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

[Aeneas]

Good book Jagger. I enjoyed it. I had thought about it for one of my picks too.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by RatherDashing

With our 3rd round selection, RatherDashings "24 CCs of Heart" select in the Childrens Lit Category, Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls.




Where the Red Fern Grows is the story of a young boy growing up in the Ozark Mountains. Billy Coleman lives with his parents on a small farm in the middle of the mountain range, and as a boy desires nothing more than a pair of dogs to hunt raccoons with. This is a tale about adventure, family, and the love of a boy for his dogs.

This book is by far my favourite childrens book. It is a great story, and is very well written. The characters are sympathetic, and most importantly for a childrens book, it leaves the reader wanting nothing more than to go tromping around in the woods with your dogs.

This would've been my pick in this category had I been in the draft. I could not put this book down, I'm guessing I was 8 or 9 when I read it. It was the first thing I had ever read that made me cry. When I was done reading it, I read it again right away.

Great book.

[Burninator]

For my third pick of the draft, I select in the Scientific category, The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan.


1995/1997

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark is a book by astrophysicist Carl Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan, which was first published in 1995.

The book is intended to explain the scientific method to laymen, and to encourage people to learn critical or skeptical thinking. It explains methods to help distinguish between ideas that are considered valid science, and ideas that can be considered pseudoscience. Sagan states that when new ideas are offered for consideration, they should be tested by means of skeptical thinking, and should stand up to rigorous questioning.

In the book, Sagan said that if a new idea continues in existence after an examination of the propositions, it should then be acknowledged as a supposition. Skeptical thinking essentially is a means to construct, understand, reason, and recognize valid and invalid arguments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World

This is an essential book for any skeptic, anyone interested in critical thinking and anyone interested in science. Sagan does a great job of explaining what science is and what pseudoscience is. I understood the scientific method much better after reading this book. Like every Sagan book he not only explains everything crystal clear, but he also gives the reader more. He gives reasons why critical thinking and being skeptical is a better outlook than superstition and pseudoscience. This is hands down the best book on critical thinking that I have read. Sagan is definitely one of my favorite science writers.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Seeing as though the doors have been opened on the anthology category - the MMM's are very proud to select in the category of anthology, some of the most entertaining books that I have ever read, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Complete Sherlock Holmes the complete novels and short stories. The most famous detective of all time in some of the best mystery novels ever written.

[Antithesis]

Hey guys and gals, rather than putting a half-hearted effort into this, I'm going to have to step back and drop out of the draft. I just don't seem to have the time right now to put some in to this. Sorry for holding up the last round.

[driveway]

I feel I have to voice my opposition to people taking the entire output of an author as their 'anthology' choice. I would be fine with the complete Sherlock Holmes, or the complete short-stories of AC Doyle, but to take the entire output seems... unfair.

Take, for example Rudyard Kipling. I think The Jungle Book, a collection of both interconnected and unrelated short stories, would be an entirely acceptable selection, likewise Just So Stories. The Complete Rudyard Kipling, however, I don't think should be allowed.

However, if there is an actual published collection that contains the complete works of AC Doyle, I'd be okay with that.

edit: That's perfect, MMM.

[kermitology]

But in the case of Sherlock Holmes.. it's clearly a series. Same character's.. I dunno. That's what I'd say if I was in this draft. But I'll just lob these shots from the crowd.

[RougeUnderoos]

Round 4

Science Fiction -- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Published in 1932.

I'm not much for the Sci-Fi, but this is a good one.

The Introduction (Chapters 1-6)

The novel opens in London in the "year of our Ford 632" (AD 2540 in the Gregorian Calendar). In this world, the vast majority of the population is unified under The World State, an eternally peaceful, stable society, in which goods are plentiful and everyone is happy. In this society, natural reproduction has been done away with and children are decanted and raised in Hatcheries and Conditioning Centres.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World

[sadora]

Team PaperCuts is happy to select in the Sci Fi category....Phillip K. Dick's

A SCANNER DARKLY

(will be back for a proper writeup shortly)

[Eastern Girl]

Originally Posted by Antithesis

Hey guys and gals, rather than putting a half-hearted effort into this, I'm going to have to step back and drop out of the draft. I just don't seem to have the time right now to put some in to this. Sorry for holding up the last round.

