The Votes Are In! June 30, 2010 3:51 PM   Subscribe

For those dying to know which is the next choice of the MetaFilter Book Club on the U.S. Novel post 1945, the votes have been counted! And to my surprise, On the Road edged ahead as the next MeFi Book Club choice. Please begin reading soon, and find time to review the two Yale Prof. Amy Hungerford lectures on the book. The MetaChat thread to discuss the book will go up on August 16.

Fear not, Pynchon lovers, we will vote again on our next book after the August 16 MeCha thread winds down.
posted by bearwife to MetaFilter Gatherings at 3:51 PM (19 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

Unwashed savages, I shall make sure you're off the list for afternoon tea!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:57 PM on June 30, 2010


For those who -- understandably -- doubt my math, here is my tally:

Blood Meridian : Bookhouse = 1

On the Road: = 14
IriG rorriM
malapropist
ThatCanadianGirl
NoraReed
roll truck roll
lilac girl
nevercalm
Jagz-Mario
octobersurprise
nestor makhno
Infinite Jest
thankyouforyourconsideration
mondaygreens
Danf

Crying of Lot 49 = 12
Brandon Blatcher
Tomorrowful
bearwife
shakespeherian
malapropist
arachnid
reductiondesign
ChuraChura
Infinite Jest
mondaygreens
xod
suedehead

The Odyssey: = 2
Devils Rancher
malapropist

Franny and Zooey = 1
thankyouforyourconsideration
posted by bearwife at 3:58 PM on June 30, 2010


Oh, that's such bull, I rigged the voting box and bribed people!!!

How is society supposed to hold together if people can't be bought and stay bought?!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:01 PM on June 30, 2010


You didn't count my vote for Crying of Lot 49?
posted by matildaben at 4:06 PM on June 30, 2010


Is it too late to vote for Lot 49? Because I will do it to spite Jack Kerouac's corpse.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 4:15 PM on June 30, 2010


I am sorry, matildaben. You cast an anti On the Road vote, but didn't actually say you wanted to read any other book, including Crying of Lot 49.

Clearly this is Brandon Blatcher's fault (and I will note he voted THREE times for Crying, though I only gave him one vote) for not explaining his bribes well enough.

On the Road still edges Pynchon when I belatedly include you, too . . .

and of course please join us for the next book choice!
posted by bearwife at 4:17 PM on June 30, 2010


Um, yes, the polling booth is closed until reopening after August 16 . . . sorry Alvy Ampersand!

Please note that I didn't vote for On the Road myself . . .
posted by bearwife at 4:18 PM on June 30, 2010


Fine. Read your book. I tried to save you, I tried to save you all!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 4:22 PM on June 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Pynchon lost out to Kerouac? Well, Pynchon said it best:

"Ay, Chavalito!" screeched the parrot Joaquin, in some inaccessible dark frenzy from his cage, which was being loaded onto a pack mule, "we are in some mierda, pendejo."
posted by geoff. at 4:41 PM on June 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


Cool. I've attempted to read this book twice but never finished, but I think I will this time.
posted by alligatorman at 6:49 PM on June 30, 2010


No worries. See you next time around.
posted by matildaben at 6:53 PM on June 30, 2010


Wow, I'm the only one who would serious join in just because it is Kerouac?

Explains why I'm usually a book club of one.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 3:32 AM on July 1, 2010


To be fair, I wasn't really voting for The Odyssey -- I was more poking fun at how long it was taking me to read the damn thing. I've temporarily set it aside for a little light reading -- The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, by Edward R. Tufte. (not a useful book club choice, unless we all want to graph out enjoyment of it with multi-variable data sets)
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:39 AM on July 1, 2010


Cool, I'm excited! Thanks, bearwife.

But if there's going to be a fallout over this one, next time maybe we can use the main course to lay out all the book choices and let people just vote - so everyone knows what they're doing. Or at the end of this one someone can take responsibility for the next time, so bearwife doesn't get automatically saddled with it.

(Like, I wasn't even sure I could just be *in* the book-club, let alone get counted. Now I just have to get MetaChat approval.:)
posted by mondaygreens at 6:31 AM on July 1, 2010


Spolier alert: Dean Moriarity is Neal Cassidy. He drove the Prankster's bus!
posted by fixedgear at 7:59 AM on July 1, 2010


thanks for putting this together bearwife!
posted by thankyouforyourconsideration at 8:06 AM on July 1, 2010


How I have increased my understanding of the visual display of quantitative information: Expressed as a graph.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:50 PM on July 1, 2010 [3 favorites]


Do I actually have to read it again or can I just draw on my (admittedly fuzzy) recollections of the summer of 1991?
posted by fshgrl at 12:02 AM on July 2, 2010


Fuzzy recollection is fine with me, fshgrl.

I just got the book last night. It was rather dramatic: there my husband and I were, watching the Mariners-Yankees game, at about 9 p.m., when suddenly the doorbell rang. Our dog leapt in a single bound from a sound sleep to alert position in front of the door, barking madly. My husband opened the door, to be silently handed a package by a delivery man who addressed him as "Mr. Bearwife" (not his last name) and left. My husband gave me the package, and he and our dog stared intently as I opened it.

Drumroll.

It was a bit of a letdown to find my edition of our assignment inside.

Reading begins tonight for me, for the first time. I hope Kerouac isn't really as much of a blowhard as I've heard.
posted by bearwife at 10:03 AM on July 2, 2010


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