Nov12 cocoafiend needs a nudge

I'm new to this, so I hope it works. Apologies if it doesn't.

I have two side-by-side stacks of 10: one of fiction and one of classics. I'm asking if other LTers could please nudge one and, if necessary, unsuggest (or un-nudge) one for each stack.



Fiction:
The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa
Frida's Bed by Slavenka Drakulic
The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders
Tomorrow by Graham Swift
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Classics:
Emma by Jane Austen
The Aspern Papers & The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Against Nature by J.K. Huysmans
The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr by E.T.A. Hoffman
Notes from the Underground / The Double by Dostoevsky
Oroonoko, The Rover & Other Works by Aphra Behn
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
The New York Stories of Edith Wharton

Thanks for your feedback!

Year of Wonders is awesome.

You can't go wrong with Emma or The Picture of Dorian Gray.

I really enjoyed Year of Wonders, so I nudge that one. I also liked The Picture of Dorian Gray, but it was a very long time ago that I read it.

Emma was my least favourite Austen, so I don't nudge that. I also wasn't a big fan of Gulliver's Travels, but I think it has cultural significance and I'm glad I read it. Oroonoko was somewhat interesting, mainly to see the attitudes towards women and non-Europeans during that time period.

For the classics, I'd recommend The Picture of Dorian Gray. For the fiction, The Invention of Morel.

Thanks, Cariola and Nickelini! Somehow, I've managed to read all the other Austen novels (and some juvenilia and unfinished works), but never Emma... I have some school-related motives for reading Wilde, but feel then there's that nagging urge to complete my education in Austen... It's a tough one. Year of Wonders is the frontrunner in fiction picks - I did enjoy Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book. Thanks again!

Oh, well in that case you should read Emma. After all, you need to complete your set. And after reading all the others, you may really enjoy it. I think part of my problem is that I read it first and didn't know that I could read Austen as funny. It came off as annoying, but I may view it differently if I gave it another chance.

I enjoyed both People of the Book and March (though didn't really see it as a Pulitzer pick) and have heard that Year of Wonders is terrific (it's on my TBR pile), so I'll nudge that. I'll also nudge Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a classic pick. It's so much fun.

Wonderful piles, with some intriguing books, cocoafiend

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland perhaps should be on the classics side- it is a wonderful book and I love to read it over, with different illustrators. That is my favourite in the left pile.

The Picture of Dorian Gray begs to be read, so I will nudge that one for the right side, although the Dostoyevsky and James and Austen are also musts........

Two excellent tbr stacks.
I would first go for The Picture of Dorian Gray (despite my Brit's temptation to spell it Grey - that name has always slightly thrown me) which you should read if you have the opportunity.

The Grass is Singing was Doris Lessing's breakthrough novel, the one that made her international famous and rightly so. A little dated now perhaps but still a brilliant read about a disaffected urban wife struggling to live on a failing isolated farmstead in the wilds of what was once Rhodesia and now is the poor, affllicted country of Zimbabwe.

I can't quite believe that no one has yet mentioned Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. An inventive book with a myriad of narrators linked by one thread, this book made a huge splash a few years back.

Talking of inventive Alice's Adventures in Wonderland always holds up to a reread. Something new seems to pop up as memorable every time you read it.

Notes from Underground is a good place to start if you've never read Dostoyevsky. Not quite as daunting as his classic doorstops but full of that bass, rumbling, underdog melancholia of the Russian soul.

The Umberto Eco I'd nudge off. I've never really got on well with him. Even The Name of the Rose left me underwhelmed (I think I must have missed a lot). I haven't read that particular Graham Swift yet but he is a good writer.

for the classics, i nudge Dostoevsky. as for the fiction, Agualusa whom i've not read (yet) but would like to as wonderful things are being said about his writing. i'll not recommend the Drakulic one -- in my opinion, she writes trashy fiction but she is quite good in journalistic or similar types of writing. if u want to read her at her best, her book S. A Novel About the Balkans is it. It is a powerful story about the oppression of women during the war in the 1990s.

deebee, interesting comments about Slavenka Drakulic. In fact, I've read ONLY her non-fiction, which I enjoyed: Café Europa, Balkan Express and Thank You for Not Reading. I'll have to look out for the one you recommend.

