January/Hemingway Reading Poll

[Scheherazade]

During January we will be reading a book by Hemingway. Please vote for the book you would like to read by January 31st.

Farewell to Arms (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684801469/qid=1133401764/sr=8-3/ref=pd_bbs_3/104-6361943-0939138?n=507846&s=books&v=glance)

For Whom the Bell Tolls (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684803356/qid=1133401764/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-6361943-0939138?n=507846&s=books&v=glance)

The Old Man and the Sea (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684801221/qid=1133401764/sr=8-5/ref=pd_bbs_5/104-6361943-0939138?n=507846&s=books&v=glance)

The Sun Also Rises (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684800713/qid=1133402505/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-6361943-0939138?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)

Across the River and into the Trees (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684825538/qid=1133402098/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-6361943-0939138?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)

The Garden of Eden (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684804522/qid=1133402138/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/104-6361943-0939138?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)

True at First Light (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684849216/qid=1133402205/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-6361943-0939138?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)

The Torrents of Spring (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684839075/qid=1133402250/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-6361943-0939138?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)

To Have or Have Not (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684818981/qid=1133402288/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-6361943-0939138?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)

Under Kilimanjaro (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0873388453/qid=1133402334/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-6361943-0939138?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)




Book Club Procedures (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?p=57103#post57103)

[Nightshade]

What! no happy endings :eek: !!

[Shea]

I've actually never read Hemingway. I've chosen The Old Man and the Sea because the description on the cover made me think of Toilers of the Sea by Hugo and Moby Dick by Melville; two novels that I loved.

[Kiwi Shelf]

Gah, Old Man and the Sea can not win. That book drives me wacko!!!! It is about a guy, in a boat, catching a fish!!!! I need more than that. Yes, there are some morals and mumble jumble, but when you get down to it... it is a guy, in a boat, catching a fish.... Maybe this is why classics end up boring me?

[B-Mental]

I've pretty much read it all except for the Garden of Eden.

[starrwriter]

I've pretty much read it all except for the Garden of Eden.
"Garden" is a terrible book that Hemingway never tried to publish when he was alive. It is like a very rough first draft of a novel.

[Virgil]

Oh, there's good Hemingway and bad Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms is good Hemingway. The best Hemingway is his short stories. On balance, I think he's a better short story writer than novelist.

[papayahed]

How can I choose just one???

[Nightshade]

somebody tell me which one to choose first one to pm with a choice and a reason Ill vote for

:D

[Virgil]

Choose A Farewell to Arms; it's got a good love story.

[Shea]

I just hope that if we choose a love story, it won't be as graphic as the November book.

[Virgil]

I don't know what the November pick was, but A Farewell to Arms is not graphic at all.

[applepie]

I don't know what the November pick was, but A Farewell to Arms is not graphic at all.

Nope, nothing graphic about A Farewell to Arms. It's been a few years since I read it, but if I remember properly it was an enjoyable book as long as you like Hemingway.

[starrwriter]

I just hope that if we choose a love story, it won't be as graphic as the November book.
I got a laugh out of your remark. For a writer who lived such a bohemian life, Hemingway was amazingly ungraphic about sex in his three love story novels. Unless you consider "and the earth moved" graphic. That's about as far as he ever went.

You would definitely have trouble reading "Lady Chatterly's Lover" by D. H. Lawrence. It would probably set your eyebrows on fire.

[Shea]

:lol: :blush: I know I'm rather prudish. I've never had a desire to read Lady Chatterly's Lover either :lol: . After trying to read, Love in the Time of Cholera, I've been skeptical about picking up another 20th century book with love in it until I've had the chance to recover.

Thanks for the reasurrance. :D

[emily655321]

Ugh ... Hemingway. :sick: I want to participate, since I really should give Hemingway a second chance to win my favor, but I don't know what to vote for. I've been warned about how boring Old Man and The Sea is, and I don't like love stories, but aside from that...? Just don't pick The Sun Also Rises. I've had the misfortune of reading that one already.

[papayahed]

I've been warned about how boring Old Man and The Sea

Old Man and The Sea is anything but boring!!!!! Plus it's fairly short.

[B-Mental]

I don't know what the November pick was, but A Farewell to Arms is not graphic at all.
I don't know but there was definitely some earth moving goin' on, dig? It was my first and probably my favorite, but I went in kicking and screaming and ended up truly enjoying them all.

[Kiwi Shelf]

Old Man and The Sea is anything but boring!!!!! Plus it's fairly short.

I found it boring...

[papayahed]

I found it boring...

Well, we can't all be perfect. ;) :p

[Jay]

I liked The Old Man And The Sea. It might be about 'a man in a boat catching a fish' but it's not boring. And no, I'm not that keen on fishing ;)

[starrwriter]

I found it boring...
Most women don't like fishing stories. It's a guy thing. I've been a fisherman since I was 4 years old and to me it's a genuine thrill to hook into a big fish. I don't eat much fish, but I love catching them. The mysterious tug on the line, like a coded message from The Deep ...

