The Syndicate

Hey guys. We have a lot of readers on this site, so I'm thinking about starting a Syndicate Book Club. Would anyone be interested in joining?

*raises hand*

Sure!

I am reading two books right now (not this very moment, of course).

No. I hate words.

Epignosis wrote:No. I hate words.

Epignosis could grade us on how well we understand the themes and forms of the chosen work.

Right now, I am reading Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. Still early in the book.

I have a suggestion for book club titles. There's this author called Logan Albright who has written a few novels that might work well.

I have one.

I will join ofc!

I am in the middle of rereading the SoT series.

I don't really do best sellers; I like metaphysics, sci fi, fantasy & non-schlock horror.

problem with me joining is that I already have like 15 books I need to read

Sure, that could be fun! I'm workingmy way through The Two Towers at the moment.

Sounds like fun but I'm already doing my own reading adventure. I started the process of reading every single book in our house last year. Maybe once I'm done I can join in!

G-Man likes picture books.

Why is Wuthering Heights one of the top romance novels? It should be top revenge novel.

Would love to join this

Heiots wrote:Why is Wuthering Heights one of the top romance novels? It should be top revenge novel.

Totally agree. I also don't get why people love it s much. I hated it. I was 40 pages from the end and threw it across the room and said no more. I hated every single person in that novel.

Never read the book (instead, I read some Austen ones ayyy ), but occasionally had to watch a few adaptations because girlfriends ("So you like literature?" "Not as much as you read, but yeah" "Oh, like what?" "Jane Eyre and Wuthututu" "Oh." *hides Camus away from sight*). I actually rather enjoyed the intrigue and dark tone of it.

Neverwhere wrote:

Heiots wrote:Why is Wuthering Heights one of the top romance novels? It should be top revenge novel.

Totally agree. I also don't get why people love it s much. I hated it. I was 40 pages from the end and threw it across the room and said no more. I hated every single person in that novel.

Why do any of the characters have to be likeable? I don't think they're supposed to impress you.

Neverwhere wrote:

Heiots wrote:Why is Wuthering Heights one of the top romance novels? It should be top revenge novel.

Totally agree. I also don't get why people love it s much. I hated it. I was 40 pages from the end and threw it across the room and said no more. I hated every single person in that novel.

I hated it too. One of the worst books I had to read in college.

Epignosis wrote:

Neverwhere wrote:

Heiots wrote:Why is Wuthering Heights one of the top romance novels? It should be top revenge novel.

Totally agree. I also don't get why people love it s much. I hated it. I was 40 pages from the end and threw it across the room and said no more. I hated every single person in that novel.

Why do any of the characters have to be likeable? I don't think they're supposed to impress you.

Oh I completely agree. There was just something about this book. I just hated all of the characters and hoped they all got whatthey deserved, but at the same time didn't care two shits enough to actually read the final 40 pages to find out. I just really loathed the book. I usally don't detest books this much.

Epignosis wrote:

Neverwhere wrote:

Heiots wrote:Why is Wuthering Heights one of the top romance novels? It should be top revenge novel.

Totally agree. I also don't get why people love it s much. I hated it. I was 40 pages from the end and threw it across the room and said no more. I hated every single person in that novel.

Why do any of the characters have to be likeable? I don't think they're supposed to impress you.

I think one reason why I didn't like it that much was that I found it difficult to empathize with the characters, and it's nice to be able to identify with a character when reading. Even if you're being cruel, find me a reason why I should sympathize with you.

I do think main characters tend to be more likeable than Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. That said, while the characters aren't going to be in my top favourites, the novel was an experience.

I think part of the problem with Wuthering Heights was that I didn't actually know anything about the plot line previous to picking it up. It had been recommended to me by so many people who said things like "Oooh! I adore that book! It's so lovely!"

What the fuck friends. This book is not what I would describe as a lovely book. Allow me to buy you a dictionary for Christmas. They had me expecting more of Jane Eyre vibe!

Jane Eyre is not what I describe as lovely either. Mad woman dies in fire. Hero goes blind.

If I want to read a lovely book, I'll take To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis.

Golden wrote:Jane Eyre is not what I describe as lovely either. Mad woman dies in fire. Hero goes blind.

If I want to read a lovely book, I'll take To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis.

That is also a fair point. I guess in Jane Eyre some things do work out in the end to some degree and Jane herself was lovely, she just had some awful circumstances. You also had to kind of feel for Rochester. He was rather tricked into marrying the mad woman and then stuck with her after.