I'm glad to see so many recommendations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - not sure how I got through childhood without reading it, except perhaps that the responsibility lies with my mother and her decision to buy my (non-sexist, non-racist) children's books from the Marxist book table... Geraldine Brooks and Oscar Wilde are also getting a lot of hits.

dylanwolf, thanks for your helpful assessment of so many of my TBRs. My father (a Canadian diplomat) is currently posted in Zimbabwe, so I do have a special interest in the Doris Lessing for that reason - and also because I had heard it was her breakthrough. I was going to travel to Z, but then the election fiasco increased tensions there and my father said it was a bad idea. I have had both Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell recommended to me and just haven't gotten round to them yet. The Umberto Eco intrigued me, I have to confess, because it included so many catchy graphical elements, but I have actually never read him before...

Well, lots of food for thought. Thanks, everyone, for all the feedback so far!

A nudge for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for me, it's a book I love to return to every once in a while. I'm going to give a big un-nudge for Cloud Atlas, didn't like it and couldn't see why it was so popular.

The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr by E.T.A. Hoffmann.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which should perhaps be in the 'Classics' pile, is a book I periodically return to, and I think everybody should read it at least once.
The New York Stories of Edith Wharton is another one I must nudge because, imo, she is a great writer, and you cannot go wrong with anything she wrote.
As much as I like Umberto Eco, I was not really impressed by The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, so I will not nudge it.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland gets the strongest nudge. An absolutely must read, an easy read and a lot of fun to read.

The Grass is Singing is also a well-written book, but I found it very depressing.

The Picture of Dorian Gray I could take or leave, so no nudge for that.

I didn't like Gulliver's Travels at all, but then, I don't like any books I have read by Jonathan Swift, so take that with a grain of salt.

-- M1001

I would nudge Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I just recently reread it and really enjoyed it again.
--BJ

I am a big fan of Graham Swift. His Last Orders truly speaks to me and I have read it more than once. I also loved The Light of Day. I have not yet gotten to Tomorrow but all I read about it is positive and I am very much looking forward to it.

I really liked Cloud Atlas and will nudge that. It sat on my shelves for ages because the bright pink cover was really ugly (how's that for a daft reason to leave a book alone?).

I loved The Grass is Singing; as well as being Lessing's first novel, it was the first of her books that I read, and it made me want to read more. It's not long, but what I admire about Lessing is her ability to say a lot using very few words.

The professor who taught my English Novel class in college thought Emma the finest of all Austen novels, though it never really occurred to me to find out exactly why. At the time it was the first of them for me to read so I had no comparison point. Several Jane Austen novels later, I don't think I could put them into a rank order. All worth reading.

But my nudge here would be for Year of Wonders which I thought was marvelous. Plus I'm just finishing another Geraldine Brooks novel (People of the Book) and so her talents are fresh in my mind.

The professor who taught my English Novel class in college thought Emma the finest of all Austen novels, though it never really occurred to me to find out exactly why. At the time it was the first of them for me to read so I had no comparison point. Several Jane Austen novels later, I don't think I could put them into a rank order. All worth reading.

But my nudge here would be for Year of Wonders which I thought was marvelous. Plus I'm just finishing another Geraldine Brooks novel (People of the Book) and so her talents are fresh in my mind.

The Rover is my favorite play. I would go for that one. Aphra Behn was ahead of her time. The Picture of Dorian Grey is also excellent.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the only one in your left hand pile that I've read, and it's a delightful read as an adult, so I'm going to nudge that. On the classics side, Emma is the only Austen that I really DIDN"T like (mostly because I found Emma herself annoying -- the writing is wonderful,) but if you haven't read it, you should. Call it a back-handed nudge. Ihaven't read The Aspern Papers, but if you're in the mood for a good psychological ghost story, The Turn of the Screw is terrific short read.

