CP LITERATURE DRAFT - (Rapid Fire Free For All Round)

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Great pick, sadora. Definitely on my radar in that category.

[octothorp]

Nice job with the first two picks guys; I would have taken One Hundred Years of Solitude if it was still available.

I've been going back and forth about several directions to go with this pick. In the end, I'm going to go with Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide the the Galaxy in the Science Fiction section. It might be a little off-the-draft board early, but I'm fairly confident most of my other favorites will still be available in later rounds. It's too late for me to write much about it tonight, but I'll do so tomorrow.




Now that I have some time to sit down and write out my reasons for picking this book...

For me the brilliance in the book is Adams' ability to be funny on multiple levels at the same time. The humour is in the big concepts: that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42, or that a whale can be called into existence a hundred miles above the surface of an alien planet; but the humour is also in the details of the language: in very subtle turns of phrase. Adams' background as a radio writer (and in fact HHG2G's origins as a radio play) really come across with the way the dialog constantly works on clever little twists of language. By the way, the radio series is fantastic, and if you aren't familiar with it, I urge you to check it out; there are a lot of things that made it into the books, but some really funny stuff that didn't.

Also, I love Adams' gift for social commentary; in part because of the humour of the book, he can be very direct in the way that he satires contemporary earthly life with his larger view of the universe. One of the themes that he always comes back to is how there isn't evil in the universe in the way it's often portrayed in most science fiction: there's simply a combination of stupidity and bureaucracy.

Everything in Adams' world is bittersweet: every bad ending has a silver lining, and every good ending has a pang of regret. This is one thing that I think the movie version of HHG2G got profoundly wrong, in ending on a completely high note.

[Circa89]

Well Played Octothorp, Was one of my top picks for the category as well. I was hoping it would have stuck around past the first round I guess.

I select with the my first pick and fourth over all from the CANLIT category

The Deptford Trilogy.
Robertson Davies
The trilogy consists of Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972), and World of Wonders (1975)



The reason for the pick is the mixture of Canadiana, great narrative, splattered with Jungian archetypal symbolism. Fifth Business was a great read on its own but I have never previously been exposed to the idea of a retelling of a story by the same author where the antagonist and protagonists swap roles in the follow up novel. Cool cool concept.

When I was invited to join this thread this was my first selection in my head. Not many Albertan were exposed to this in High School. I found Canlit (outside of Atwood) after high school and have never looked back.

[Circa89]

Damn. I must learn to embed pictures.

Octothrop, I stand corrected. I had the Hitch Hiker's Guide pegged but for a different category.

[RougeUnderoos]

This is going to be harder than I thought. Two of my "picks" are already gone and we've only had four.

Some great lines in the Deptford Trilogy (not exact but how I remember them)...

"Man, you are the dirtiest guy I've ever seen. Look at these towels! They're grey"

and

"My brother was one of those poor boys who disappeared in the mud at Passchendaele".

For such a long-winded old Santa-Claus-looking guy, Davies could write some books. Or maybe it was because he was a long-winded old Santa-Claus-looking guy?

And the kid (I can't remember his name) who became Magnus Eisengrim, that part about how smelly the card-playing apparatus he had to sit in -- Davies made that actually stink.

[Eastern Girl]

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."

I am going to take with my first pick, in American Lit, Catcher in the Rye. It was written by J.D. Salinger and was originally published in 1951.



Book info from Wikipedia

Plot Summary:

Catcher in the Rye follows the experiences of Holden Caulfield in New York, following his expulsion from Pencey Prep, a college prep school.

Controversy followed its publication as schools fought against including this work in school curriculum, citing it encourages rebellion, drunkenness, promiscuity and low moral values. To this day, schools argue whether this book should be taught to students.

I was supposed to read it in high school, I didn't. I eventually read it when I was in university and loved it.

[Jagger]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Nice job with the first two picks guys; I would have taken One Hundred Years of Solitude if it was still available.

I've been going back and forth about several directions to go with this pick. In the end, I'm going to go with Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide the the Galaxy in the Science Fiction section. It might be a little off-the-draft board early, but I'm fairly confident most of my other favorites will still be available in later rounds. It's too late for me to write much about it tonight, but I'll do so tomorrow.

Fantastic pick Octo! No way did I expect this one to be taken so high. One of my very favourite books. It was my No.1 choice for the Humour category.

Some extremely funny quotes from this book:

"Arthur: You know, it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space, that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.
Ford: Why, what did she tell you?
Arthur: I don't know, I didn't listen."

"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

"Ford stood up. "We're safe," he said.
"Oh good," said Arthur.
"We're in a small galley cabin," said Ford, "in one of the spaceships of the Vogon Constructor Fleet."
"Ah," said Arthur, "this is obviously some strange usage of the word safe that I wasn't previously aware of."

To name but a few.

