Thursday, July 25, 2013
The Baltimore Online Book Club--Why Not Join Us?
We have been members of the Baltimore Book Club for about fifteen years. My wife, Nirmala, Carol Henger and I, Thomas Dorsett, are original members; Carol was the originator of the club. Currently, for about the past five years, we have six members. No one ever misses a meeting; we obviously enjoy the club.
I got the idea of putting the club online a few weeks ago; first it was for purely local reasons. We've read so many books; I wanted to keep track of them, to remember them better. What was the name of Rabbitt's wife? In which Harukami novel did that bizarre Ferris Wheel incident occur? Sure, Google can answer most of these questions, but I wanted to document our impressions of what we've read, so that they remain fresh--or at least fresher--in or minds. Then I heard a report on the radio, which inspired me to open the book club to members worldwide.
The program in question was about a writing class for adults. The instructor discovered that the powers of expression of the students were rather limited. Although English was everyone's native tongue, the instructor felt that the students' writing abilities were severely limited. No one can write well who does not read well; if we don't read masters of the English language, we remain poor apprentices of our native tongue. For extra credit, the instructor asked the students whether they read for pleasure--novels, for instance--and if so, which authors? Half replied that rarely read for their own amusement; the others, who did, favored the author of Harry Potter. This was a course for adults, mind you; the instructor didn't want to disparage Harry Potter fans, but felt, correctly, I think, that the Potter series was more appropriate as the favorite reading of middle schoolers rather than that of adults.
If you don't read well, you don't write well; if you don't write well, you don't think well; if you don't think well, you neither know yourself nor the world. We don't believe that the unexamined life is not worth living--all lives are worth living--but all lives can be enriched. Reading great literature, we re convinced, can be a great help. it is also can be very entertaining. (Need I remind you that research strongly indicates that regular reading is an excellent way to promote brain health and to prevent cognitive decline.)
Our book club meets approximately once per month--sometimes after a six-week interval when a book is especially long. We meet at each other's houses. The host in question prepares the main dish; the rest of us bring an appetizer, salad, dessert or wine. We begin discussion of the book during the meal, and continue for an hour or so after.
HOW THE ONLINE BOOK CLUB WILL WORK
You are invited to follow the Baltimore Book Club as group, following our format which includes home-cooked food, or a format of your own design, or as individuals.
We will post a review of the book within a few days of our discussion of it. After the review, each member will rate the book, giving it one to five stars. Each member will write a few sentences justifying his or her rating of the book. Oneline members of the club are invited, in the blog comment section, to rate the book using the same star system while also providing a few sentences of criticism. We will reply to all comments. At the end of the monthy blog, the next date of our meeting and the name of the book we will be discussing will be listed. This gives online readers the opportunity to read the book along with us
The Book List
We choose our list of books carefully. We look for contemporary novles by the finest writers. The Noble Prize Committee has done a lot of the work for us; we choose many novels by Nobel laureates. We read some classics, too. What follows is our current list, subject to rare changes:
1. Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
2. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
2. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
3. Exit Ghost by Philip Roth
4 Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
5. A Sport and A Pastime by James Salter
6. Madame Bovary by Flaubert
7. The Perfect American by Peter Stephan Jungk
8. Rabbit Redux by John Updike
9. The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway
10. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
10. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
11. My Mother’s Lover by Urs Widmer
12. The Once and Future King by T.H.White
13. Nemesis by Philip Roth
13. Nemesis by Philip Roth
14 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike
15 Ending Up by Kingsley Amis
16 Life and Death are Wearing Me Down by Mo Yan
17. Absalom, Absalom by Faulkner
18. Blue Angel by Francine Prose
19. Tender Is the Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald
20 My Father’s Book by Urs Widmer
We enjoy our book club very much; none of us, as I stated earlier, misses a meeting. You, however, dear online readers, can participate as much or as little as you like. We encourage you to read as many of the selections as you can. One of the joys of the club is reading something that one wouldn't have read otherwise, and discovreing it to be a delight.
We will introduce the six members of our club, when the blog of our next meeting is completed; will occur within a few days of August 1, 2013, the date of our next meeting. In the meantime, I am posting the review of the novel to be discussed at that meeting, Orhan Pamuk's The New Life. (The book list begins after we read Pamuk's novel.) The members' criticisms and the date of the next meeting will be added.
Make a note of our blog address; thebookclubthomasdorsett.blogspot.com. If you forget, it simply google the blog of the session you are looking for, using the following format:: thomasdorsett A Review of "(name of the work)."
So whether you hail from Towson (Maryland) or Timbuktu, come join us! Your brain and the rest of you will be delighted you did!
