I started to comment, but realised I had too much to say. E & I had drinks on this subject, so I cannot claim this is all mine. In no particular order:
1. Do we want this blog to continue or do another one?
2. I suggest we hold off till Sept, in line with the academic year
3. I also suggest we change our rules and keep months rota, but only count days from the opening of the volume to completion.
4. I can think of a number from my end who might join in, even possibly Anna though this would make 3 essential, as we're not buying each volume twice. It does depend though on what we read. I suggest we take informal soundings.
5. What do we do with Alexis?
6. Finally, other thoughts. Though I am pro-Powell, there are a number of other options; wikipedia has this useful list (though it does say of Proust, "in some serious sense, it escapes classification"). But, at some point the pinnacle has to be Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle, coming in at 20 volumes. Or terrifyingly, Balzac's Comedie Humaine at nearly a hundred items.
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3 comments:
OK - my thoughts on your points (all excellent).
1. I'd be in favour of keeping this one going, partly as a tribute to the genesis of online book club blogging and partly because it will then build up over the years and become a formidable collection of random musings from our youth(s). Arguments against - might be off-putting to potential new inductees. Aesthetically - we could always give it an appropriate face-lift for each new sequence.
2. September suits - note there is a 4 volume version of Powell that are titled autumn, winter, spring and summer (in that order) making September doubly appropriate.
3. Agreed.
4. Excellent news - the more the merrier.
5. We ridicule him for not finishing Proust, but not too much in case it puts him off Powell.
6. Can I put in a shamelessly desperate plea for Powell? Partly because I've already bought the first two, and partly because it will actually be fun. We've just finished Proust for Heaven's sake - I think we deserve at least one year of light(ish) relief before trying to find something even harder to read. Maybe Zola next time.
Well I'm rather in favour of a shiny new blog and archiving this one - we can link to it from the front of the new one and start building up discrete little nuggets of goodness.
My vote goes to Powell as well, if only for the fact that one of the characters is trying to read Proust./ Oh the self-referential hilarity of it all.
Maybe we should proceed alphabetically by author (of epic sequence) and thus we might be able to avoid Zola until we are all retired.
Powell it is. I am purchasing editions now. I think we should discuss the key conundrum of whether to have a new blog or not on Sat eve. E, shall we add non-Proustians, or A&C as they are known? Perhaps some dinner?
We could have a overarching project to do Zola, say one every six months....
I'll drop Alexis a line.
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