Upon reviewing my book database I don't tend to go for lovely reads.... hmm....

The Secret Life of Bee's comes to mind, but there was a lot of unloveliness in that book also.

You know which books I love most from the Bronte sisters?

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. Agnes is pretty good too.

This might be why - Dude Watching with the Brontes

My favorite book is Watership Down. I also really like The Green Mile.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:My favorite book is Watership Down. I also really like The Green Mile.

Watership Down is a great book, and The Green Mile is one of a handful of King efforts I enjoy.

Heiots wrote:Why is Wuthering Heights one of the top romance novels? It should be top revenge novel.

I think you may be confusing "romance" (a genre) with Romanticism (a loosely defined literary movement which had its heyday in the first half of the 19th century). Wuthering Heights is absolutely a Romantic novel. It is by no means a romance novel (unless, of course, emotional abuse and domestic violence really float your boat......)


I'd be totally into a Syndicate book club, if the selections are good. I never get to talk about novels anymore, and it would be a fun change from the nightmare version of "book club" that is my current life.....

Can we read Harry Stephen Keeler novels?

I want to join I love a good book.

Elohcin wrote:I want to join I love a good book.

Have you read Wuthering Heights?

Canucklehead wrote:I'd be totally into a Syndicate book club, if the selections are good. I never get to talk about novels anymore, and it would be a fun change from the nightmare version of "book club" that is my current life.....

Epignosis wrote:

Elohcin wrote:I want to join I love a good book.

Have you read Wuthering Heights?

I promise I will begin after my company leaves.

Elohcin wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

Elohcin wrote:I want to join I love a good book.

Have you read Wuthering Heights?

I promise I will begin after my company leaves.

Little Miss Cakes is leaving? Noooooo!

thellama73 wrote:

Elohcin wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

Elohcin wrote:I want to join I love a good book.

Have you read Wuthering Heights?

I promise I will begin after my company leaves.

Little Miss Cakes is leaving? Noooooo!

If LMC went away, so would the Brown family's grocery budget.

This is the Amazon 100 Books list: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons- ... ead-2014-2

I have also done the Time list, which is not dissimilar. Of these 100, I have read 58. That surprised me, I would have thought it was more. I think when I did the Time list it was 60 or so.

How many of these have you read? Which ones have you not read that you might want to read? I think if we look at lists like these, we can come to a consensus on something we might all, as a group, enjoy.

S~V~S wrote:This is the Amazon 100 Books list: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons- ... ead-2014-2

I have also done the Time list, which is not dissimilar. Of these 100, I have read 58. That surprised me, I would have thought it was more. I think when I did the Time list it was 60 or so.

How many of these have you read? Which ones have you not read that you might want to read? I think if we look at lists like these, we can come to a consensus on something we might all, as a group, enjoy.

No Herman Melville, no Nathaniel Hawthorne, no Edgar Allen Poe? No Tolstoy, Dostoevsky or James Joyce? No Chaucer or Milton or Shakespeare? No Graham Greene, no P.G Wodehouse, no Jules Verne or H.G. Wells? But Anthony Bourdain, Hunger Games, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid make the list?

I weep for the future.

The TIME list is better, but it kept crashing my computer. Also, for a varied group, this seemed more middle of the road. I loved Anna Karenina, but it isn't everyones cup of Tea. Same for Madame Bovary. There are limited classics, but it would be a good starting point to actually pick a book we all may want to read or revisit.

Epignosis wrote:

Elohcin wrote:I want to join I love a good book.

Have you read Wuthering Heights?

Well, it's not on SVS's list, so it must not be worth reading

I will take a good look at the list soon, SVS, and let you know what catches my eye.

No, lol. More books worth reading are NOT on that list than on it. That list just has a wide range of books, something for everyone, even if not all of it is highbrow. Basically a starting point for choosing something we all might like.

I myself am not a Bronte fan, too brooding/broody for the most part. Eighteenth & nineteenth century heroines are hit and miss with me.

Elohcin wrote:

thellama73 wrote:

Elohcin wrote:

Epignosis wrote:

Elohcin wrote:I want to join I love a good book.

Have you read Wuthering Heights?

I promise I will begin after my company leaves.

Little Miss Cakes is leaving? Noooooo!

If LMC went away, so would the Brown family's grocery budget.

Around here LMC means Lake Michigan College.

I would join a book club if we did one.