"The Old Man and the Sea" has an interesting origin. In 1938 Hemingway was driving around Cuba when he stopped in a seaside village to get a drink. In front of the bar he saw an old Cuban fisherman cutting loose a giant marlin that was tied to his boat. The marlin had obviously been attacked by sharks since chunks of flesh were missing and much of the fish was nothing but bones.

Hemingway carried the memory for 15 years before he finally used it as the basis to write the novel. By then he was 54 and it was the last good fiction book he ever wrote. It won the Pulitzer Prize and led to his winning the Nobel Prize in Literature (which he said should have been given to Isak Dinesen that year instead of him.)

[Kiwi Shelf]

Maybe that is how it is... I don't know, I read that book a few years ago and I was so glad when it was over!!!

[starrwriter]

I liked The Old Man And The Sea. It might be about 'a man in a boat catching a fish' but it's not boring. And no, I'm not that keen on fishing.
If you want to get analytical, it's not really about a man catching a fish. It's about Man Being Destroyed But Not Defeated (Hemingway's main theme in all of his writing.)

[Shea]

I like your description Star. I'll probably read it even if we don't vote for it.

[Kiwi Shelf]

I said I know it has all sorts of points to it, but it is still boring!!!

[Lautschrift]

The old man and the sea
I read the book and saw the movie
Depends on what one considers boring, i personaly admired the old mans courage and determination. It was not so much about fishing but the spirit of fight ,which in this case was equal
i was rather touched for there is so much more to this book then fishing and a old man

I have never read: The Sun Also Rises
Also, i do not know, what the book is about.
i must say , i look forward to a reading online (is that what we are going to do?)
thank you Scheherazade

[emily655321]

Most women don't like fishing stories. It's a guy thing. I've been a fisherman since I was 4 years old and to me it's a genuine thrill to hook into a big fish.
I dunno. Probably more of a guy thing than it is a girl thing, but certainly not universally so. Neither my dad, nor my boyfriend, nor most of my male friends, would be caught dead with a fishing pole. I'd say it's more of a male stereotype than it is a reality.

[Darlin]

The old man and the sea
I read the book and saw the movie
Depends on what one considers boring, i personaly admired the old mans courage and determination. It was not so much about fishing but the spirit of fight ,which in this case was equal
i was rather touched for there is so much more to this book then fishing and a old man

I have never read: The Sun Also Rises
Also, i do not know, what the book is about.
i must say , i look forward to a reading online (is that what we are going to do?)
thank you Scheherazade

We won't be reading it online, Lautschrift. Everyone just comments on the story as they read it or after they read it. But there will be a short story read for Xmas while everyone's online so they can chat about it. That's in a different thread though.

[Lautschrift]

We won't be reading it online, Lautschrift. Everyone just comments on the story as they read it or after they read it. But there will be a short story read for Xmas while everyone's online so they can chat about it. That's in a different thread though.

thank you , i am glad you responded for i was a bit lost
still ,forgive me being novice
the book with the higest % will be the one to read???

could you send me the xmas story info? pretty please

[Kiwi Shelf]

hm, I just this night remembered that I think I may have a Hemmingway in my to read pile. It was a "it might come up in school read" for a quarter. heh. I will look, if that book wins I will read because it will eradicate one novel from my pile. Exams kill my reading for like two months, it sucks. I am going to go look now...

[emily655321]

thank you , i am glad you responded for i was a bit lost
still ,forgive me being novice
the book with the higest % will be the one to read???

could you send me the xmas story info? pretty please
Here you are:
http://online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?p=133420#post133420

[Lautschrift]

thank you :nod:

[Sandrine]

Well, I voted for A Farewell To Arms because I really liked that book when I read it in high school. To be completely honest, I have a vague recollection that I might have harbored a small crush on Henry. I also loved the Sun Also Rises but I don't remember much of it. Right now I'm reading A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway and I'm really loving it. I was disappointed it was not one of the options on the poll, but then it's not really a continuous story, is it? :D

Has anyone else read many of his short stories like The Killers, A Very Short Story, A Clean Well-Lighted Place or Hills Like White Elephants? I love a lot of those...

[starrwriter]

I was disappointed it [A Moveable Feast] was not one of the options on the poll ...
It's a non-fiction memoir and I assumed this thread was about Hemingway's fiction.


Has anyone else read many of his short stories like The Killers, A Very Short Story, A Clean Well-Lighted Place or Hills Like White Elephants? I love a lot of those...
I also like two short stories set in Africa -- The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber -- and the Nick Adams stories set in Michigan (Big Two-Hearted River, The End of Something, etc.)