Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
Here you'll find info about artists, rumors, camping tips, and the infamous Roo Clues. Have a look around then create an account and join in the fun. See you at Bonnaroo!!
Since many of our members are Literary Minds in addition to enjoying music, I would like to start an Inforoo Book Club.
Every month, we will pick a book for discussion here in the thread. If there is interest, we will set up an evening chat from time to time to discuss what you like or don't like about the book. There are not set rules, or discussion questions about each book. All we ask is that you have actually read the book we are discussing prior to posting, and that you are respectful to other opinions.
Books will be selected by the active participants, with the final decision being made by the thread moderator. Any book is eligible for the book of the month club.
Books of the Month: April 2012 - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The first book of the month will be one of my all time favorites. Seemingly a kids story, this is a very deep American classic. Also, we will be reading the PRE-CENSORED version. The one with the n word still in it. Looking forward to discussing:
I'm normally not an advocate of banning books but I would be completely OK if they banned and burned every copy ever made of the censored version of Huck Finn
Welcome back Bonz, but I do not find it strange that your presence being requested in the Orgy thread and then you showing up, like it was the quacking Bonzai Bat Signal.
Ok, going forward I will try to make sure books are free on kindle unless everyone really wants to read a particular book. Also, June will be an exception since the book will have a dual purpose of driving parallels with Roo.
Bonzai, please feel free to participate as much as you want or just read along. Use this thread to help see different angles in the book.
Since the censorship seems to be a hot issue I am going to throw in my 2 cents when I get home tonight. I think it is a good starting point since I have 3 versions of this book and each has major differeces. I will also go read the free kindle book tonight so we can start the conversation tomorrow on the same book.
I am glad to see so many interested people, since inforoo has eaten into my reading time and this will get me back into it!
Ok, for a preread food for thought, Huck Finn has been modified, edited and censored throughout the history of the novel. Even pre-release, Twain shelved it, and restarted several times, as well as adding and removing whole portions of the text. The best literary minds of his time hated portions and loved the book as a whole.
Recently, the printer's copy was found, and is now on display in a public library. Above, someone said that we should ban and burn all censored versions of the novel. For me, I am actually against the banning and burning of the censored version, even though I love the original story the best. I think the controversies raised by this novel are part of its mythology and help to show how the novel relates to different periods in American History.
Keep in mind that this book was published nearly 50 years after it takes back, so the events in the book are already written from a historical lenses.
Ill post some more thoughts after I read the version tonight. Feel free to share anything that strikes you while reading it.
Post by thebigbuddha on Apr 3, 2012 20:18:29 GMT -5
I'm in. I owned this book for years and never got around to reading it. When I got a Kindle I donated it to Goodwill, figuring if I ever wanted to read it I could get it on the cheap. I'm looking forward to finally reading it. The only thing I ever read by Mark Twain was "Letters from Earth; and other stories" which is also amazing!
Welcome back Bonz, but I do not find it strange that your presence being requested in the Orgy thread and then you showing up, like it was the quacking Bonzai Bat Signal.
My thought on this book... when my considerably elderly Aunt was cleaning out her in-laws house in rural RI after they passed away, she found an autographed copy of the original book. I wish i had her luck and that book!
My thought on this book... when my considerably elderly Aunt was cleaning out her in-laws house in rural RI after they passed away, she found an autographed copy of the original book. I wish i had her luck and that book!
My thought on this book... when my considerably elderly Aunt was cleaning out her in-laws house in rural RI after they passed away, she found an autographed copy of the original book. I wish i had her luck and that book!
Continue discussion.
Ummmm how much is that worth?
I would pay a lot for that book. I am thinking it is probably in the $50K range, depending on the condition. Signed, I have no idea. My goal once I get the money is to start collecting rare books.
My goal once I get the money is to start collecting rare books.
You & me both! I got a 1st edition Faulkner at this amazing used book store (actually 6 or 7 small HOUSES on some property) in CT about 12yrs ago. I wanted to use it in a class last semester, but I reconsidered after a few students cast disconcerting covetous glances at it. I just knew it would go missing, only to turn up on eBay thereafter!
*Side note about selling books on eBay: a professor friend recently said he'd sold his near-perfect, 1st edition copy of Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club" on eBay. The next week he got a note of thanks in the mail - from Amy Tan. It seems she'd lost her personal copy and was unable to get a 1st ed hardback, not even from the publisher! So think of that when you sell something: you never know who wants to buy YOUR stuff!
It's Th Sun Also Rises for me, I have a few copies, nothing wild, like you said viking, someday. I'd really like to go for quantity rather than rarity though.
Bonnie, they do!! I can fink a link tomorrow, but the whole book is also in one piece fo' free.
Thanks. I should have edited my post. Hakuna helped me out on chat last night. I got through a few pages and switched to a different book. I hope to get into it, but this morning was a nogo.
Welcome back Bonz, but I do not find it strange that your presence being requested in the Orgy thread and then you showing up, like it was the quacking Bonzai Bat Signal.
I have a second edition Walden in perfect condition, and a second edition Last of the Mohicans in not so good shape. I also have dibs on my parents 1st edition Simarilion and Hobbit. Overall, I have well north of 1K books, but I have been a voracious reader for a long time, and use to spend more money on books than on movies, video games, and music combined. A lot of them are cheap paperbacks. Anything I have that is nicer, I usually have a paperback for actual reading as well, since it is so easy to damage books.
My love for rare books started in college. I was fortunate enough to go to the only school in the world with a 1st (<400 copies), 2nd (<2K copies), and 3rd folio of Shakespeare's plays, and I still remember going into the rare books library for the first time. It was an almost magical experience. I don't think I will ever have a library, but I would love to have enough to fill a temperature and humidity controlled small bookcase at some point. The timing is right too, since baby boomers are going to start selling things off in 10 years, and I plan to be buying then.
Getting back to Huck Finn. My Kindle was dead since I have been reading bound books recently, but It is charged now. I'm taking time today to read a bunch of it, and I'll be back tonight with a few thoughts.
It's Th Sun Also Rises for me, I have a few copies, nothing wild, like you said viking, someday. I'd really like to go for quantity rather than rarity though.
It's Th Sun Also Rises for me, I have a few copies, nothing wild, like you said viking, someday. I'd really like to go for quantity rather than rarity though.
Love that book.
I've actually got that one lined up next. I'm excited. I feel like there is so much I have to catch up on.
Oh, fellow bibliophile, you are a kindred soul. I'm jealous that your alma mater has so many early edition Shakespeare plays. My school's Rare Books collection only has 2 from the Second folio (Twelfth Night and Tymon of Athens), but we do have a 1st ed of Samuel Johnson's dictionary, to the delight of word nerds like me!
As for Huck Finn... maybe re-reading it (1st time was as a kid) will help me with my aversion to early American lit, particularly the Antebellum and Southern Renaissance periods. While I can appreciate the craftsmanship of works by Twain, Faulkner, etc., I generally dislike stories set in the South during those times. And I'm a native Southerner! I'm supposed to embrace the history of my slave-owning ancestors, right?!?
Sigh. This discussion will be good. I feels it in ma bones. ;D