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CLR Book Club – Week 12 November 15, 2016

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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Some concerns expressed last week over the momentum dissipating. But on the other hand we have got here nonetheless.

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1. RosencrantzisDead - November 15, 2016

I am not reading this book since it sounded literary (I recoil for a various reasons not interesting enough to go into) and was possibly in Irish.

So, what is the book about? Is it any good?

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yourcousin - November 15, 2016

Just getting back from Kansas. I guess I am far more curious why anyone would recoil from literature writ large? I would be very interested if you elaborated.

The book is about Irish people, and some Frogs. Centered around some lovely rolling hills in rural Ireland, punctuated with riveting first hand accounts of the ties that bind, and the pace of progress in an juxtaposition of an ever changing society, and timeless relationships.

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Joe - November 15, 2016

‘lovely rolling hills’ – you’ve not been to west Connemara I take it yc?

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yourcousin - November 15, 2016

It’s my sales pitch Joe. Don’t go ruining it with “the truth”. I live in a post truth world now.

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Joe - November 15, 2016

🙂

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RosencrantzisDead - November 15, 2016

It is not a rejection of literature wholesale, but rather literary fiction. I was a voracious reader of ‘worthy’ novels for a long time. One day, I picked up a copy of John Banville’s “The Sea”. It was a torturous read. Most of my time was spent in Roget’s Thesaurus. Scepticism as to the value of such ‘high art’ began to set in. The next bad experience was Haruki Murakami’s “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”. Easier going, but underwhelming. I decided I needed a break. Crime and fantasy books became my new genres – I had never read any of the latter until a few years ago. Most of the fantasy is rubbish, but you can read them with a drink and not miss anything.

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yourcousin - November 15, 2016

I must confess I had something similar happen to me once when I read the book, “Fear of Flying” and there was a line which read, “Jude (not the obscure)”. And it dawned on me that literature was often a series of inside jokes for folks in the know to seem clever to each other.

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RosencrantzisDead - November 15, 2016

There are books people want to read, and there are books people want to have read.

Too often the latter is the domain of ‘literary fiction’.

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ar scáth a chéile - November 15, 2016

Don’t read much LF these days – agree often overhyped and self-regarding . But there’s a lot to be said for the classics. Shalamov’s Kolyma Tales to pick one was a devastating read which I don’t think any history of the Gulag could equal.

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ar scáth a chéile - November 15, 2016

for such an aversion RID is a rather literary moniker . I second YC’s call for elaboration .

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2. ar scáth a chéile - November 15, 2016

Self-employed tax deadline and keeping up with all the left analysis on DT’s resistible rise has set me back – but I’ll get back into it this week ….

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