Completists' Club discussion

I think I'm on my own here. Having been thoroughly licked by Women & Men, I think I'm in the final stretch of completing his works despite what the numbers may appear to say.

Have-Read
Letter Left to Me
Women and Men
A Smuggler's Bible
The RCF McElroy Number (it counts!)
Actress in the House
Cannonball
Plus
Night Soul
Lookout Cartridge
Ancient History

Will-Have-Read
Preparations for Search (excised chapter of W&M)
Hind's Kidnap
Exponential (Essays; Italian only)

Well, yes, but I only began last summer and I *do* have the 1200 pages of W&M read (twice), so there's that.

What my shelf will look like one day:
http://quarterlyconversation.com/cons...

I will be reading him shortly as soon as nobody else notifies me of a great group read I gotta join. So far, I own:

Women and Men
Night Soul and Other Stories
The Letter Left to Me

The way you organized it, Nathan, made me realize I need to go back to the two threads I started and list out their books.

Aloha wrote: "The way you organized it, Nathan, made me realize I need to go back to the two threads I started and list out their books. "

If this group is to become *useful* it will need some kind of organizing principle. There could be some tech means to do this, with %%% progress bar/status update type thing, but would probably require the participation of the goodreads tech staff. For now, this clumsy prose style catalog will have to do.

I've heard great things about Night Soul, and the handful of his short stories I've read are magnificent. Letter is seemingly atypical, but great. Women and Men has magnum opus all over it. I'm really looking forward to getting into Plus and Lookout Cartridge.

Nick wrote: "I'd love to read just Women and Men but it is so impossible to find without breaking the bank."

Please accept my apologies. I feel like I'm in part to blame. In turn, I blame Dalkey Archive for inexplicably letting this drop from their catalog. Paperbacks are now list on amazon for $150+. Stupidly insane. Fortunately we'll at least soon have an ebook from Dzanc.

Jonathan wrote: "I got a signed hardcover (though it wasn't labelled as signed, I guess that went unnoticed or uncared about by the Atlanta Book Company) of Women and Men for three dollars and eleven cents on June ..."

!!!!

Similar here, sans inscription, I got mine for $13.95US in Jan(?) of this year. I passed up buying a second copy in pb last Spring for $8.95. Damn!

I will continue with a speculation that libraries may begin to dump their 25 year old, unread copies in the near future, if they haven't already.

Depending on how Women and Men goes, I might have to join this endeavor. I got mine for $20. I owe a big thanks to Mr. Nathan here for pushing me to buy it while there were still copies.

I would love to be a part of it. And I agree. It would be an extremely laid back, this is gonna take awhile group read.

Stephen M wrote: "Depending on how Women and Men goes, I might have to join this endeavor. I got mine for $20. I owe a big thanks to Mr. Nathan here for pushing me to buy it while there were still copies."

Agreed and agreed.

I'm in! Gawd, I just can't say no.

Stephen M wrote: "I would love to be a part of it. And I agree. It would be an extremely laid back, this is gonna take awhile group read."

I'm open to it after I finish Gravity's Rainbow. I'm on a steady pace with that one now, so I should be finishing up at the end of the week.

Who wants to set up the group? Nose goes! (sticks finger to tip of the nose)

You're not done? I paused on it to read Dhalgren for September since I didn't see activity in the Gravity's Rainbow. I'll resume Gravity's Rainbow after I finish Dhalgren.

Stephen M wrote: "I'm open to it after I finish Gravity's Rainbow. I'm on a steady pace with that one now, so I should be finishing up at the end of the week."

Please send me an invite when the nose sets it up.

Stephen M wrote: "Who wants to set up the group? Nose goes! (sticks finger to tip of the nose)"

Aloha wrote: "Please send me an invite when the nose sets it up.

Stephen M wrote: "Who wants to set up the group? Nose goes! (sticks finger to tip of the nose)""

Me too, please.

Nose goes means I don't want to set it up!

Ha, maybe that's too much of a regional thing.

I'll set it up no worries :)

Nick wrote: "I'd love to read just Women and Men but it is so impossible to find without breaking the bank."

it's insane how much that novel is going for on amazon. ugh.

James wrote: "into Women and Men and finally finishing that review I know I owe y'all. Keep hope alive. "

As long as you believe it is owed, we may continue to believe that it is forthcoming. And Actress is usually available for low quantities of $$$ when the time comes for a slap across stage which may not be staged and what that is going to mean.

My score at present:

A Smuggler's Bible
Hind's Kidnap
Ancient History
Lookout Cartridge
Plus
Letter Left to Me
Women and Men
The RCF McElroy Number (it counts!)
Actress in the House
Cannonball
Preparations for Search (excised chapter of W&M)
Night Soul
Exponential (Essays; Italian only)

I own them all except Prep now, and am aiming for completion before the end of 2014

A couple weeks ago, I found a nice old hardcover (first edition?!) on the street in a box outside the grocery store. So that will be the first of these that I read.

Nate D wrote: "A couple weeks ago, I found a nice old hardcover (first edition?!) on the street in a box outside the grocery store. So that will be the first of these that I read."

W&M? (!)

skipped over an important detail there: no W&M, just Lookout Cartridge, but it sounds pretty interesting.

Nate D wrote: "skipped over an important detail there: no W&M, just Lookout Cartridge, but it sounds pretty interesting."

oh yes indeed. I'm much looking forward to Lookout ; I assume it would have been his masterpiece had he not written W&M.

It is fantastic - but you have to allow yourself to be led up and down the garden path and be comfortable being in a state of confusion - trust that Joe has a very detailed plan and all the seeming meanderings or withholding of information is done for very specific purposes.

COMPLETIONISED!

High Points:

Ancient History
W&M
Lookout Cartridge

Letter and Plus are also high up there, and may have both left me "thinking" for longest....


A Smuggler's Bible
Hind's Kidnap
Ancient History
Lookout Cartridge
Plus
Letter Left to Me
Women and Men
The RCF McElroy Number (it counts!)
Actress in the House
Cannonball
Preparations for Search (excised chapter of W&M)
Night Soul
Taken from him
Exponential (Essays; Italian only) - Counted as READ as I have tracked down all his essays online and in journals I can find...

Jonathan wrote: "COMPLETIONISED! "

!!!

Wish all these other scurvy books might remove themselves to clear a path back to my mini-mountain of Joe. Damn.

So now with Lookout Cartridge down I'm two away ; which two will be read from within a very sophisticatedly shuffled reading schedule this 2016. [Plus Preparations for Search which I still haven't gotten my hands on ; it's more elusive than W&M]