May '13 / David Lodge Reading Poll

[Scheherazade]

Please nominate the David Lodge book you would like to read in May by April 15th.

Please remember that:

- Only those members with 50+ posts can nominate.

- One nomination per member.

- Only the first 5 nominations will be included in the poll.


The Book Club readings are for those who would like to read and discuss books together with other members.

If you are not able to take part or unwilling to (re)read your own nominations, please refrain from nominating book.

[Charles Darnay]

The Campus Trilogy has been on my list for a few months now - so I'll jump in on this one (I'm in my annual floating casually through books phase that I need to get out of) &c. &c.

So I nominate Changing Places.

[kev67]

The Campus Trilogy has been on my list for a few months now - so I'll jump in on this one (I'm in my annual floating casually through books phase that I need to get out of) &c. &c.

So I nominate Changing Places.

I am not going to nominate a book because I am not going to take part. Just going to say all the books in The Campus Trilogy are good reads.

[Scheherazade]

Author! Author!

[Scheherazade]

Nominations so far:

1. Changing Places

2. Author! Author!


Haven't read Lodge before so will read whatever book is chosen.

[chrisvia]

I'm having fun participating in the Cormac McCarthy discussion, and I'd love to continue in May (especially since I, too, haven't read Lodge), but (a) I missed the 4/15 deadline; and (b) I just started a study of Don Quixote, and I'm not sure I'll be done with it by the end of May!

But I just bought a copy of the Campus trilogy!

[Scheherazade]

Hope you can make it, Chrisvia.

You can now vote for choice.

[Scheherazade]

Am I going to be reading this alone???

[kev67]

I could possibly be tempted to read A Man of Parts, which is David Lodge's book about H.G. Wells. I have already read the campus trilogy. Nice Work was the best, imo. I read Author Author last year, which was also very good. I'd discuss it with you if you want to read it, but I don't think I want to read it again.

[Scheherazade]

I could possibly be tempted to read A Man of Parts, which is David Lodge's book about H.G. Wells.

You should have nominated it, Kev!

If no one else wants to take part, I will probably be reading Author, Author on my own; I am quite intrigued by Henry James even though I have not read many books by him.

[Scheherazade]

Going once...

[neilgee]

I could possibly be tempted to read A Man of Parts, which is David Lodge's book about H.G. Wells. I have already read the campus trilogy. Nice Work was the best, imo. I read Author Author last year, which was also very good. I'd discuss it with you if you want to read it, but I don't think I want to read it again.

I would have been tempted to read that too, as it is I've already read both the nominations. I think Lodge is a better story teller in his own right (Changing Places) than he is a biographer of other story tellers (Author, author), but for Wells I would be interested enough to chance it. You really should have nominated that one.

[kev67]

I would have been tempted to read that too, as it is I've already read both the nominations. I think Lodge is a better story teller in his own right (Changing Places) than he is a biographer of other story tellers (Author, author), but for Wells I would be interested enough to chance it. You really should have nominated that one.

Maybe I should have, but I have so many books on my bookcase waiting to be read. I will probably get around to reading it eventually.

Both Changing Places and Author! Author! are particularly interesting if you are interested in literature about literature. Several of the protagonists in Changing Places are academics in English. I particularly liked the advice one of them reads in a book about how to end a story. However, of that trilogy, I think Nice Work is the best.

Author! Author! is interesting to people interested in literature about literature because it refers to other authors and their books and the divergence that was developing at the time between writing as entertainment and writing as art. There have been several fictionalized accounts of Henry James' life in recent years. Apart from Author! Author! by David Lodge, there was a book by Colm Tóibín titled The Master, which was good enough to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and Felony by Emma Tennant.

[Scheherazade]

Going twice...

[neilgee]

Maybe I should have, but I have so many books on my bookcase waiting to be read. I will probably get around to reading it eventually.

Both Changing Places and Author! Author! are particularly interesting if you are interested in literature about literature. Several of the protagonists in Changing Places are academics in English. I particularly liked the advice one of them reads in a book about how to end a story. However, of that trilogy, I think Nice Work is the best.

Author! Author! is interesting to people interested in literature about literature because it refers to other authors and their books and the divergence that was developing at the time between writing as entertainment and writing as art. There have been several fictionalized accounts of Henry James' life in recent years. Apart from Author! Author! by David Lodge, there was a book by Colm Tóibín titled The Master, which was good enough to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and Felony by Emma Tennant.

I agree Nice Work is a particularly charming novel, and I've seen Changing Places described as a "campus novel".

One critic rather cruelly I thought made a disparaging comparison between Lodge's prose and that of "the master" (James) when quotations are used, calling the quotations "the real thing" - I didn't think it was that bad, just not worth reading twice, book of the month or not.