Any Interest In Monthly Book Club?

[internationalguy]

I'm in if you're still doing it. I like all of the above suggestions.

 

[splaying]

so int'l guy where are you from .. what is your reading style... what will you do for excitement on the 4th of July if indeed u r from the STates.. unless of course u r from England.. or elsewhere too just curious

 

[internationalguy]

I'm Texan I was going to get my American Eagle Tattoo finished, but who knows now since there might be no trains. I've been here for a month so I guess what I do, I'll check with my roommate (he's from SFO). I also heard there are going to be fireworks so that sounds nice. As far as reading, I'm into s lot of things, but tend to favor anything that gets my psychology background excited. I turned 31 last week, first time I don't have a bday in hot weather, it was odd, but I'm happy to be here.

 

[Alicia karr]

I just wanted to have at least 6-7 interested parties which we now seem to have...so on to electing the actual day/time. How about if we meet the last Friday of every month from 3:30-5, or 5-6:30? We can meet at my place for starters. I'll provide coffee and tea...others can supplement with whatever...an idea: we can use the first meeting to share our favorite books and come up with the reading list for the rest of the year then. That would be Friday July 26...which time, 3:30, or 5? Or we could go for it all and do it at 1:00 with pot luck lunch...? Please cast your ballot!

 

[MorganF]

Hey ya'll,

Thank you, LaCoqueta, for thinking of me. I didn't respond sooner because, believe it or not -- I know, hold on to your seats so you don't fall off -- sometimes, every once in a while, I will go a few hours, perhaps even days, without reading BAExpats. I know, I know, all appearances suggest that I re-load the site the way teenagers reload their Facebook feed, but alas sometimes I am able to get myself away for more than a few minutes. Sometimes, I'm even abroad in some far-off distant land that almost seems mythical at times, thus limiting my access to BAExpats even more. Perhaps we need an iPhone app so we can get BAExpat alerts in real-time!

As for a book-club: quite an idea! But alas, during working hours I am... wait for it.... working. Usually from 8am to 8pm every night, although if you ask why I'm posting now it's because I'm now in this foreign land where it is a "feriado" today. Fridays I usually end earlier, but Friday nights are reserved for prayer: either in a sacred house of religion where I thank the universe for my good fortune, or in a sacred house of alcohol where I drown away the challenges that life throws my way -- for the Goddess Fortune, as generous as she is, never makes it easy for us. I sometimes think that Fortune, running with half-sisters Nona, Decima, and Morta. Oh Morta, how we tread so close to you every day, and I thank you for not visiting me nor anyone close to me just yet!

The key question I would be wondering, however, is: what book would everyone be reading? This is clearly the question we need to answer BEFORE joining the team, right? It's like, if you go fight in a war -- before you decide to fight, you ask yourself which side you want to fight on, right? Reading a book after all is like fighting a war: struggling with the implications of every word the author chose and trying to understand the messaging and its meaning for us. For smarter men and women (like y'all of BAExpats) it probably comes easy to you; but not for me, I struggle hard to understand the nuances of what I read, to try to understand the author's meaning without imbuing it with my (many) biases and judgments. It's not easy.

I fear, therefore, that our chosen books might be too different. If anyone is interested in reading 50 Shades of *anything*, then that's fantastic and awesome for you - and not my particular preference. If you're interested in reading the Hunger Games, that sounds like it'll be a great movie but I'm not that interested in the book.

However, if you want to whip out an epic poem by Alexander Pope (oh, the pleasure I got from re-reading his Essay on Criticism on a recent journey to Jose Ignacio last high season!!!!) or if you want to re-read the early Transcendentalist literature with a critical eye (maybe Walden wasn't all it was cracked up to be!) or perhaps even the collected Rambler essays of Dr. Johnson -- I would be up for it in a heartbeat!

So, what do you have in mind to read?

morgan

 

[sivan]

Wish I could but i recently had a baby. If it was in the evening I could get my hubby to babysit.

 

[Alicia karr]

Esteemed lector Morgan, the book club choices will be elected by us mere mortal readers. They will be chosen from submissions by our literary members and will not be allowed to have the words "Shades of...." Or "dragons" or "games" in the title... members will not be allowed to elect the "Guardian" or the Star periodicals as suitable choices. Neither will Readers Digest Condensed Versions be permitted.
However we need to be able to pronounce the names of the main characters, and books in Latin only count in the "erudite show off "subgroup of the club.. However maybe I can arrange that your recommendations find an extra vote somewhere....after all, this is Argentina! By the way I am currently in Atlanta and am totally bummed that there has been a week of solid rain and there will be no fireworks for tonight the 4th! Happy 4 th to the other Yankees on the site!

 

[internationalguy]

Happy 4th to you too. The weather sucks here too. It's warmish though. Friday the 26th sounds good, although you might have to make some changes because of Morgan's request. I have very flexible hours but I'm not a morning person, so unless you plan on meeting at 7 am I guess I can be OK with anything you guys want.

 

[palermo_ms]

In in in!

 

[Alicia karr]

Sivan, its fine with me if you bring the baby!