I'll save everyone some time.

"1984" by George Orwell
I was born the year before. Things weren't so bad. Cartoons were the shit.
"A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking
Gotta be brief. Dude was only here for a bit of it.
"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers
Dude should see a doctor followed by a psychiatrist.
"A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah
A Muslim made this list? Isn't this America?
"A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning: The Short-Lived Edition" by Lemony Snicket
I don't read books written by GIrl Scout cookies.
"A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle
Who? Which? Whatsit?
"Alice Munro: Selected Stories" by Alice Munro
Hard to believe Alice Munro actually wrote this.
"Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll
This is where Alice Munro really was.
"All the President's Men" by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
If this had been by "Deep Throat" Wal-Mart wouldn't carry it, so Bob had to use his real name.
"Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
Bob's Butts. Camel's Carcinogens. This could have gone anywhere. Don't smoke kids.
"Are You There, God? It's me, Margaret" by Judy Blume
Has anyone ever read any of Judy Blume's other works? God ain't there for those.
"Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett
Any relation to Terry Pratchett? Wait no, missed the "r," sorry.
"Beloved" by Toni Morrison
Oprah dies.
"Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" by Christopher McDougall
The title is longer than the book.
"Breath, Eyes, Memory" by Edwidge Danticat
Oprah likes it.
"Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
There's a hint in the title and in the author's last name.
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl
This factory could have been many other things. Why chocolate? Why not selfie sticks?
"Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White
Moral: Your children can replace you to your friends when you die!
"Cutting For Stone" by Abraham Verghese
More nonsense from foreigners.
"Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead" by Brene Brown
Tip from Chapter 12: "Let a knife-waving maniac into your home. It will change the way you do everything."
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 1" by Jeff Kinney
The drawings on the front cover put me off.
"Dune" by Frank Herbert
Hot, dry book.
"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
An even hotter, drier book.
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream" by Hunter S. Thompson
And yet another hotter, drier book.
"Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn
Tried to watch the film. Fell asleep. Didn't try to read the book.
"Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown
Good theme, but Samuel L. Jackson narrated one slightly better.
"Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
From the guy whose wife was always expecting.
"Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Dude must live in an inner city McDonalds.
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling
Read this again knowing Dumbledore was gay. Won't make any difference.
"In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
Responsible for Philip Seymour Hoffman's untimely death.
"Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa lol
"Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Tried to read this once and saw that the first part was "Battle Royale." Come on dude. "The Hunger Games" lady already ripped that one off.
"Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth" by Chris Ware
The smartest kid on earth is still a relative moron.
"Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain
Another McDonalds tell-all, apparently.
"Life After Life" by Kate Atkinson