I'll nudge Year of Wonders as I loved it too.

And from your classics pile it's a difficult choice. I'm tempted to go for Emma, but I love Edith Wharton's writing so I am nudging New York Storiesas a complete contrast to the first book.

I'll also nudge Year of Wonders - I read it last year for a book group I belonged to and the group opinion of the book was unanimous - 5 stars...

I will also nudge The New York Stories of Edith Wharton simply because Edith Wharton is one of the great writers of the 20th century as earlier stated..

cocoafiend (great name), I have to nudge Cloud Atlas. Beautiful book, and I really loved the way he tied the threads together.

Cloud Atlas has an unusual structure, but I persisted, and loved it.
I also loved The Picture of Dorian Gray and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Wow, I can tell this is going to be a really difficult decision. There's such a variety of opinions out there... I'm not sure if the choice is typically guided strictly by mathematics (the greatest number of nudges, taking into consideration any un-nudges - so Cloud Atlas would be 4-1=3, for example, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 10). Any thoughts? Anyway, there's still time to gather feedback! Thanks, everyone!

I loved Cloud Atlas - it was one of my favourite books last year!

Of course I have to nudge The life and opinions of the tomcat Murr!!!!!!!!! , and from the other pile I would also recommend Cloud Atlas.

Wow! That has to be the best pile I've seen so far! I'm tempted by The Grass Is Singing (and I'd love to chat about it when you've done - if you do), Year of Wonders, Cloud Atlas, Alice, Emma and Dorian Gray. Even of the others I have read that don't make the nudge pile, none is so bad as to be non-nudged. In the end I'm going to go for Cloud Atlas and Dorian Gray. Whatever you pick, you've got several weeks of great reading ahead of you there!

Duplicate message deleted. Strange things are happening here.

One aspect of book nudging I've noticed is that other people's tbr piles sometimes send you scuttling off to research a bit about a book on the stack that you haven't ever heard of, let alone read. I've posted my nudges earlier on in this thread but now I'm intrigued by The Book of Chameleons which I see won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007. There are some admiring reviews for it in LT and so there goes one more book onto my list of books to look out for! Thank you, Cocoafiend.

Oh read Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass while you're at it. Both are hysterically funny. Three years ago (or was it two), I played the three of clubs in my then school's production of Alice. The role was particularly demanding for me since I had to spend three scenes onstage in complete silence, impersonating a mindless servant of the state.

How anybody can think Lewis Carroll is funny is beyond... Hang on, I've a sudden surge of deja vu.

*backs slowly out of thread*

tomcatmurr, i wondered whether you might weigh in on the Hoffmann... thanks, Booksloth, dylanwolf and urania1 - you're helping me get really excited about my books. If only I had a time-turner like Hermione Granger...

I myself just discovered The Book of Chameleons about 10 days ago and have also noticed that it's been getting great press and word-of-mouth. More nudges for Cloud Atlas from torontoc and Booksloth, but interestingly this is also one of the only books to receive an UN-nudge... What can it mean? If Alice wins, which it might, in the left pile, I'm wondering what to do about the fact that it probably belongs in the right, Classics, pile... Perhaps I'll read it AND whatever comes in second place...

who is kevin?

What I suspect it means (the thing about Cloud Atlas) is that it is very 'different'. I wouldn't go so far as to call it 'experimental fiction' exactly - because that always suggests to me a book where story and character both get sacrificed to form, and that certainly doesn't happen here. If you prefer the same old format again and again then give this one a miss. On the other hand, if you like something just a bit adventurous now and then you're in for a treat.

Another vote for Year of Wonders. Loved it!

#38 Kevin, Cocoafiend, is the founder of this thread, also known as Dylanwolf. And you obviously missed the hilarious part of Urania1's thread in which we had a discussion about the funniness or unfunniness of Kafka. So Kevin is being hilarious again. I laughed hard, anyway. Thanks, Kevin.

