Novella/Short Story Reading Group:

At this point it's pretty arbitrary. If anyone has a strong preference, speak up.

So, suggestions from both threads so far are:
-The Trial
-Lost in the Funhouse
-The Marquise of O
-Something by Borges
-Something by Italo Calvino
-Something by Clarice Lispector
-Swann in Love

There's a lot of interest in Anna Karenina in that thread but it's obviously more suited to a long-term reading group.

Anything else? I'd be open to essay collections as well.

I’m in for The Trial. I already read Anna Karenina but I’d participate in that discussion too

Why is Swann in love even an option

I'm picking books for the authors that don't have specific works mentioned yet.

Borges - Ficciones
Italo Calvino - If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
Clarice Lispector - The Passion According to G.H.

Someone mentioned it in the other thread and I wanted to include everything at this point.

fuck you nigger

Reply to this comment if you're interested in participating. It would be good to have a rough idea of how many people we've got. What's the minimum we'd need to make it worthwhile?

I'd say there is a 50/50 chance of me participating, depending on the book.

Franny and Zooey by Salinger
Kitchen by Yoshimoto

Swann in Love is best

depends on the book, but I'm interested.
I'm planning on reading Borges' collected works soon anyway, so anything from that would be convenient for me. Other things are fine too though.

OP here, I’m in and I can set aside a little time to organize. I’m interested in Gogol ang Goethe, I have a copy of Ivan Illyich waiting to be read, there’s a million other authors I want to go through, ancient and modern.

I’m good with essays, short plays (death of a salesman, Antigone?), I’d even be open to a couple poems, as long as our focus remains on the same basic genre by the same author for the entire week. Expand it to “Short Works General” if you like.

I think polling for our first three is a good idea and then we can decide more later if the group actually holds together. I’m happy to start Feb 1st, maybe we could start with something relatively easy and work our way into this thing gradually.

I think a mid-week light discussion/check in would work, followed up by a weekend conclusion where we begin our next focus, work out reading schedule and decide on future readings.

I'm in. Doesn't really matter what the book is always interested to read something new.

Hi

Sounds like a good schedule to me! Thanks for organizing

How should the polls work?
Top three choices, or three individual polls with the previous winner removed?

*raises paw*

Red Eagle standing by.

Everyone list 3-5, most mentions get read first. I'm off to bed, I'll post mine tomorrow

here

If we are going to suggest books and later vote I'll go with Metamorphosis by Kafka, Heart of Darkness by Conrad and Confessions of a Mask by Mishima

Why is he wearing clothes in the bath?

My vote goes to Borges - ficciones

Imin

hey

yes

Bump

I like the idea.

hi

.

should there be a discord/kik/ whatever group for easier messaging? have we decided if we're starting on feb 1st, and whether we will be reading The Trial or not?

Maybe.

any of these would be perfect.

I’m in for the trial, I don’t think we should make a discord though, just keep everything in a general

My votes are:
1. Ficciones
2. The Trial
3. The Passion According to G.H.

I think starting with Ficciones would be wise, that way people can jump in as we get going without missing much.

agreed.

I'm good to start Feb 1st but if you guys want more time we can wait until the weekend. That would work for the bi-weekly discussion I had suggested and it gives people time to get the books.

Voting for
>Ficciones
>Franny and Zooey
>Dubliners
I'm fine starting Feb 1 no matter what book
I Agree with no discord

bump for more suggestions

Where the fuck is everyone?

Voting to start with Ficciones or Lost in the Funhouse, though I’ll participate no matter what. I think starting with a short story collection rather than a novella would be good.

I'll read anything.

Been at school all day. What if we start Ficciones on Feb 1st, give ourselves a week and a half to go through it, finish NEXT Sunday and transition to a weekly schedule from there?
From there we can see if people need more time (2 weeks?) to be able to make this work, or if a weekly schedule is okay.

Let's do our best to maintain this thread over the next two days, taking more suggestions for the other books and acquiring the current one (if you don't have it already).

On Feb 1st we decide #2 / #3 based on the votes here and begin reading.

Sorry for the reddit spacing, this thread feels reddit and I'm cringing, but I want this to be clear and organized from the outset. Once we get going and more people are involved it will (hopefully) become more casual.

Good with me

That works fine for me.

I’m finishing Dubliners right now and I’m not really a fan of reading short stories as a novel, feels too much like a chore. I rather read a 1000 pages book than another compilation of shorts immediately after dubliners

Borges is more like philosophy disguised.

I'm in for Metamorphosis (I only have 25 of them) or Ficciones.

OK boss.

Sounds good to me, but I have the feeling that we'll wind up needing to slow down or people will start dropping out. What you laid out seems like a decent starting point though.

Nominating A Good Man Is Hard to Find for a later reading

My votes:
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
The Passion According to G.H.
Some Cekhov stories

What would you like to start with then?

Read this for Calvino.

Bi-weekly would allow for deeper reading and better discussion, I could do a novella in a week if I was working, but I read and write full time as it is.
I’m trying not to run this thing on my own and I’m happy to hear any ideas. The first book, whatever it is, should definitely be considered as a trial run. in this light, beginning with The Trial seems appropriate. Along with our first three reading choices we can ratify a tentative format, then review its effectivity once our first book concludes.

