Reading the Chunksters discussion

Hey everyone, I've been moving some stuff around in the threads, getting ready for the new book, so take a peek around and if you have any questions or comments please post them here.

This is the thread where I will post general housekeeping information...I figure every group should have one.

Be sure to vote for our Classics Tie Breaker poll!! It closes on Friday (11/12)!

Also be sure to drop by the Contemporary book nomination thread and add your nomination!

I was wondering what the criteria for classics are....? I am trying to set up some filters for my book organizing program and thought it would be nice to have separate filters for the classic chunksters and contemporary chunksters. :) So far I have a filter for chunksters in general which is set to filter anything with 500 pages or more.. :)

For me classics are those books that keep getting reprinted over and over again because people are still interested in reading them. However, many popular books that don't really deserve classic status are also reprinted repeatedly. So... I guess that was useless and not helpful at all ;o)

I would agree with Amy, but on the contemporary idea I would submit that a Classic that was written recently is a Contemporary book...

I sort of think it's a "you know it when you see it" sort of thing.

Most are quite old, but some are rather recent. For example, To Kill a Mockingbird is unquestionably a classic, but it only turned 50 this past year, and people would probably have argued for it being a classic for the past 20 years, when it was still quite young.

Yes, and I think there will be some (a tiny bit) of overlap...so if anyone has a huge problem with a nomination, just PM me and Andrea and I will look at it and make a final decision.

Did you all see that Oprah is reading Dickens for her Bookclub?

"A Date With Dickens"

It could get interesting...

I did!

I'm not generally a fan of Oprah (though I don't have anything against her, I just don't pay much attention to what she does), but I have to say that her taste in classics is quite excellent. She picked Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities, both of which I really enjoyed.

My only "beef" with this is that she hasn't ever read Dickens. I wonder what the deal is??

Oh man, I didn't realize this was her first time reading him. Well, I suppose she's in for a trat. *reminds self to lobby harder for a Dickens book for our next classic*

Count me in Loretta!..hahah

er...am I getting a side read vibe??? Maybe for A Christmas Carol?? Nah...probably not...

My reading schedule is like a part-time job right now!...lol I'll be happy to finish the books I have going by the end of the year. I've shut myself off from adding anything else until 2011...hahah You go for Kristi and let us know how it goes! :)

I just finished Christmas Carol, which I read each December. As for our next Classic, I would love to read A Tale of Two Cities, but any of his would be good for me.

A Tale of Two Cities is a WONDERFUL book. But my copy is only 370 pages, so doesn't seem chunky enough....

I have Nicholas Nickleby here which is just shy of 1000 pages. And I believe David Copperfield is also massive.

My copy of A Tale of Two Cities is 541 pages long, and reads like it is 941, there is so much information. Then there is Great Expectations at 544, Nicholas Nickleby at 864, David Copperfield at 974, and Oliver Twist at 554. That should give us plenty to pick from, huh?

Ooo, Oliver Twist was actually the next one on my list. After I read my first few, I got it into my head to start over and read them in chronological order of publication (except I decided to skip over the Pickwick Papers).

I know, that's probably a really weird thing to do.

I've had Great Expectations for years but it never calls to me.

Andrea wrote: "My reading schedule is like a part-time job right now!...lol I'll be happy to finish the books I have going by the end of the year. I've shut myself off from adding anything else until 2011...hahah..."

I haven't even been able to read the books I'm reading right now...thanks to my part time job. So I'll have to say A Christmas Carol is a no go...sorry. Maybe next christmas.

If you are discussing a book and feel that you need to mark something as a spoiler you have to check out this cool new feature(view spoiler)[ that goodreads made!! (hide spoiler)]

Here's the link to see how it's done!!

http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/26...

It is also now on the "(some html is ok)" list when you are typing.

It is SOOOOOO cool.

Yes, it's a great, great improvement to the site. Folks reading Crime and Punishment have been really good about using it, since that's all one huge thread. Yay Goodreads! :)

Wow, that is great!

I've never run into the topic before, although I'm sure it exists on another board somewhere, but what is the general consensus on non-fiction chunksters? Is that exclusively side-read territory?

They're welcome, and have been nominated in the past, but none have ever won a poll. I've been meaning to read John Adams which would qualify. Do you have one you were thinking of?

