety of books high, maybe hit comics, poetry, or if you are feeling extra special choose your own adventure books.

[Chris]

Completely, but the immediate dismissal of "The Hunger Games" pointed in the other direction. I'm not suggesting that you should read "The Hunger Games", but maybe there is a book targeted at "young adults" which would suit the cast, a novel which is less in the public eye and closer to literary fiction. Straying from the beaten track makes the most sense in the Idle Thumbs approach, You aren't focussing on the Call of Dutys of games, so why would you go with the Harry Potters of novels. The only thing I'd suggest is keeping the variety of books high, maybe hit comics, poetry, or if you are feeling extra special choose your own adventure books.

We'll see how it goes. Young adult fiction is on a spectacular commercial rise right now. The number of YA books published per year keeps increasing. I don't feel it's a genre that particularly needs extra advocacy right now. But nothing is set in stone.

[dium]

I fully expected, when the bookcast was announced, that the books we would be reading would be exclusively literary. Or, if there was the odd piece of genre fiction, it would be some truly speculative scifi or something historical.

This is exciting! This is what I WANT. I would be disappointed (and confused) if the thumbs guys got us all to read some fantasy thriller or popular young adult series. Besides the fact that I'm uninterested in that, it would just be weird.

HOWEVER. I sincerely hope that all this won't be accompanied by additional pleas for gamers to age-up what they choose to read. Maybe I'm paranoid after recent twitter discussions, but man would that put a damper on my enjoyment of what should really just be about the books in question.

Sooooo there's my preemptive opinion of this thing that doesn't exist yet.

Watch out!

[Iosef Stalin]

Not all genre fiction is bad though. People like Dan Simmons, Peter F. Hamilton, Alistair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter etc write some really great books with really awesome mind-fucking concepts and literary allusions.

[Erkki]

My reading suggestions:

• Don Quixote
  
• Something from Borges
  
• Something from Neil Gaiman
  
• Something from Neal Stephenson
  
• All 13 bricks of Wheel of Time in one week
  

[dium]

• All 13 bricks of Wheel of Time in one week
  

This is word suffocation.

[TheLastBaron]

My reading suggestions:

• Don Quixote
  
• Something from Borges
  
• Something from Neil Gaiman
  
• Something from Neal Stephenson
  
• All 13 bricks of Wheel of Time in one week
  

I really like Neil Gaiman, like REALLY like him, but I hated American Gods despite how much I tried to like it, though everything else he's written I've read and liked/loved. I also tried reading both the Wheel of Time series and the Baroque Cycle by Stephenson, but didn't get very far in either of those.

[Erkki]

Wheel of Time is certainly not for everyone and I hope it was clear that it was a joke suggestion. Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is perhaps the best geek book ever, and one of my all time favourites.

[Wesley Thomas]

You should re-visit On Stranger Tides. Chris, I believe it was your mention it episodes ago that inspired me to pick it up. I loved that book.

[Chris]

I fully expected, when the bookcast was announced, that the books we would be reading would be exclusively literary. Or, if there was the odd piece of genre fiction, it would be some truly speculative scifi or something historical.

This is exciting! This is what I WANT. I would be disappointed (and confused) if the thumbs guys got us all to read some fantasy thriller or popular young adult series. Besides the fact that I'm uninterested in that, it would just be weird.

HOWEVER. I sincerely hope that all this won't be accompanied by additional pleas for gamers to age-up what they choose to read. Maybe I'm paranoid after recent twitter discussions, but man would that put a damper on my enjoyment of what should really just be about the books in question.

Sooooo there's my preemptive opinion of this thing that doesn't exist yet.

Watch out!

I suspect we'll talk about the underlying motivations related to this, but we absolutely would not be scolds about it. I don't even think Jake, for example, feels the same way on the issue, so if it does come up it would be as a dialogue, not a unified front. And despite having linked to that article and agreeing with many of its underpinnings, I would never have taken the author's angle if I were writing the article myself.

[grumbeld]

If we're recommending books, allow me to post one from my own back log: ReadyPlayerOne.

Something tells me that it might fit in well with Thumbs.

[vimes]

I'm pretty pumped up by the podcast/book club pushing me back to novels; but will there also be collections of short stories on the menu? There are some styles, authors and themes that only appear and function in that form; so I think it might be worth it.

Edited April 4, 2012 by vimes

[Erkki]

Don Quixote II might be the Far Cry 2 of books.

[Roderick]

Don Quixote II is the Citizen Kane of Far Cry 2.

[Xeneth]

I find it interesting that some of us appear to be viewing the bookCast as a bookCLUB prior to its true inception... We rarely seem to aggressively suggest games for the Thumbs to play/talk about.

I'm trying to figure out why this is, and all I'm coming up with is that the format/medium sort of revolves around the concept of completion. It's very easy for me to say that I've experienced and enjoyed many Bethesda RPGs in my time, but I've never ever completed a main quest line in any of them. Games support (encourage in some cases) more of a dabbling approach than literature, where if I said I haven't finished the book yet you'd be likely to say "well go polish it off so we can have a conversation about it."

It's also not really possible to talk AROUND the endings and spoilers as much, so you probably won't want to read an episode if you haven't read the book, potentially leading to a feeling of "I want to experience all of the episodes, so I want them to do the books I want to read".

I'm going to be trying to treat the bookCast in much the same way as the podCast in that I won't necessarily be picking up EVERY book, much as I don't buy every game the thumbs are into. However, I still enjoy hearing about them even if the material isn't something that's right up my alley, in part because it helps break or reinforce my opinions and gives me more to think about before deciding to get into some media.

On that note, I hope that the initial parts of each bookCast will be more about the "what is this thing" and early bits of story/setup, with a sort of "break" that then delves into the meat of it, that way if something doesn't sound like my cup of tea at the start of the reading period I can just skip it, and then upon hearing the 'cast I can decide:

• If it sounds like something I'd like to experience after all, I can stop the player and start reading, listening to the rest when I'm ready.
  
• If it sounds like I was right and wouldn't mind being spoiled while picking up some insight and info that would otherwise be sort of hard to come by, just keep listening.

Hell, I can see massive advantages to having a super intelligent ThumbCliffNotes version of novels that I decided not to read kicking around in my head! "Oh yeeeah, I'm not really into that but I know what it's about and the conversation thread you just brought up can actually go somewhere instead of dropping at 'have you read...'!"

[Chris]

It actually is explicitly a book club. We'll be picking one book each month. We'll probably talk about what else we've been reading as well but there will definitely be a primary selection for each podcast.

[Roderick]

I'm so excited about Idle Flippin' (right? right?). I hope it'll encourage me to pick up more current literature.

The main problem in books I have is that I rarely delve into modern literature. I'm just overwhelmed by all the new releases and too afraid to waste a lot of effort on something that might be irrelevant, bad or not my cup of tea, so for years my strategy has been to exclusively read literary classics that I knew would have something cool to offer. Now that's a valid tactic because the classics infuse our culture so heavily - it's very rewarding to come across references in current media to books I read and know what it's about. (Besides that they're also often very good and pleasant; it felt very rewarding to read Tolstoy last year for instance.) But I do feel I'm missing out on the modern stuff, like Umberto Eco and the Foucault's Pendulum thing I've heard so much about.

That's why I hope the bookcast will serve as sort of a recommendation list, not only getting me to read modern literature but also offering a place of discussion. From a respectable source I Know I Can Trust!

Edited April 4, 2012 by Rodi

[Laxan]

I'm so excited about Idle Flippin' (right? right?). I hope it'll encourage me to pick up more current literature.

I'm voting for Thumbin' Through.