Reading the Chunksters discussion

We only have 2 weeks left reading Game of Thrones!! Please use this thread to nominate your selection for our next Contemporary Chunkster.

Remember:

1) Only one nomination per member

2) Link to both the book and the author in your nomination

3) This thread will be open for 1 week, so get your nominations in before Saturday morning (U.S. Eastern Time), April 21st.

4.) If you nominate a book, please be willing to lead the discussions for your book.


Nominations:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
Anathem by Neal Stephenson

I nominate The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I know one edition is short of being 500 pages, but my copy and numerous other copies are over 500 pages. :D

I would like to nominate Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

I nominate Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

I nominate The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer.

I nominate Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

I really enjoyed Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, but I am not ready to re-read it again.
I would like to second Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke and nominate The Crimson Petal and the Whiteby Michel Faber.

I was thinking about Drood, but the Moonstone sideread folks might be Wilkie Collins'ed out by now. (He is the narrator.) :)

So, instead I'll nominate Skippy Dies by Paul Murray.

I would like to nominate Anathem by Neal Stephenson - I know there is already another Stephenson nomination but I've had this one on my TBR for ages!!

Zulfiya wrote: "...nominate The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. "

I just want to point out that we just read this as a side read, do you still want to nominate this one??

Kriti, I think you missed a couple nominations above?--Battle Royale and The Invisible Bridge aren't listed in the first post.

Silver wrote: "I nominate Battle Royale by Koushun Takami"

I've been meaning to read this one, especially after the Hunger Games controversy.

Kristi wrote: "Zulfiya wrote: "...nominate The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. "

I just want to point out that we just read this as a side read, do you still want to nominate this one??"

No, it is just one weird typo. I checked the bookshelf prior to posting and found it there and was going to type and nominate a similar neo-Victorian chunkster The Quincunxby Charles Palliser, but by some fluke or memory glitch typed the name of the read novel.

I really meant a novel by Charles Palliser:-) My mind is weird. LOL

I'll nominate A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

Loretta wrote: "Silver wrote: "I nominate Battle Royale by Koushun Takami"

I've been meaning to read this one, especially after the Hunger Games controversy."

I heard the books were smilliar but I did not know there was an actual controvery about it.

Oh, well, I probably should have typed it as "controversy," because it seems to be manufactured hubbub.

As we all know, the Hunger Games trilogy was all over the best sellers lists from 2008-2010. But with the movies coming out, it got even huger, and suddenly a bunch of bloggers came out of the woodworks to basically say that it ripped off Battle Royale. So it's sort of silly for the fact that: a) none of them noticed that the plots were similar until the movies came out, long after the books did; and b) that, in the modern age where every idea has been done before, so the important part is how well you do it, this kind of thing could still be considered a "controversy."

Yeah, I think the "controversy" is people trying to look cool by smacking down the popular thing. The two are different genres anyway. We wouldn't expect a horror writer to do the same thing with a premise as YA fantasy writer, right? They are different stories and both are good. I wish people didn't feel they had to choose between them.

I read BR quite a while back, so I'd be game for rereading it with the group. I know I've got several of the other nominations on my shelf here, too. Exciting!

@ Suzanne: Yep, 4 of the nominees are on my TBR, and I've read 2 others, so I'd be happy with almost any of them. :)

Loretta wrote: "Kriti, I think you missed a couple nominations above?--Battle Royale and The Invisible Bridge aren't listed in the first post."

Ooops...I'll fix that in a little bit. Thanks for pointing that out!

There are some good choices up in here.

Y'all gon' make me read some books
Up in here
Up in here

Loretta wrote: "Y'all gon' make me read some books
Up in here
Up in here"

This made me laugh so hard!!

:-D

LOL!!! I LOVE THAT SONG!

Y'all gonna make me act a fool
up in here
up in here

Gotta go watch the movie now...the one with the song in it...you know...

Can I please nominate Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel? Some great choices nominated! I love The Crimson Petal and Fingersmith and have had the Jonathan Strange title on my shelf for about 7 years so it would be great to finally read it! Thanks.

OMG, you guys, I had to go buy that song on iTunes after this. ;-)

Kristi, want me to run the poll? How long should I leave it open?

Please don't forget to add the missing books on the list when the poll is posted.

I won't. I'll go ahead and set it up now. Look for it within the next 30 minutes.

Posted! Go vote!

Yay! Thanks, Loretta.

Don't forget to visit the poll again as time goes on. It's a close race, given then there were so many books, and not that many people have voted.

shoot, not such a tight race today! Fun fun fun!!

Oh I didn't even realize that the poll was up!

Or, apparently, I'm losing my mind. I had already voted. I absolutely don't remember any of that.

I blame allergy medication. The worlds been so hazy for about a week....

I haven't voted because I'm not sure if I'm going to have the time to read another chunkster at the moment. Does anyone know when this will start as the current top choice is very high on the tbr list!

With the poll closing on Wednesday, I imagine that we'd want to start it on May 6, which would give everyone a week and a half to find the book.

For Kindle owners, I had picked up the Jonathan Strange book for cheap late last year. I haven't checked current pricing but hopefully, if it wins, club members can pick it up at low cost.

I got my copy from paperbackswap pretty recently. Of course, you can't guarantee how quickly a book will arrive, but in my experience, 85% of them take less than a week.

On Amazon its still around 5.00 , not a bad deal.

$5 is still a good deal. I think that I had paid $3.99 for it so no big difference.

I'll be joining in on this one even though I didn't vote for it. It looks interesting and I own it so I'm looking forward to another fun read with the gang.

I'll see if I can finish the 4th Game of Thrones book by the 6th May!

Okay, it's official: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell won!

Now to figure out who will moderate it... :)

I'm just going to have to finish Game of Thrones quickly then! I've wanted to read this book for ages

I'm so behind on GoT :-( Really need to get back to it. Doubt that I will read the upcoming one. Have too many stacked up right now.

Heather wrote: "I'm just going to have to finish Game of Thrones quickly then! I've wanted to read this book for ages"

This one dragged sooooo much for me. The first 150 pages are interesting, as are the last 200. But the middle seems interminable. :(

I'm reading the 5th one right now, though, and it's definitely an improvement.

Loretta wrote: "Heather wrote: "I'm just going to have to finish Game of Thrones quickly then! I've wanted to read this book for ages"

This one dragged sooooo much for me. The first 150 pages are interesting, as ..."

I'm really enjoying it so far. 37% of the way through and I'm intrigued. I like the iron islands story

@ Heather: The Iron Islands storyline was what started to get to me after a while. And, much as I like Brienne, her chapters got really repetative.

Loretta wrote: "@ Heather: The Iron Islands storyline was what started to get to me after a while. And, much as I like Brienne, her chapters got really repetative."

I'll see what happens a bit further through. It's certainly not as exciting as the third book!