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

[troutman]

For liamenator:

I will take, in History/Political: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson.

No time for an extended write-up, though!

[Ronald Pagan]

I haven't been making picks mostly as a result of me being so depressed that the Flashman chronicles were taken.

Can I pick an individual book from that series?

[driveway]

I've actually been thinking about my Flashman pick as it violates the very guideline that I came up with, namely that in order for a series or collection to be picked, it needs to be available in a single volume.

However that would exclude something like the Harry Potter series, which is, I think a legitimate single pick.

And while Flashman isn't the same as Harry Potter, in that largely only Flashman carries over from one story to the next, events in previous novels do have consequences in following ones.

Ultimately though, I am loathe to relinquish my iron grasp on the Flashman Papers.

[jammies]

For the non-fiction category Historical/Political, jammies' Fahrenheit 451 would like to pick The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.



As an indictment of a system which caused unimaginable suffering in the name of "progress", this book is perhaps unparalleled. Drawn from the author's own experiences in the Gulag as well as the stories of others within the system, the three volumes of the Gulag Archipelago show the reader the horrific consequences of Stalin's maxim: "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic".

Solzhenitsyn himself is not a particularly sympathetic character, and the books are definitely not light reading, yet I think they are and were important, even in an era where Stalinist Communism has been discredited (other than in North Korea), for the world they describe is the one where "the ends justify the means" has been taken to its furthest extreme and the inhabitants of that world are much the same whether Stalinist, nationalist, fundamentalist, or proponents of any other creed where the "elect" are separated from the "other".

PS: I'd never read Flashman before but I picked up "Flashman and the Angel of the Lord" due to the pick here and must say I was not disappointed. Great stuff!

[troutman]

Was jammies catching-up or picking out of order?

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by troutman

Was jammies catching-up or picking out of order?

I'm not sure, but either way I think RatherDashing is AKed and you're up.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by troutman

Was jammies catching-up or picking out of order?

He was premature.

[troutman]

I select in the Food and Drink category, WINE SPECTATOR:

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

Wine Spectator is a magazine that focuses on wine. Founded as a newsprint tabloid by Bob Morrisey in 1976, it was purchased three years later by publisher Marvin R. Shanken. That year, its panel of experts blind tasted and reviewed over 12,400 wines. Each of the 16 issues per year contains a large section devoted to wine reviews and wine ratings.

The magazine's consumer orientation is reflected in stories such as family conflicts among producers, the identification of producers whose wines suffered from systematic cork taint, and alerting collectors to the proliferation of counterfeit wines. Among the critics in the magazine's tasting panel are James Suckling, James Molesworth and James Laube.

http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Home/



I especially like the annual Ultimate Buying Guide (over 16,000 wines rated). There are many wines rated 90+ available for less than $20. There is little attention paid to Canadian wines.

The front-man for the Dandy Warhols talks about wine:

http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Fe...7,4799,00.html

Wine & Spirits:

http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com/

Wine Access (Canada's wine magazine):

http://www.wineaccess.ca/about-us

[Bobblehead]

Jerzeegirl, we need your picks for rounds 7, 8, 9, 10.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

He was premature.

I was premature, but luckily with modern medicine I grew up just fine.

Sorry I thought we could pick once our name showed up in the title to speed things up; that must have been some other draft I was thinking of.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by jammies

I was premature, but luckily with modern medicine I grew up just fine.

Sorry I thought we could pick once our name showed up in the title to speed things up; that must have been some other draft I was thinking of.

Not a bad idea.

[liamenator]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Walter Benjamin's voluminous opus The Arcades Project.

Great pick, I love Benjamin.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by liamenator

Great pick, I love Benjamin.

Me too--the prophet of late capitalism, IMO.

[troutman]

Jerzee Girl AK

[Aeneas]

Originally Posted by troutman

Not a bad idea.

The above quote is troutman respoding to Jammies picking when he was in the next three.

Ha ha! While going back over the picks, in post #536 I think, you suggest this very thing. To pick when you are in the next three.

I swear I had picked a certain book already, but I cannot find it on the draft board. I looked over the last 8 pages or so and couldn't find it.

Is the draft board right up to date?

Maybe I have just finally cracked?

[Aeneas]

I will pick Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld and Other Stories.

Put it in Short story/anthology.



















It is the original story which would eventually become the series of novels that start with "To Your Scattered Bodies Go"

In brief, every person who has ever lived on earth from 1000000 BC to the 21st century have been re born on a planet made up almost entirely of a river that flows all over its' surface.

There are 10 other short stories in this book.

They were written between 1968 and 1979. I enjoyed the Riverworld novels first, but was thrilled to go back and read this also.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Aeneas

I swear I had picked a certain book already, but I cannot find it on the draft board. I looked over the last 8 pages or so and couldn't find it.

Is the draft board right up to date?

Maybe I have just finally cracked?

Not including this pick (your 10th), according to the draft board:

1. Hyperion - Dan Simmons - (1)
2. Stardust - Neil Gaiman - (2)
3. The Sarantine Mosaic - Guy Gavriel Kay - (3)
4. Playing The Moldovans At Tennis - Tony Hawks - (4)
5. Pillars Of Hercules - Paul Theroux - (5)
6. Lost Europe: Images of A Vanished World - Jean Loussier & Robin Langley Sommer, Editors - (6)
7. The Ancient Engineers - L. Sprague de Camp - (7)
8. Marlena De Blasi's 1000 Days In Tuscany - (8)
9. The Rebel Angels - Robertson Davies - (9)

That Marillion stuff you listen to is rotting your brain.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by Aeneas

The above quote is troutman respoding to Jammies picking when he was in the next three.

Ha ha! While going back over the picks, in post #536 I think, you suggest this very thing. To pick when you are in the next three.

Ha! I thought I wasn't hallucinating, but didn't question Troutman in deference to his advanced age and approaching senility.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by jammies

Ha! I thought I wasn't hallucinating, but didn't question Troutman in deference to his advanced age and approaching senility.

Sometimes it is just easier to smile and nod.

[troutman]

Damn kids. Get off my lawn.