Well, that sucks, but thanks for letting us know.


... So is someone taking over his team or are we going to continue on with one less person and those picks he made go back on the market?

[octothorp]

Well, I would have felt less self-conscious about picking this book ten years ago. Now that I'm 31, there's something slightly unseemly about it being a favorite of mine. Yet it's either this, or another equally scandalous (though far less known) Nabokov book.

With my second European pick, I'm selecting Vladimir Nabokov's brilliant and controversial work, Lolita.



note to self: don't type the word lolita into google image search while at work. Don't know how it never occured to me that it was a bad idea before I did it.

I'm a big fan of Nabokov's work; his complex plots, his brilliant lyricism, his vivid metaphors. Lolita tells the story of Humbert Humbert, a European intellectual, and his obsession with an American teenage girl. The plot is far more complex than simply a story of sexual obsession. Delores is actually a rather dull and typical girl, and is promiscuous even beyond the influence of Humbert, whom she seduces, and much of the story follows the rivalry for her affections between Humbert and a rival pedophile.

Edit: also, trades: I'm still looking for American, Canadian, or European lit, and willing to trade sci-fi, fantasy, non-fiction biography, food & drink, and anthology.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by octothorp

note to self: don't type the word lolita into google image search while at work. Don't know how it never occured to me that it was a bad idea before I did it.

That's where a quick hand on the "back" button in your browser pays heavy dividends!

Excellent pick, I remember reading it back in high school and being utterly absorbed. Oddly enough, it's the only book of his I've ever read, he's one of those authors I think I should get around to reading but never follow through.

[Circa89]

Well thanks a lot Driveway!
Ya sit here for a week anticipating the moment when you can unleash the pick of a century, wowing the CP literary community and feel a fine sense of smug satisfaction when you reveal your pick of........wait for it....




Rudyard Kipling.
Oh well here it is anyway.

With my fourth Round Selection Circa89 selects in the Category of Childrens Lit
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
1902 MacMillian, London


I guess I may have to attribute my love of reading to this eccentric Englishman. What a wonderful collection of fantastical short stories of creation and the way things are O' best beloved. The version I have I received when I was about 6 or 7 and now I read it to my Son who is 7. We have read and reread these. These are amusing and now quite politically incorrect in most cases but instill a sense of wonder and intrigue as to why things are the way they are.

EDIT:
Here are the titles of the stories. My version does not include the Tabu Tale.

• How the Whale got his Throat- Explains how the whale was once a fearsome predator who ate humans, but was changed by one of his victims.
• How the Camel got his Hump- Explains how the idle camel was punished.
• How the Rhinoceros got his Skin- Explains why Rhinos have folds in their skin and bad tempers.
• How the Leopard got his Spots
• The Elephant's Child- The story of how the elephant's trunk became long.
• The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo- The story of how the kangaroo turned from a grey, wooly animal with short, stubby legs, to the athletic animal we know today.
• The Beginning of the Armadilloes- The story of how the hedgehog and the turtle transformed into the first armadillos.
• How the First Letter was Written- Introduces the only characters who appear in more than one story- a family of cave-people, called Tegumai Bopsulai (the father), Teshumai Tewindrow (the mother), and Taffimai Metallumai, (the daughter). Explains how Taffy delivered a picture message to her mother.
• How the Alphabet was Made- Taffy and her father invent the earliest form of the alphabet.
• The Crab that Played with the Sea
• The Cat that Walked by Himself- The longest story. The story of how all domesticated animals became that way, especially focussing on the wildest of all, the cat. We also learn how the dog, the cow and the horse became man's servants.
• The Butterfly that Stamped- The story of how wise king Solomon rid himself of troublesome wives, and saved the pride of a butterfly.
• The Tabu Tale (missing from most British editions; first appeared in the Scribner edition in the US in 1903)

As well as appearing in a collection, the individual stories have also been published separately, often in large-format illustrated editions for younger children. A video edition has also been released; on VHS tapes it required three tapes with four episodes on each.