Actually, I am the founder of this thread, and last time I checked, my name wasn't Kevin. I'm amenable, though. A sex-change might be fun! I did see the Kafka discussion, and since I'm writing my dissertation on two melancholic authors, I take umbrage at the suggestion that melancholia and humour are mutually exclusive. The Bell Jar is a very funny book...

Another nudge for Alice in Wonderland, and though you really should read Emma, I'd like to put in a word for The Tale of Genji. It's quite fascinating, though the pacing is not what Westerners are used to. It looks like you might have an abridged version there, though. (Mine's about two inches thick.)

The opportunity for which I've been waiting, the moment to offer the nudge you didn't ask for and probably don't want: The Anatomy of Melancholy, which begins with an invocation to the laughing philosopher Democritus. Reasons to read the weighty 17th-century text/tome? (1) The best bathroom reading ever, even better than Emily Post's Book of Etiquette - with this caveat - Anatomy is not as effective with constipation as Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. (I speak from experience. Chemotherapy can do weird things to one's fecal transit time. Gibbon is a comfort at such times.) (2) Your friends will all think you have high eyebrows when they visit your bathroom - if you have friends that is. (3) In addition to anatomizing melancholy, Burton's book contains a veritable cornucopia of naughty anecdotes (also comforting when one has the bathroom blues). (4) So amusing that you have an excellent excuse to tie up the bathroom for hours.

Excuse me. I must head to the loo.

>42 cocoafiend: Cocoafiend - Andrew (polutropos) has confused you. He is referring to me - Kevin aka dylanwolf. He does understand that you initiated the thread. It is my fault really. We'd just had a silly/passionate chat about whether Kafka could be funny... on another thread - I'd been taking a zero tolerance NO viewpoint - and when I spotted Andrew had commented that he found Alice funny on your thread I couldn't resist. Hence Andrew and Paola (aluvalibri)'s loud protestations!

Just for the record I love Alice and it is very funny as well as charming and magical.

#38, 41, 45

I apologize cocoafiend, yes, I was not clear at all, and I will try it one more time. While of course YOU are the founder of this thread, and your name may or may not be Kevin and the sex-change business I will leave up to you LOL, and I am most pleased with your comment that melancholia and humour are not exclusive, what I was trying to say is that Kevin Dylanwolf is the originator of the whole BookNudging Group. And then the loud yelling at him in #35 and #36 refers to a Kafka discussion on urania1's thread.

I hope that clears it up.

Well, I'm glad we cleared that up!

#38, you asked for more on The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr.
This is a wonderful book, fresh, witty and astonshingly (post?) modern considering it was written in 1819. The story involves romantic and diplomatic shenanigans between and within small central European principalities. There is a lot of bodice ripping, hiding in closets, furious carriage chases, balls, hunts and so on. It’s all very Stendahlian. However, the book has suffered at the hands of an inept printer with lax standards of quality control, and has been inadvertently printed and bound together with pages from the autobiography of a very remarkable tomcat, the eponymous Murr. Murr is an adventurer, a musician and a philosopher and his life story is a very entertaining and yet also thought provoking read. The book switches abruptly between these two different stories, and there is no connection between them (or is there?). Murr is not the author of the romance (or is he?) and the romance has nothing to do with Murr’s life (or does it?).

Hoffman was an extraordinary figure, and has been rather neglected by the English speaking world. Apart from his famous tales and Murr, most of his work still remains untranslated into English as far as as I know. His short story: Das Unheimliche Gast gave rise to the genre of the uncanny and had a huge influence on writers as diverse as Henry James, Poe, Conrad, and that hilarious comic genius Kafka. He was also a composer, lawyer, musicologist and draughtsman.

A huge nudge for Murr!

And may I take this opportunity to respectfully warn everyone against reading on the toilet, Urania1 notwithstanding. Painful and long lasting hemorrhoids are likely to result.

that hilarious comic genius Kafka

You slay me, tomcatMurr!

