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

[troutman]

bump - I will go back to AKs starting today

[Bobblehead]

Since there hasn't been a pick since the 2nd, I think Ronald Pagan is AK'ed. Burninator is still AK'ed (and how could he top any of the picks currently there), so I think Mean Mr. Mustard is up.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Yeah, except he didn't mention Hawaii, because he knew that if he did, we'd all be bitter and would fill up his remaining roster with crap instead. But now that the cat's out of the bag, Danielle Steele for Burninator!

Haha!

Well I guess I got this draft in the bag. Good luck to the rest of you finishing with all those awesome picks taken.


I'll get my picks up tonight.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

In the Children's Lit category the Mustardeers select Scrubs on Skates/Boy of Defense/Boy at the Leafs Camp written by Scott Young.

[Burninator]

For my fifth pick of the draft, I select in the Mass/Pulp Fiction category, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.


1818

I figure this should work as horror considering it's about a scientist who creates a monster from random body parts. A monster who is not happy about his existence and wants to seek revenge on his creator and does. Despite what popular culture has led you to believe, the scientist is named Frankenstein and the monster is, just well, called the monster. And this story is quite different than what culture popular has portrayed. There is much more here, much more.

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a novel written by the British author Mary Shelley. Shelley started writing Frankenstein when she was 18 and finished when she was 19. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the revised third edition, published in 1831. The title of the novel refers to a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who learns how to create life and creates a being in the likeness of man, but larger than average and more powerful. In popular culture, people have tended to refer to the Creature as "Frankenstein", despite this being the name of the scientist. Frankenstein is infused with some elements of the Gothic novelRomantic movement. It was also a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel's subtitle, and the The Modern Prometheus. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. It is arguably considered the first fully-realized science fiction novel.

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

[Burninator]

For my sixth pick of the draft, I select in the European Lit category, Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand.


1957

Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. It was Rand's fourth, longest, and last novel. Afterwards she completed only non-fiction works; concentrating on philosophy, politics, and cultural criticism. At over one thousand pages in length, she considered Atlas Shrugged to be her magnum opus. The book explores a number of philosophical themes that Rand would subsequently develop into the philosophy of Objectivism. It centers around the decline of Western civilization and Rand described it as demonstrating the theme "the role of man's mind in existence." In doing so it expresses many facets of Rand's philosophy, such as the advocacy of reason, individualism, and the market economy.

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

While a book that never attained success in the literary circles or on philosophy shelves, it is a favorite by many. While a ridiculous book at times (and in length) it explores many issues with a viewpoint many wouldn't agree with. That is a morality of rational self interest. The back of the book calls it a "philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller." While I can't say I agree with everything the books espouses I found it a good read and quite thought provoking. It was interesting reading a book so focused on a philosophy. Not for everyone, but those who like it, probably like it a lot.

[RougeUnderoos]

7th Round -- First Pick -- Humour Category

Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth, 1969

Portnoy's Complaint: A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature...

This is the funniest book I've ever read. Tears in the eyes and the whole bit. It was pretty filthy for its time apparently, even banned in Australia for a stretch, but very tame for our time. It wouldn't raise many eyebrows these days.

It's about a fella named Alexander Portnoy and the entire thing (IIRC) is him narrating his life story on his shrink's couch. There is a scene in the book when mom threatens him with a knife if he won't finish his meal. That's the best part.

They made a terribly watered-down movie in 1972. Don't watch it.

[troutman]

sadora AK'd

[octothorp]

In the Pulp Fiction category, I'm proud to select Andrew Vachss' Burke novels.



Burke is a career criminal who has some talent as an investigator, and ruthlessly extracts revenge on those who he feels has wronged the innocent.
Frequently, the stories deal with sexual abuse victims (as Burke himself is), something that Vachss has experience in dealing with as an attorney specializing in such cases (his wife is also a lawyer, and chief of the special victims bureau in Queens). Similarly Vachss is a very vocal and prominent defender of dogs that are often thought to be inherently violent, and uses them frequently in his writing as a metaphor for how a cruel upbringing can damage and define someone.

Vachss' work is passionate and visceral, at times exploring sleaze but never becoming sleazy. It doesn't always keep its head above water, but it always has a sense of which direction is up. My favorite of the series (at least those I've read, about 18 of the 22) is Down in the Zero. The final book in the series was released just a couple weeks ago, but I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet.

[Bobblehead]

All of them? Or are you picking "Down in the Zero"?

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

All of them? Or are you picking "Down in the Zero"?

I was picking all of the Burke novels as a series, if that's acceptable. Or if it's not, I'd pick Down in the Zero as a single book.

[Bobblehead]

This was discussed and I think there was a sort of resolution around post 310

I don't know anything about these books, so are they a continuous story arc?

Edit: I guess rereading that post 310 was discussing what qualified as an Anthology. Could these books be theoretically published as one (mega) book?

[octothorp]

Ah, right. I'll just take the one book then.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Ah, right. I'll just take the one book then.

