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[nakedsushi]

My vote is for Franny & Zooey, sorry Cyan. I read the synopsis of Happiness Project and it sounds like something I'd get annoyed reading.

 

[Pau]

The Happiness Project just seems like one of those "oh let me take a year off and write about the amazing (trite) revelations I luckily had" books. I'm very suspicious of it being compared to the likes of Eat, Pray, Love. I'm not getting the appeal here, so maybe I'm missing something. Why are you so keen to read this book with the club?

I agree that reading non fiction would be a great idea, but I don't personally have anything to recommend. It'd be nice to read something challenging so that we could get a good discussion going. Then again, I don't know if that would then limit the number of people participating, and we seem to have so few already.

As for The Goon Squad, I didn't like it quite as much as everyone else here. The one thing I absolutely did love was how Egan played with the structure. The vignettes didn't feel disjointed at all, which is surprising considering that some were probably first conceived as stand-alone stories. (Thanks Guileless for mentioning the copyright thing. Would have never thought to look myself.)

Otherwise, I felt the book was well... adequate might be the word I'm looking for? I felt like it followed through with its themes well enough but that's it, really. The only part I disliked was the ending. Was I the only person who found the last chapter rather obnoxious? I don't have my copy with me, but there was a particular section about certain words that were no longer used (I think freedom was one of them?) that I felt was particularly heavy-handed.

Don't want to sound completely negative so I will say that I'm glad I read it for the unique structure, and I'm glad everyone else found it more worthwhile.

 

[nakedsushi]

The Happiness Project just seems like one of those "oh let me take a year off and write about the amazing (trite) revelations I luckily had" books. I'm very suspicious of it being compared to the likes of Eat, Pray, Love. I'm not getting the appeal here, so maybe I'm missing something. Why are you so keen to read this book with the club?

My thoughts exactly. Reading the comparisons to Eat, Pray, Love is what made me not want to read it. I'd love to hear your reason for suggesting it too, Cyan. It seems like a departure from what you usually read, so maybe that's reason enough.

 

[Guileless]

I agree that the last chapter was a bit heavy-handed. Only false note in the book for me.

Egan wanted to end on a down note.

 

[Maklershed]

I'd like to nominate ...


Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

An old woman tells the story of her life as a slave.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003M5IGFG/?tag=neogaf0e-20

 

[Cyan]

My thoughts exactly. Reading the comparisons to Eat, Pray, Love is what made me not want to read it. I'd love to hear your reason for suggesting it too, Cyan. It seems like a departure from what you usually read, so maybe that's reason enough.

I majored in cog sci, and always love to learn more about the human brain. I've especially been fascinated in the concept of happiness, in what we think makes us happy and what actually makes us happy and why the two are so different.

This book looks to be much more superficial than that, more your standard "do x for a year" gimmick book--but it concerns a subject that I love reading about. And it does it without appearing to be too self-helpy, if you know what I mean. So, that's why it interests me.

I agree that the last chapter was a bit heavy-handed. Only false note in the book for me.

Egan wanted to end on a down note.

I wasn't super-keen on the last chapter either, though it was the futuristic stuff that didn't really do it for me. But I interpreted the ending somewhat differently--I felt it was more of a torch-passing still-hope-for-the-future moment. Yes, we're fading away, but life goes on.

 

[nakedsushi]

Guess which book got picked for the official site-wide bookclub on Goodreads? =D

http://www.goodreads.com/bookclub

 

[Cyan]

Guess which book got picked for the official site-wide bookclub on Goodreads? =D

http://www.goodreads.com/bookclub

We are so ahead of the curve.

Ok, so on the votes, we've got 2 for Happiness Project, 1 for Franny & Zooey, 1 for Someone Knows My Name.

Let's get a few more votes in!

 

[Timedog]

I need to get on this.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Boy I am really not liking the prose here.

 

[ngower]

I'd put in a vote for Franny and Zooey, but I couldn't guarantee I'd actually be reading along with you guys. Still, it's been on my to-do list for a while now, I've always wanted to read some more Salinger than Catcher.

 

[Cyan]

Ok, it's looking like Happiness Project by the vast margin of 2-1-1.

 

[Maklershed]

Sounds good to me. I'm gonna order it right now.

EDIT: Looks like I'm ordering a physical copy since its $1 cheaper than the Kindle version.

 

[Cyan]

New thread up!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=431847