"Little House on the Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Michael Landon ftmfw.
"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov
Don't stand so close to me.
"Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Please don't stand so close to me.
"Love Medicine" by Louise Erdrich
Cialis
"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl
Men have already found meaning. Beer and a good game.
"Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
Somehow this made it past an editor.
"Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides
OH oh OH OHHH OHooooo ah ah ohhho oh WHAT THE FUCK JEFFERY?
"Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is good, so give this one a shot.
"Moneyball" by Michael Lewis
Sounds like a bad arcade game from the 90s.
"Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham
No comment.
"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac
I tried to read this six times. Never got past page ten because the guy can't figure out punctua- Oh wait. That's "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.
"Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen
GONNA TAKE A LOT TO DRAG ME AWAY FROM YOU
"Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi
Girl doesn't understand cultural boundaries ANYWHERE
"Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth
Dream Theater needed a break.
"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
Jane Austen needs to stop criticizing me 170 years before I am born.
"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Prefer "Silver Spring" by Stephanie Nicks
"Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
PO-TEE-WHAT-THE FUCK? One of the stupidest books I have ever read.
"Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Four-bore and seventeen dollars wasted.
"The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton
Read this book and then listen to this Don Henley tune. Makes so much sense.
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon
A Jew writing about Jews. Pointless. Christians need to be reading the Bible.
"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Begins little. Ends abruptly.
"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak
Barnes & Noble actually have a database of people who buy this one.
"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz
I'm not even going to pretend I've ever heard of this one.
"The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger
Serious commentary: Get Salinger's Nine Stories. His novel is good, but he can say more in fewer words.
"The Color of Water" by James McBride
Why are you so focused on what color the water is? Doesn't your book have more important issues to tack- Oh.
"The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen
His publisher accidentally used the label from the editor.
"The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America" by Erik Larson
Georgia has never been called the "White City."
"The Diary of Anne Frank" by Anne Frank
Too much unnecessary teen angst.
"The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green
Shakespeare rip off.
"The Giver" by Lois Lowry
Back massages by old men.
"The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman
Christian propaganda.
"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
How many of you took forever to figure out that eyes of TJ Eckleberg was referencing a fucking billboard?
"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
The Hamfisted's Tale. Atwood can be hamfisted and still be good though. Read this. Read Oryx and Crake too.
"The House At Pooh Corner" by A. A. Milne
Much better as a song by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
"The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
A rushed trilogy out of one borrowed idea.
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Skloot. haha
"The Liars' Club: A Memoir" by Mary Karr
Would rather play a timmer game than read this.
"The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)" by Rick Riordan
Saw this on repeat in Wal-Mart's TV electronics center. Buy a Wal-Mart TV.
"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Probably something about Napoleon.
"The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler
Raymond Carver was a better writer.
"The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" by Lawrence Wright
Barad-dûr
"The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien
So much fuss over fucking jewelry.
"The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales" by Oliver Sacks
So much fuss over fucking crazy people.
"The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" by Michael Pollan
I don't believe he knows what a "dilemma" is.
"The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster
A Roger Hargreaves book makes more sense than this.
"The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel" by Barbara Kingsolver
Also known as The Undergraduate Bible
"The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" by Robert A. Caro
New York is still a thing.
"The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe
I'm not even going to try to make fun of astronauts.
"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
THERE'S that piece of shit novel with no punctuation.
"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
I'm not gonna lie. This one sounds fucking interesting.
"The Shining" by Stephen King
I don't know why this makes the tops of so many lists. King has written so much better shit. His Twitter is not one of those things.
"The Stranger" by Albert Camus
Fuck Ka-MOO.
"The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
The shotgun also rises.
"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
Guns?
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle
Eating disorders are not whimsical things.
"The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame
Mr. Toad. That is all.
"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel" by Haruki Murakami
More foreigners.
"The World According to Garp" by John Irving
Not a bad book, but A Prayer for Owen Meany is John Irving's masterwork. Please read it.
"The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion
Magical thinking doesn't do much for me either, lady.
"Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe
And so do fifteen-year-olds' grades when they have to read this book.
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
Stupid lady wrote one novel and quit and then never ever ever followed up. I hate her.
"Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand
What do women know about World War II?
"Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann
Any relation to Village of the Damned?
"Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein
Usually where the city planners said "This is where the sidewalk ends."
"Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak
Right here on THE SYNDICATE.

YEAH.

I really just posted that as a starting point for discussion about what book we might want to read.

S~V~S wrote:No, lol. More books worth reading are NOT on that list than on it. That list just has a wide range of books, something for everyone, even if not all of it is highbrow. Basically a starting point for choosing something we all might like.

I myself am not a Bronte fan, too brooding/broody for the most part. Eighteenth & nineteenth century heroines are hit and miss with me.

I have read Goodnight Moon close to 100 times I would guess.

There are definitely some eyebrow raisers on this list, but many worthy reads as well.

I have heard really good things about the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and have been meaning to read it for a while. Here are some of the ones I haven't read that I have been meaning to and just jumped out at me.

My list:
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
In Cold Blood
Persepolis
Born to Run

Linki

Epi, that is pure and utter genius!!

?

"Right here on the syndicate"

Nah, this is Where the Wild Thing Is.

Hedgeowl wrote:Born to Run

Another of my favorites.

thellama73 wrote:

S~V~S wrote:This is the Amazon 100 Books list: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons- ... ead-2014-2

I have also done the Time list, which is not dissimilar. Of these 100, I have read 58. That surprised me, I would have thought it was more. I think when I did the Time list it was 60 or so.

How many of these have you read? Which ones have you not read that you might want to read? I think if we look at lists like these, we can come to a consensus on something we might all, as a group, enjoy.

No Herman Melville, no Nathaniel Hawthorne, no Edgar Allen Poe? No Tolstoy, Dostoevsky or James Joyce? No Chaucer or Milton or Shakespeare? No Graham Greene, no P.G Wodehouse, no Jules Verne or H.G. Wells? But Anthony Bourdain, Hunger Games, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid make the list?

I weep for the future.

These were my thoguhts exactly. Although, I admit to enjoying The Hunger Games >.>