That's the benefit of short stories - we could still have frequent discussions but it would be easy to vary the amount of reading we choose to do, plus it allows for people to participate up as they are available since each story is (usually) a self-contained unit. We wouldn't have a problem with people falling behind and needing to catch up.

I’d definitely be more interested if it was bi-weekly. But Ficciones sounds like a great starting point.

Is there really much difference between the two translations btw?

here

I dunno, read it in swedish

if its the right book ill join
so is it ficciones for sure?

The Trial seems like a good choice. I’ll buy a copy of Ficciones today anyway

I will only participate if we choose my books

The Metamorphosis by Kafka
Angst by Zweig
Three Penny Opera by Brecht
Othello by Shakespear

Two of those are plays but they're quite short

fuck off then

Voting against these book, so this cunt isn't participating.

illiterate cunts

>hasn’t read Othello or The Metamorphosis by now
>calls others illiterates

>hasn't read any Borges or The Trial
two can play this game

>any Borges
no

>he has read the jewish daddy issues soyboy

Thanks for warning us, we won't read those then.

^This gets us nowhere.
As long as we're reading the same group of 3-5 stories at a time, yeah. So are you suggesting we leave novellas until later, or not do them at all?
Let's say yes, as we're supposed to start reading tomorrow, unless anyone has any final objections. Options 2 and 3 are still available so if you really hate Borges you can sit the first round out and make a case for a book/collection that you do want to read.

Since Ficciones is split into 2 parts I think we should have a schedule of part 1 Feb 1st - Feb 6th and part 2 Feb 7th - Feb 11.
We could split it up further if you all feel the need.
If so someone else could make a chart of stories to days, I'm not familiar enough with it to do that.
I think this would be better than the mess that would ensue if there is no structure with the 17 stories to be discussed.

options 2/3 being the trial and the passion to GH?
are we reading these 3 stories at the same time or is that happening after ficciones? cause if its happening on the 1st i gotta get my shit together and find a copy of the trial

The Trial and the Passion were just my votes, we'll finalize what the NEXT two are tomorrow based on popular opinion here. One book at a time. This is meant to be low commitment, low stress.

The first schedule I came up with for Ficciones looked crowded so I am working on one now that stretches 2 1/2 weeks, giving us 18 days to read and discuss 17 stories (based on the second edition of the collection).

>tl;dr: Don't panic. One book at a time. Bi-weekly schedule looks like the better option.

>PART ONE
Feb 1 - Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
Feb 2 - The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim
Feb 3 - Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote
Feb 4 - The Circular Ruins.
Feb 5 - The Lottery in Babylon
Feb 6 - An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain
Feb 7 - The Library of Babel
Feb 8 - The Garden of Branching Paths
>PART TWO
Feb 9 - Funes the Memorious
Feb 10 - The Form of the Sword
Feb 11 - Theme of the Traitor and the Hero
Feb 12 - Death and the Compass
Feb 13 - The Secret Miracle
Feb 14 - Three Versions of Judas
Feb 15 - The End
Feb 16 - The Sect of the Phoenix
Feb 17 - The South
Feb 18 - Final discussion, next book contracted.

Any English readers interested in the Giovanni Translations can find part one here: libraryofbabel[DOT]info/borges/thegardenofbranchingpaths[DOT].pdf

Again, this is a 2 1/2 week schedule that takes us from February 1st to 18th. Let's give it our best shot. An alternative to this would be to stick to short stories and do selections over the course of a week. The proposed schedule runs an added week but still gives us an extra 4 days in our trial run while also accommodating the collection and leaving open the possibility of doing novellas in the future.

Sounds good to me

Weird that my copy has The Garden of Branching Paths first.

Nevermind, I'm absolutely stupid as fuck. That's what the first part is called.
Somebody kill me.

Is it decided then? We should already start the thread and start reading the first ss, right?

Appreciated.

Start reading if you like, but I think we should keep using this thread until tomorrow when it officially starts and after we confirm books 2 and 3. I've already given my votes but Nausea, The Turn of the Screw, The Double and Cannery Row are just a few suggestions out of the many others I'd like to read.

Wait, it's already 1 Feb here. What is our mutual timezone?

Start reading m8! It's Jan 31, 5:57 pm PST where I am. I hope you are smarter than me and can figure out the difference without getting sucked into a time vortex.

can OP tell me what's decided? i posted earlier in this thread and just came back from school but i don't even know what reading was assigned. is it the garden of branching paths?

No it would be nice to do novellas (and essays, plays, etc.) as well. Just that starting with a short story collection allows people to get into the swing of things, get used to participating, etc. because there will basically always be an opportunity to stay engaged. I think we should do a novella for our second reading.

My votes for the second reading would be The Passion According to G.H. or If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, but there seems to be a lot of interest in The Trial and I'd be happy to do that too.

Not OP but I believe this is the schedule we're going with:

ok thanks.