Okay. Deliverance is bagged.
I couldn't find the post to the list you originally posted. Or did you ever post it, or just PM it?? That's a place to start.
If we go beyond that, as to suggestions, there are lots of books I have always wanted to read but never gotten around to, so if we assigned them I would have a reason to get around to them. Most of them probably wouldn't do for discussion, but ones that might are Siddartha, any Faulkner, War and Peace, and Les Miserables.
Then there are the zillion books I want to re-read, but haven't gotten to either. Are we up to Shakespeare, any of they plays at all? How about Trollope, a very under-rated author who is gradually getting the recognition I think he deserves -- probably The Warden and Barchester Towers are the best ones to start on. George Orwell's essays would be tons of fun to read again, particularly Shooting an Elephant and Politics and the English Language. Might be interesting to read Cry the Beloved Country after the major changes in South Africa.
I could go on forever, but what I'll do is think a bit more about what might make good discussion books, and are easily available in paperback.
But one book I'll bring up is one that was discussed at the conference as a very accessible, easy to read book on current brain research is John Ratey, A User's Guide to the Brain. Unfortunately it's not in paperback yet (none of the truly current stuff is) but it's under $20 on Amazon. It's a condensation, written with a science writer to make it more readable, of a much more extensive work he wrote to help social workers understand the brain development of the kids they were working with. It's been highly recommended by several people I respect.
One book I would love to discuss, but am not sure we're up to it, is Eliot's Four Quartets. Anybody game for that?
I could go on endlessly, but am being called to dinner!
If we were up to the challenge, how about Paradise Lost? We could read and discuss in sections. Or the Inferno? |
