Or's Top 5!!!

As you know, I would like to update the top 5 section on the right side of the blog monthly with someone's top 5 books of all time. I don't intend to create a post about it every time I change the section, but Or provided such good descriptions of his top 5 (after much procrastination) that I couldn't let this good work go un-noticed...


1. The Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien - The ultimate narrative of the everlasting struggle between good and evil. On its initial review the Sunday Telegraph felt it was "among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century." The Sunday Times review stated that "the English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them."

2. State of Fear / Michael Crichton - One of Crichton's, who died last month, most critical and thought provoking books on the relationship between science, capital, mass media and politics.

3. Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) / Jerome K. Jerome - First published in 1889, one of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers; the jokes seem fresh and witty even today.

4. The Man in the High Castle / Philip K. Dick - A mesmerising novel depicting an alternative history in which Germany and Japan have won The Second World War. Like most of Dick's novels, the main themes touched upon concern life in a police state and a genuine difficulty (for both readers and characters) to ascertain what is real and what is false

5. Good Omens / Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett - Quite possibly the funniest book ever written, despite it mostly depicting the Apocalypse.


On another note, I'm devoted to keep a track record of the books mentioned during the meetings. Although I thought most people gave compelling reasons to read these books at the last meeting, I decided not to repeat them like I did in last month's post. This is a simple bullet point version of them:

1) Flowers for Algernon
2) Outliers: The Story of Success
3) How Ms Claus Saved Christmas
4) Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
5) We Need to Talk about Kevin
6) The Door
7) The Weekenders: Travels in the Heart of Africa

My guess is that Steve is reading "How Ms Claus Saved Christmas" and that Natalie is reading "Outliers: The Story of Success".

Pulitzer Prizes enters the online era

This information might be of interest to some of you.

The Pulitzer Prizes in journalism have been expanded to include many text-based newspapers and news organizations that publish only on the Internet. The Pulitzer Board also has decided to allow entries made up entirely of online content to be submitted in all 14 Pulitzer journalism categories.

Most of you will naturally expect that your devoted blogger will shortly be nominated for this prestigious prize. However, that would be forgetting that the prize is only awarded to American newspapers and news organizations. Given the complexity involved in getting a UK visa, I think I will pass on applying for US citizenship!

Farewell Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton passed away yesterday after a long fight with cancer. Personally, I have only read two of his books: Sphere (on Or's recommendation) and Prey, and wasn't blown away by them. I however have to admit that I like this genre, for which he pioneered.

Crichton's battle with cancer probably went back to more than 5 years, as he seems to have been the victims of delusions over this time period. For example, he was ferociously challenging that climate change is caused by man-made greenhouse gases emissions... Sad faith for such an illustrious scientific writer!

Which of Crichton's work did you prefer? Jurassic Park? ER? Airframe? Sphere? Congo?

Richmond Take 2

Laure and Edouard hosted our first real book club meeting, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that it was great fun! First, we found out that Laure was an amazing chef! I know Natalie particularly liked the surprise birthday cake. Major points go to the Luneaus for pulling this evening off!

Being literary geek (which we found out no longer bears a pejorative connotation), we also referred to and recommended numerous books and authors. I promised you the summarize those recommendations on this page, so here they are:

1) Laure is currently reading Catherine Hermary-Vieille's trilogy titled Le Crepuscule des Rois, which is apparently an entertaining and easy-to-read historical fiction. The author won the Prix Femina in 1991, a prestigious French recognition awarded yearly by a female jury.

2) The Tamirs have just finished a book of short stories from Haruki Murakami, After the Quake. They describe it as a dark, complex but rewarding read from one of the leading contemporary Japanese author.

3) As for myself, I just finished Michael Chabon's Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. This epic novel was an exhaustive account of how 2 American Jews delt with the impact of WWII on their life. I am comfortable recommending it!

4) Amy is currently visiting our graveyard section, as she is reading Half of a Yellow Sun from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This allows me to point you that section of the site, which is full of cool recommendation.

5) Or also introduced us to a few geeky fantasy books, insisting particularly on Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. It is a fantasy novel written in collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Go check out their pictures on wikipedia!

6) Jodi Picoult got double the air time with mentions for her books My Sisters Keepers and Plain Truth. They are probably her best books, since both books have been adapted into movies.

7) Finally, the Canadian author Miriam Toews and her book A Complicated Kindness was mentioned by Natalie. It won the Governor General's Award in 2004, and spent more than a year on the bestseller list in Canada, for a resounding sales figure of 78 books.

Now, we also had the chance to discuss the brief wonderous life of our friend Oscar Wao, which was so rewarding that Or and I decided to meet up on Tuesday afternoon in a pub in London to continue the discussion. We concluded that Lola was a boring character. Sorry sister!

Future of books

What will the future holds for our beloved books? Do you think that we will still be reading books in 2050 the way we do today? To put things in perspective, I have researched the evolution of books:

12th century: The first book was produced by monks somewhere in Europe
1450: Gutenberg invents movable type in Europe, 400 years after Pi Sheng did in China, increasing supply to meet the increasing needs of university students
20th century: Lithography becomes widely used in book printing, allowing for an explosion in volume of books produced

My sense is that we are ready for another breakthrough. Surprisingly, e-books have been around for more than 30 years. Today, a few e-books reader start to get some air time in the news (the Amazon Kindle & the Sony Reader are the leading models). I just read that by 2018, more e-books could be sold than traditional books!

What do you think? Will e-books overtake traditional books the way digital songs are slowly winning the war over CDs? Are we missing something here?

Note: To access to more than 25,000 free e-books, check out the Project Gutenberg website. The project was launched in 1971 to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. They don't spend time on the format of the pdf, which is a shame, but you can access most classics for free.

Cast your vote!

The most exciting meeting of the year is already over! Check out the Road to Glory that lays ahead of us (on the side bar). Based on the loud random conversations we've had, this will be an exciting year!

Now, it became obvious that this blog will become the cornerstone of our book club experience. As your devoted blogger, I am grateful to the many people have already contributed to this forum. Special thanks go to Jonathan and Andrea, in no particular order. 

As agreed, you need to cast your vote for Jonathan's recommendations, to break that suspense as soon as possible. So don't wait any longer, everyone is eager to start reading!

2 weeks to go!

Welcome on our book club blog!

Let me first say how excited I was when Natalie picked me to not only be part of her couples-only book club, but also to create and maintain this blog. It truly is an honor. As your devoted blogger, I promise you random posts and sarcastic comments throughout the year while putting you, my devoted readers, at the forefront of the blog.

Indeed, each month, you will take over this space. Among other things, I will ask one of you to provide me with your top 5 books of all time, which should serve as a great source of literary recommendations. Random polls will also take place, and more contents and functions will be added.

For the virgin book club-ers, you need to know that every respected book club maintains its own blog. It is an inherent part of the book club sphere. This blog will be an essential part of our social interactions, adding texture to the magical evenings to come. I encourage you to start e-mingling (i.e. posting comments) right away!