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| | | | | 19554.2 in reply to 19554.1 | |
Hello,
It's time again to pick the next book the Avid Reader Book Club will read.
The choices for April are inspired by our Funniest Books According to the British feature. Each book has come highly recommended by AbeBooks' British readers! The choices are:
A)Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Jerome K. Jerome's comic classic Three Men in a Boat (To say nothing of the Dog!) is unsinkable. One of the most widely read and beloved works of British fiction it has never fallen out of print since it first came out in 1889, but rather has been translated into many languages and even turned into a teleplay by Tom Stoppard.
The most ordinary circumstances turn hilarious as J., an idler who exhibits a "general disinclination to work of any kind," and his friends journey up the Thames River. Getting into many scrapes along the way, the friends consider "assaulting a policeman" just to have "a night's lodging in the station-house," when they get lost, but ultimately reject the proposition, fearful that he would hit them back without locking them up. The real scene stealer, though, is Montmorency, a small fox terrier who appears to be "born with about four times as much original sin in [him] as other dogs are."
B)My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu. My Family and Other Animals was intended to embrace the natural history of the island but ended up as a delightful account of Durrell's family's experiences, from the many eccentric hangers-on to the ceaseless procession of puppies, toads, scorpions, geckoes, ladybugs, glowworms, octopuses, bats, and butterflies into their home.
C)Thank You, Jeeves! by P.G. Wodehouse
Thank You, Jeeves is the first novel to feature the incomparable valet Jeeves and his hapless charge Bertie Wooster – and you’ve hardly started to turn the pages when he resigns over Bertie’s dedicated but somewhat untuneful playing of the banjo. In high dudgeon, Bertie disappears to the country as a guest of his chum Chuffy – only to find his peace shattered by the arrival of his ex-fiancée Pauline Stoker, her formidable father and the eminent loony-doctor Sir Roderick Glossop. When Chuffy falls in love with Pauline and Bertie seems to be caught in flagrante, a situation boils up which only Jeeves (whether employed or not) can simmer down…
The poll will remain open until Wednesday, March 18 and the results will be announced shortly after that.
Yours in anticipation,
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| | | | | 19554.3 in reply to 19554.1 | |
Well, I just checked out 3 Men and a Boat from the library for the first time - before I saw this thread - but I really love the other two books as well, so I'll be happy no matter the outcome!
allegria_joy |
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| | | | | 19554.5 in reply to 19554.1 | |
I've voted for "My Family...", but would be just as happy with "Three Men...". I've read both more than once, but another go is always good value.
'lette |
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| From: | KathleenS | 3/18/2009 4:40 pm |
| To: | ALL |
 Poll (7 of 9) | | | | 19554.7 in reply to 19554.1 | |
Well that was a VERY close vote. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat won by just two votes!
Believe it or not, April is just a couple of weeks away so you may to order your copy now to have it on hand for when the Book Club starts reading.
See available copies of Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Thanks to everyone who took the time to select the next book!
Cheers, |
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| | | | | 19554.8 in reply to 19554.5 | |
I've just joined this forum--too late to vote for "My Family and Other Animals". I first read this decades ago. It still makes me laugh even to think of it. I was a slightly arrogant lover of great literature (well, I was young), and Lawrence Durrell, he of the Alexandria Quartet, was one of my gods. Reading about him as Larry in "My Family..." certainly gave me a different perspective! The other Gerald Durrell books are lovely reads too, but this one is a "read every few years and keep forever"! |
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| | | | | 19554.9 in reply to 19554.8 | |
Welcome! There are lots of Durrell fans on here, though mostly Gerald. I liked Lawrence as well, the Quartet, the funny ones like Esprit de Corps, and especially the books on the Mediterranean islands, Bitter Lemons, Prospero's Cell and Reflections on a Marine Venus. There's a lovely bit in Bitter Lemons, where he's on a plane with a lot of senior army officers; they all start to read very serious books, and he says something along the lines of "My Penguin PG Wodehouse stayed in my pocket - we highbrow poets have our pride." "Three Men in a Boat" is good value, though, and it's a pretty quick read.
'lette |
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