OH, I get it - dylanwolf founded BookNudgers. Well done!

Urania1, yes, I have long been eyeing the mighty tome whereof you speak. My dissertation makes use of more contemporary critical and psychoanalytic theory, but I have heard that Burton is wonderful, if unwieldy. The problem is my intense fear of long books (500+ pages). I've been skittish ever since I had to read the footnoted 880-page Daniel Deronda, and Gillian Rose philosophy, AND Hannah Arendt on anti-semitism in a single week in order to prepare an oral presentation. That was a terrible week. And I still have not read anymore George Eliot even though I enjoyed her work. Traumatized, I guess. Hmmm. I will have to ponder this some more. Perhaps I will purchase the book and a year hence you'll spot it in my TBR photo.

joiedelivre, yes, my Tale of Genji is abridged. I had the option of going for non-abridged, but knew I couldn't hack it (see above).

TomcatMurr, you make this book sound delightful! No wonder you lifted your username from Hoffmann. I have read his Tales a couple of times and of course used The Sandman and Freud's essay on the uncanny in my MA on Sylvia Plath and the uncanny. Ackk - so many books, so little immortality...

I seem to have missed this thread somehow ... plenty I haven't read yet here, but of those I have, I nudge Notes from Underground, The Turn of the Screw (I haven't read The Aspern Papers) and The Invention of Morel. Bioy Casares was a close associate of Borges and his reputation tends to suffer by comparison, but he was a fine writer on his own terms. Also, while I haven't read The New York Stories of Edith Wharton, I have very much enjoyed everything else I've read by her.

cocoafind, ignore tomcatMurr's alarmist comments about bathroom reading. I speak from long experience. Toilet reading does not give one hemorrhoids. If Murr has hemorrhoids, his diet probably lacks sufficient fiber. Freshly ground whole wheat bread with a bit of flax seed thrown in for good measure results prevents undue strain and results in remarkable results (the kind about which you can write home with pride . . . if the sainted relics have strong stomachs). The beauty of The Anatomy of Melancholy is that it is a bit like an encyclopedia of 17th-century culture and trivia. You do not have to read it all in one sitting. It is not even necessary to read it sequentially, once you grasp the set-up. You can dip in and out as you please.

I am very excited to see The Book Of Chameleons on a to-be-nudged pile, as it's the book that I am currently running around pressing on all my friends (who, I imagine, nod gently, take the book from me, and add it to the pile at the back of the cupboard). It's fantastic - beautifully written, witty and surreal, but also likely to lead to very interesting trains of thought about individuals' personal histories and whether it's important that the stories we tell about ourselves are true. Big nudge, for cocoafiend and for all the others who have said that they are thinking about reading it...

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

tricky, but if my calculations are correct, these are the tallies:

FICTION:
11 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - probably mis-categorized
8 - Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
5 - Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (6 minus one UN-nudge)
3 - The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
3 - The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa
2 - The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
2 - Tomorrow by Graham Swift
-1 - Frida's Bed by Slavenka Drakulic (UN-nudged)
-2 - The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco (twice UN-nudged)
No action: In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders

CLASSICS - where Alice probably belongs...
8 - The Picture of Dorian Gray by Edgar Allan Poe
6 - Emma by Jane Austen
3 - New York Stories of Edith Wharton
3 - Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
2 - The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr by E.T.A. Hoffman
2 - The Rover, Oroonoko and Other Works by Aphra Behn
2 - The Aspern Papers and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
1 - Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
-1 - Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (one UN-nudge)
No Action: Against Nature by J.K. Huysmans

So... I'm going to read Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks from the FICTION pile, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll re-assigned to the CLASSICS pile.

Thanks everyone, for your feedback! Rest assured the rest of these books are still at the top of my TBR list, and I've put The Grass is Singing, The Book of Chameleons, The Invention of Morel, New York Stories and The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr on my 999 Challenge List!