OOh, John Adams would be good, Loretta.

Loretta wrote: "They're welcome, and have been nominated in the past, but none have ever won a poll. I've been meaning to read John Adams which would qualify. Do you have one you were thinking of?"

I'm interested in The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Alison Weir makes history more than just dry facts, and I think it would be a fun book to discuss, especially if we can compare the real history to what we have gleaned from fiction. It's definitely a chunkster, I think it's over 600 pages at least.

I've also got a copy of that I've been meaning to get to as well.

I think the group is a little "busy" right now (not a lot of people take part in every read, but those that do have a LOT going on right now), but maybe we can set one of these up as a side-read later this year?

Nominating them for the polls would also work, but I've been under the impression so far that a non-fiction book won't end up winning one of those.

Yeah, I don't think that non-fiction can compete very well with all of the fictional choices. I think it would be great to do it as a side-read at some point, and I'm pretty busy with all my reads and I know everyone else is too, so later in the year would be fine. I have no problem leading the discussion on it, so the people leading contemp, classic and other side-reads aren't spread too thin, but I've never done it before so when the time comes around I'll ask for some advice. :)

I would read a non-finction book! Maybe we could do it as a side read or just have a non-finction selection along with our fiction and classic?

I just wanted to mention (wish there was a way to do this better in GR) Dewey's Read-a-Thon. I apologize if this is not the time or place, but I figured we're all big readers here and Dewey's Read-a-Thon is just a week-end in October that you spend reading all week-end and blogging (or twittering or Facebooking)about what you read. You can do a google search to find it, I just didn't want to post a link in case someone finds this completely off topic and offensive.

Juliette wrote: "I just wanted to mention (wish there was a way to do this better in GR) Dewey's Read-a-Thon. I apologize if this is not the time or place, but I figured we're all big readers here and Dewey's Read..."

That sounds FUN! I would love to spend an entire weekend reading, and it might give those of us who are a bit behind an excuse to catch up with our chunksters ;)

I know, I'm so excited! (maybe that's a little sad)

Juliette wrote: "I know, I'm so excited! (maybe that's a little sad)"

Nah, it's a fun thing for a book lover/addict!

We could do one here, couldn't we?

I personally don't have a blog, but we could choose one day, set up a thread, and spend the entire day just posting to that thread about what we're reading.

Just a thought, since I'd have no other way to participate. :-P

I'm sure we could. Shall I post a thread to see if there is any interest in a read-a-thon?

I can do it. We'd need to select a date that would get the most people involved too.

ok, post the thread! This could be a blast!

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Just FYI: I've done a little housekeeping today, moving some of the completed side reads threads to the general archive (Three Musketeers, The Crimson Petal and the White, Uncle Silas, Pillars of the Earth) and deleting the old Pillars of the Earth threads from 2 years ago (the one that never lifted off the ground, not the side read that was completed a few weeks ag0).

I would like to register my interest in nonfiction reads, though I don't know if there would be much interest in something like The Second Sex or The Republic?

I'd be interested in The Second Sex.

I don't think The Republic is long enough (our minimum is 500 pages). I didn't check every edition, but the Penguin edition appears to be about 400 pages.

Oh really? A hardback copy I picked up was definitely 500+, but hardbacks always seem to have more pages. As a general rule I typically go by a well known publisher's paperback for this group, so I guess Republic is out.

Amanda wrote: "Oh really? A hardback copy I picked up was definitely 500+, but hardbacks always seem to have more pages. As a general rule I typically go by a well known publisher's paperback for this group, so I..."

It might also be that your edition contains a long introduction and/or a lot of explanatory notes. But The Second Sex definitely seems long enough. I had no idea it was that long, actually.

It's a brick of a book, easily 800 pages plus. Can't think of any other classic nonfiction chunksters off the top of my head, or at least none that might interest general readers.

The Second Sex sounds interesting, Amanda! If the group decides to do a non-fiction read of that chunkster, I'd be there:)

I'm interested in The Second Sex too!

Wow, looks like there are quite a few takers. Should we perhaps set up a side read or see if we can nominate it as the next official contemporary read? I'm still going through Mists of Avalon at the moment, but we could start it mid-December/January?

Amanda, be sure to talk about this in the Side reads thread so us Mods see it. Glad to see so much interest!