I don't mean to give you a hard time.

As I mentioned, I'm unfamiliar with these so it isn't a pick that will impact my future draft.

But if someone else feels an affinity for one of these it would be a shame to block out everything by the author. And on a more selfish note, if I wanted to read one of these books I would find 22 books overwhelming; knowing a good one to start with is appreciated.

[Circa89]

I guess the only category this satisfies is the NON-FICTION WILDCARD.


The Dangerous Book for Boys
Author Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden
I bought this book for my Son (AND ME!) this past summer and it is filled from front to back with everything a 1940's dungeroo clad, coonskin cap wearing kid should know.

How to build the world's best paper airplane, how to build a treehouse fort, how to make a sling shot, how to play chess are some of the topics of instruction. The book can be a tad dry in parts, it is British after all, when it deals with the Royal Family tree etc.

From WIKI:
The Dangerous Book for Boys, written by Conn and Hal Iggulden, is a guidebook published by Harper Collins, aimed at boys "from eight to eighty." It covers around eighty topics, including how to build a treehouse, grow a crystal, or tell direction with a watch. Also included are famous quotes, stories, battles, and phrases that "every boy should know." It was published in the UK on 5 June 2006, and reached number one in the UK non-fiction charts several times[1], selling over half a million copies.[2].
Some reviewers have criticized it for encouraging its young readers to injure themselves, although there is a liability warning below the copyright information, but others have praised it for helping to counter the "Playstation Culture".[3]. Conn Iggulden also published a book, Wolf of the Plains, about Genghis Khan, which, along with The Dangerous Book for Boys, allowed Iggulden to be the first author to reach the number one spot in both the fiction and non-fiction charts. [4][5]
It also won the Book of the Year award at the 2007 Galaxy British Book Awards [6], the Nibbies, and also won various industry awards including the Stora Enso Design and Production Award at the British Book Industry Awards [7] for the design and production team of Andrew Ashton and Nicole Abel.

[Eastern Girl]

I will select in the category of picturebook/coffeetable book/Photo/Illustrations, James Dean: 50 Years Ago by Dennis Stock.



I'm a big Dean fan and a friend bought this for me as a Christmas gift. It's a collection of photographs of the late James Dean. Stock took some very famous pictures of Dean, the most famous being in a photo essay that appeared in Life in 1955. This is basically a re-issuing of a book of photography he released earlier, but this includes a few "new" pictures, and some updated versions of other pictures. But a nice collection for a Dean fan like myself, who finds Dean oddly appealing still.

[FanIn80]

For my next pick, I'm going to delve into my childhood a bit here. I used to read these books in grade 6 or 7 or something. They were awesome and a few of my friends and I used to trade them back and forth.

In the Fantasy category... The Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston!

Overview

British writers Steve Jackson (not to be confused with the US-based game designer of the same name) and Ian Livingstone, co-founders of Games Workshop, authored the first seven books in the series, after which point the writing stable was expanded.

There were 59 books in the core series, beginning with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (Jackson & Livingstone, 1982) and concluding with Curse of the Mummy (Green, 1995). Three new books, Eye of the Dragon, the long-lost adventure Bloodbones and Howl of the Werewolf have been published by Wizard, bringing the total up to 62. Additional books include the four-part Sorcery! series, by Steve Jackson.

The Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were similar to other interactive gamebooks that were being published at the time — most notably the Choose Your Own Adventure series — in that the reader takes control of the story's protagonist, making many choices over the course of the story and turning to different pages in order to learn the outcome of their decisions. The Fighting Fantasy series distinguished itself by the use of a dice system to resolve combat and other situations, not unlike that used in Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games, though far simpler.

The action in a Fighting Fantasy gamebook is split into small sections, ranging from a paragraph to a page, at the end of each of which the character usually must make a choice or roll a die. Each page features several of these sections, each headed with its number in bold. Where the page number would appear in an ordinary book, a Fighting Fantasy book gives the range of sections appearing on that page, much as some dictionaries do for the words listed on a page. Most of the early books in the series had 400 of these sections, with the optimal ending being number 400. Some later books had more than 400 sections, and some concealed the optimal ending somewhere in the middle of the book to make it harder for the reader to find. A few books contained less than 400 references.
With the notable exception of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! miniseries, all entries in the series are stand-alone and do not assume any prior knowledge on the part of the player. That said, many of them take place in a single world known as Titan, and the three books which deal with the wizard Zagor, (namely The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Return to Firetop Mountain and Legend of Zagor), are undoubtedly more rewarding if played in sequence, as are the books Deathtrap Dungeon, Trial of Champions and Armies of Death.

Typically, a Fighting Fantasy gamebook follows the "collect w, x and y to reach z" approach. This means that the player can only reach the end of the book by following the correct path and finding all the items (keys, gems, rings or even pieces of information) that let him or her proceed to the final confrontation. Later books sometimes varied this formula, allowing multiple routes to success.