To be honest I have never actually read all the stories in the Complete and Unabridged Rudyard Kipling. How's Stalky and Co.?

[Circa89]

Originally Posted by sadora

Team PaperCuts is happy to select in the Sci Fi category....Phillip K. Dick's

A SCANNER DARKLY

(will be back for a proper writeup shortly)

Hey another Philip Fan! Is this the first repeat author?

[octothorp]

Great pick, Circa! It's a childhood favorite of mine, too.

[Eastern Girl]

Another pick I am sure to get complimented on, in the category of Mass/Pulp Fiction, The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. It's a romance, so I figure it fits there, but if there are objections...



From Sparks' website, here's a description of the book...

A love story, written in both first and third person narrative, in two different time periods, that tells the story of Noah and Allie; how they fell in love in the 1940s, and how they fall in love again in the 1990s, when Allie is suffering from Alzheimer's and no longer remembers him.

I can be elitist and say I read this well before it was a movie. I can continue my elitist streak and say that I enjoyed the book much more than the film, even though Gosling is pretty hot.

Without ruining anything, the ending is what really got me. It was beautifully written, sappy but not disgustingly so.

[FanIn80]

For my next pick...

In the category of Mystery... The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie!

Plot Summary

A serial killer is murdering apparently random people in order of their names: first Alice Ascher of Andover, second Betty Barnard of Bexhill-on-Sea, third Sir Carmichael Clarke of Churston (a small village). The killer sends a letter to Hercule Poirot before each murder, telling him where and when each murder will take place, but Poirot and the police always arrive too late. The killer signs himself 'ABC' and at the place of each murder, leaves an ABC Railway Guide next to the body.

Poirot and the police are baffled until a series of clues lead them to suspect the murderer is traveling as a stocking salesman. Then the 'D' murder in Doncaster goes awry and a stocking salesman called Alexander Bonaparte Cust walks into a police station and surrenders.

The case seems closed, but although Cust has confessed to the crimes, he claims not to have heard of Hercule Poirot and can not explain the letters, although they were written on his typewriter. Cust suffers from epilepsy and is subject to blackouts. He claims he can not recall committing the murders, but he believes he committed them because he was in the vicinity of each crime scene. He also sees other clues, such as blood on his cuff and believes himself the culprit. Poirot is suspicious...

[Jagger]

^^^^ It's funny but I almost posted a response to driveway's opposition to people picking a series or entire output of an author by using a Agatha Christie analogy! To be honest I'm not sure about this. It seems a shame that the likes of 'Death on the Nile' , 'Murder on the Orient Express' and 'Evil under the sun' among many others are gone in one quick sweep. I believe that individual novels should still be available for selection and if they are then I have no problem.

Regardless, I've own every single Agatha Christie novel. I started collecting them from age 11 and finally completed the collection in my 20's. I really enjoyed Poirot as a character so good choice 80!

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Jagger

^^^^ It's funny but I almost posted a response to driveway's opposition to people picking a series or entire output of an author by using a Agatha Christie analogy! To be honest I'm not sure about this. It seems a shame that the likes of 'Death on the Nile' , 'Murder on the Orient Express' and 'Evil under the sun' among many others are gone in one quick sweep. I believe that individual novels should still be available for selection and if they are then I have no problem.

Regardless, I've own every single Agatha Christie novel. I started collecting them from age 11 and finally completed the collection in my 20's. I really enjoyed Poirot as a character so good choice 80!

Thanks! I've always loved this type of character. Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Dr. House... the way they figure things out fascinates me for some reason.

...and I confess I do feel guilty about picking the whole series. I am open to just picking one book, but it's difficult. Every book was an evolution of his character.

[Bobblehead]

If you are wanting to pick the series shouldn't it be in Anthology?

Or perhaps we should add a Series/Character category to account for these situations.

Things like "Lord of the Rings" is one long story spread over multiple volumes, but these are a bunch of discrete stories featuring the same characters.