Like I said great choice octo, darn you!!!

[Aeneas]

Originally Posted by Circa89

Well Played Octothorp, Was one of my top picks for the category as well. I was hoping it would have stuck around past the first round I guess.

I select with the my first pick and fourth over all from the CANLIT category

The Deptford Trilogy.
Robertson Davies
The trilogy consists of Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972), and World of Wonders (1975)

The reason for the pick is the mixture of Canadiana, great narrative, splattered with Jungian archetypal symbolism. Fifth Business was a great read on its own but I have never previously been exposed to the idea of a retelling of a story by the same author where the antagonist and protagonists swap roles in the follow up novel. Cool cool concept.

When I was invited to join this thread this was my first selection in my head. Not many Albertan were exposed to this in High School. I found Canlit (outside of Atwood) after high school and have never looked back.

http://www.cenacle.com.au/userimages...1164346423.jpg

Well, there goes my first pick, thanks alot.

[FanIn80]

Dammit. Hitchhikers was going to be my pick...

For my first pick, I have to take this before someone else does.

In the Fantasy category...

Dragonlance Chronicles!

The Chronicles Trilogy

* Dragons of Autumn Twilight (April 1984), Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, (ISBN 0-88038-173-6)
* Dragons of Winter Night (April 1985), Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, (ISBN 0-394-73975-2)
* Dragons of Spring Dawning (September 1985), Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, (ISBN 0-88038-175-2)
* Dragons of Summer Flame (November 1996), Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, (ISBN 0-7869-2708-9)

I have to run out, so I don't have time to expand on this. I'll try to post more later, but I'm pretty sure most people have already read these anyway.

[Bobblehead]

Wow, I'm not sure I've ever read a list of books where I have read 5 of the first 6 picks.

And apparently it was naive of me to think the Deptford Trilogy would make it to the second round. And Hitchhikers is gone! I'm going to need to trade more categories.

Pick up in a minute.

[Bobblehead]

In the category Sci-fi, Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

The story of a boy playing a game. Or more precisely, a super intelligent but insecure boy training with the chance to save the planet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender%27s_Game
http://www.amazon.ca/Enders-Game-Ors.../dp/0765342294

[octothorp]

Trade to announce:

To Octothorp: European Lit
To Antithesis: Non-Fiction Philosophy / Religion

[Ronald Pagan]

damn, I want some world and european lit

Trade anyone?

[JerzeeGirl]

Originally Posted by octothorp

I've been going back and forth about several directions to go with this pick. In the end, I'm going to go with Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide the the Galaxy in the Science Fiction section. It might be a little off-the-draft board early, but I'm fairly confident most of my other favorites will still be available in later rounds. It's too late for me to write much about it tonight, but I'll do so tomorrow.

Yes Octo - it's off the board early cuz that was supposed to be my pick!!!! Darn your good taste!!!!

[driveway]

With the Eighth pick of the first round, diveway selects, in the category of European Literature:




The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Published 1988.

"To be born again," sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, "first you have to die."

Upon its publication in 1988, The Satanic Verses earned its author Salman Rushdie a death sentence from Ayatollah Ruholla Komeini, was burned in the UK, banned in India, and was nominated for the Booker prize and won the Whitbread award for best novel.

Two actors from India, "prancing" Gibreel Farishta and "buttony, pursed" Saladin Chamcha, are flying across the English Channel when the first of many implausible events occurs: the jet explodes. As the two men plummet to the earth, "like titbits of tobacco from a broken old cigar," they argue, sing and are transformed. When they are found on an English beach, the only survivors of the blast, Gibreel has sprouted a halo while Saladin has developed hooves, hairy legs and the beginnings of what seem like horns. - Publisher's Weekly

As a writer myself, I imagined the experience of first reading Salman Rushdie to be much like being a rookie goaltender getting scored on by Sidney Crosby. A simultaneous dawning of awareness of just how good people are capable of being and an understanding of how much there is to learn.

The Satanic Verses at Amazon.com

At wikipedia

The Controversy, at wikipedia.

The Satanic Verses, at wikipedia. Information on the apocryphal Qu'Ran verses from which the book takes its name and inspiration.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Good pick--a favourite of mine as well. Unfortunately, it seems to have marked the apex of Mr. Rushdie's career, but that's another story.

[Burninator]

Right on Octothorp, I am reading The Hitchhiker's Guide right now.

[JerzeeGirl]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Right on Octothorp, I am reading The Hitchhiker's Guide right now.

Best trilogy in 5 parts ever!

[Bobblehead]

*bump*

[RatherDashing]

Originally Posted by JerzeeGirl

Yes Octo - it's off the board early cuz that was supposed to be my pick!!!! Darn your good taste!!!!

I think he was a little off the board with that comment, this was also supposed to be my first pick. Back to the drawing board I guess...