Other Media

In 1984 a number of Fighting Fantasy videogames were released for the Commodore 64, Amstrad, BBC, and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. They were based directly on specific Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, specifically The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos, The Forest of Doom, Temple of Terror, Seas of Blood, Appointment with F.E.A.R. and Rebel Planet.
In 1985 Steve Jackson wrote a picture gamebook with the title Tasks of Tantalon, in which the player was required to solve a series of puzzles set by the wizard Tantalon, which were presented as large, full colour pictures containing hidden clues to be located and assembled.

1986 saw the release of the Warlock of Firetop Mountain boardgame from Games Workshop, followed in 1993 by a second game based on the Legend of Zagor novels.

In 1998 Eidos Interactive published the Deathtrap Dungeon videogame for the PC and PlayStation.

On December 5, 2006, it was officially announced that Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, co-creators of Fighting Fantasy and also co-founders of game studio, Games Workshop, are planning to release a new series of video games based on the Fighting Fantasy series for Nintendo DS and Sony's PSP.

Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks

1 The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
2 The Citadel of Chaos
3 The Forest of Doom
4 Starship Traveller
5 City of Thieves
6 Deathtrap Dungeon
7 Island of the Lizard King
8 Scorpion Swamp
9 Caverns of the Snow Witch
10 House of Hell
11 Talisman of Death
12 Space Assassin
13 Freeway Fighter
14 Temple of Terror
15 The Rings of Kether
16 Seas of Blood
17 Appointment with F.E.A.R.
18 Rebel Planet
19 Demons of the Deep
20 Sword of the Samurai
21 Trial of Champions
22 Robot Commando
23 Masks of Mayhem
24 Creature of Havoc
25 Beneath Nightmare Castle
26 Crypt of the Sorcerer
27 Star Strider
28 Phantoms of Fear
29 Midnight Rogue
30 Chasms of Malice
31 Battleblade Warrior
32 Slaves of the Abyss
33 Sky Lord
34 Stealer of Souls
35 Daggers of Darkness
36 Armies of Death
37 Portal of Evil
38 Vault of the Vampire
39 Fangs of Fury
40 Dead of Night
41 Master of Chaos
42 Black Vein Prophecy
43 The Keep of the Lich Lord
44 Legend of the Shadow Warriors
45 Spectral Stalkers
46 Tower of Destruction
47 The Crimson Tide
48 Moonrunner
49 Siege of Sardath
50 Return to Firetop Mountain
51 Island of the Undead
52 Night Dragon
53 Spellbreaker
54 Legend of Zagor
55 Deathmoor
56 Knights of Doom
57 Magehunter
58 Revenge of the Vampire
59 Curse of the Mummy

[Jagger]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

For my next pick, I'm going to delve into my childhood a bit here. I used to read these books in grade 6 or 7 or something. They were awesome and a few of my friends and I used to trade them back and forth.

In the Fantasy category... The Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston!

Excellent selection 80! I loved these books growing up. I actually met Jackson as I used to work for Grenadier Models, a Games Workshop competitor, many moons ago. Grenadier, unfortunately did not survive whereas Games Workshop went from strength to strength. Good memories though.

[Bobblehead]

Filling another Fantasy selection, I'll take Dragon Prince trilogy by Melanie Rawn.

This trilogy follows the life of Prince Rohan of The Desert as he tries to make his dreams of peace a reality.

The first book deals with Rohan's rise to power and how he deals with the Continental politics in a world where treaties are meant to be broken and High Prince Roelstra feasts on the greed and weakness of the other Princes. Throughout all of this, the Lady of Goddess Keep's plans for a Sunrunner Prince come ever closer to fruition as Rohan falls in love with the Sunrunner Sioned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_...Star_trilogies
http://www.amazon.ca/Dragon-Prince-0...1527118&sr=1-7
http://www.melanierawn.com/books/Dragon_Prince.html

One year I received a gift certificate to a bookstore for a gift. There was a stack of these books being sold as a box set and being cleared out after Christmas, so I picked it up, knowing nothing about it.

It turned out to be a wonderful surprise. The method of magic is unique, the characters are real and the story is paced very well. The plot revolves around more of a political theme than a conquest one, but there is much conflict too. Overall a set of books that don't seem very well know but deserve to be on everyone's bookshelf.

[driveway]

In the category of Wildcard team Discovery Channel is proud to select:


His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

Consisting of three novels: The Golden Compass (Originally published as Northern Lights), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, His Dark Materials concerns the adventures of two young people, one from our world and one from another world entirely who set out on an adventure which ultimately results in the freeing of humanity across the many universes from the tyranny of religion.

If you liked Harry Potter, this series will blow your effing mind. Marketed to young adults, the series was designed to appeal to adults as well and many of the major themes involved may escape younger readers. I would recommend these books for readers 10 and up.

Frequently the target of opposition from religious conservatives, Pullman has expressed surprise over the relatively low-level of criticism:

I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak... Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God