BOOK CLUB - Galway

Hi Everyone,

BookClub meeting this evening at 8, Bar No. 8 to discuss The Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach.

See you then
Tristan

Hi Everyone,

Sorry about the late post re. last week's BookClub meeting where we discussed The Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach. Busy busy

I think I can safely say that this was, according to the members who read it and myself, the worst book so far that nominated for BookClub. It's really an autobiography of Richard Bach himself. What an absolute ar*ehole! I never thought it would be possible for a book, well at least in the genre of spirituality & self-help, to make me want to puke. The sad thing is that you have to read his book to realise what an arrogant person he is. This guy has a serious "god-complex." How he ever got married to begin with, let alone being married 3 times, I will never understand...and then to tour America giving seminars to the public about how to make marriage work!

So, a new direction that I'm trying to move in with the Bookclub is to get attendees to write a brief sentence about their opinion of the current book and a rating out of 10...and here they are;

Sec: 6/10 (Sec was the only member to finish the book...so maybe it got better in the end . "Struggle to finish it!"

Pope Buckfast: 0/10. "Worst book ever! Too sh*t to finish!"

TristanPeter: 3/10. Didn't finish due to "not enough time and didn't really want to. Author is an a**hole"

Shel1: 3/10. Didn't finish.

Damo: 3/10. "Got to page 130. Not finished yet also. The author has no personality...shallow. Didn't want to finish it seeing as the guy divorced in 1999. How stupid he looks!"

TristanC: Didn't read it so no rating.

HisRoyalBadness: Didn't read it so no rating.

Sean: 3/10. "Complete bo**ocks particularly because he has had 3 wives!"

Rachel: Didn't read it so no rating.


So, there you have it. Our new rating system

The book for next Tuesday is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hoseini nominated by Caitriona followed by Choke by Chuck Pallahniuk, nominated by Sean. Sorry Shel1, yours if next after Sean's because he was asked to nominate beforehand.

Hi,

The book for discussion on 30th September is Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. This will be followed by Factotum by Charles Bukowski. I think this is as far as we have got in relation to nominating books. Generally, we will nominate another one at each meeting.

Hope to see you there on the 30th

Hi All,

Firstly; in relation to our last meeting where we discussed A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini; member's ratings are as follows:

Damien G: "100 pages in. I love the misery so far. Can't grade it yet obviously."

Sarah C: "Brill - couldn't leave it down! One of my favourite books in ages. Stirred emotions and gave great perspective of Afghanistan!"

Server: "6/10 - Very good style, partly realistic, not a great story though. Doesn't delve deeply enough into the psychology of the characters."

Sec: "Brilliantly written, hard to believe the writer is male as it's really from a woman't perspective."

Hugh: "Didn't get to read it but enjoyed the discussion."

Tristan C: "I thought it quite good though a bit melodramatic. Definitely effective though. 8/10."

TristanPeter: "Brialliant book. I finished it late but I really liked what I had read by last Tuesday so I continued with it. I found it amazing to think that what was written about, the different conflicts in Afghanistan etc. was so recent! Eye opening for sure! 8/10."

So that's it. All round, a well liked book. I highly recommended it

---

So, what's this "Think-In" about? Well, as you may have noticed from reading previous posts on this thread, some of the memeber-nominated books are proving difficult to purchase. Choke isn't available in the shops in Galway at the moment and to order it in will take a week more than likely. It would probably take a week also to order it on Amazon. this means that by the 30th Sept. our scheduled evening for discussing it, hardly anyone will have it read. So taking a leaf out of Fianna Fail's book on how to run a country in economic crisis by having a "think-in" at the Clayton (€5 for a pint of lager by the way :eek: in a bar with as much atmosphere as a black hole) I propose we hold a meeting on the 30th instead to discuss the club itself and the more effective running of it in general in future.

I have noticed over the last while from this thread that a lot of questions keep cropping up that are repetitive and this is one of the reasons I want to hold a specific club discussion. These questions are mainly:

* What is the schedule of books to be read?
* What is the next book to be read?
* Where and when is the next meeting?
* Are new members welcome?
* If I haven't read the book, or I haven't finished it yet, can I still attend?

I want to iron all the nitty-gritty details out seeing as, if I remember correctly, the first BookClub meeting was held in February, approx. 7 months ago! Things like sourcing books on time, help with moderating or appointing more moderators, new members, future development etc. etc. need sorting out.


What do you all think? If this proposal is cool with everyone I would really appreciate that ALL current members and anyone else interested in joining (Except Nathan 251 ) please attend on the 30th September at 8pm @ Bar No. 8

Thanks for reading this post. Hope I haven't bored ye too much.
Hope to see a big turnout on the 30th

TristanPeter

I want to iron all the nitty-gritty details out seeing as, if I remember correctly, the first BookClub meeting was held in February, approx. 7 months ago! Things like sourcing books on time, help with moderating or appointing more moderators, new members, future development etc. etc. need sorting out.


What do you all think? If this proposal is cool with everyone I would really appreciate that ALL current members and anyone else interested in joining (Except Nathan 251 ) please attend on the 30th September at 8pm @ Bar No. 8

Thanks for reading this post. Hope I haven't bored ye too much.
Hope to see a big turnout on the 30th

TristanPeter[/QUOTE]

Hi, just repeating this because it's important in relation to BookClub

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

It's on the dock road

Just a few doors down from Sheridan's, towards the huge oil storage tanks.

So Pope Buckfast, what's the story with the sticky now exactly? Will the BookClub thread stay here or is it just that we will bu uploading our reading list here?

Hello Everyone,

This is just a brief synopsis of the BookClub meeting last Tuesday where we discussed the running of the club overall.

We have decided the following:
* This thread will now become a sticky (with permission of course from moderators) so that members can view core details of the club easily, such as the list of books to be read, where the meetings take place etc.
* Pope Buckfast will be responsible for updating the sticky.
* up to 4 books will be nominated in advance of the current one so that members have plenty of time to order them if needs be.
* If any members who do not currently have a Dubray Books book club membership card for the Galway Book Club, please pm me your details (name, Address, etc.) and I'll get a card for you. 10% discount for club members.
* Instead of myself or Pope Buckfast writing up the book ratings/member comments after each meeting on this thread, we have decided that in future, whoever nominates the book will post the reply. This should make it much less one-sided in that, I was only ever giving my own views of the books up until recently.


I think these were the main issues sorted. Hope I haven't forgotten anything.

Oh yeah, for anyone who is unaware of the whole "cake" thing mentioned earlier, it was Pope Buckfast's birthday last Tuesday night. It tied in very nicely with the meeting indeed. Great fun

Attendees at the meeting included: (pay no attention to my poor spelling of nicknames )

Tawnii - new member
Pseudonym1
Damien G
Sec
TristanC
Pope Buckfast
Corrine (not a nickname) - new member
Myself

Think I got everyone?

You can join indeed Pink Shoes. If you can, try to read Choke by next Tuesday. If you can't, come along anyway

You are right Pseudonym, Choke is a bit f**ked up. Weird