Lit Bit Book Club

     After this month (May) I am putting the Lit Bit Book Club on hiatus. Since I am getting ready to head off to the UK for grad school, I have a lot of things that I need to focus on and get prepared; like applying for my student visa . With this in mind, and my recent attention to grad school stuff, I haven’t been as focused on the book club as I’d like to be. So I’m going to shut it down for awhile (I’m not exactly sure how long at this point), and think about what I want to do with the book club as well as taking more time before choosing books. I’ll let everyone know when I decide to get it going again.

 

March Book Reading

     Not only have I been negligent about my general Lit Bit postings these past couple of months, but I have also been lacking in my Book Club posts. I’m going to remedy this now.

     So far we have read Out of Poverty by Paul Polak, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig (highly recommended), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (I personally recommend the entire series), and the club just finished reading Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison in honor of Black History Month (another good book I would recommend).

     That brings us up to the month of March. We are currently reading The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. If you can get a copy, go ahead and start reading. By the first meeting on March 15th you need to read up to the section On The Attack which is essentially the first half of the book. We will have our online discussion in an IRC chat at 8:30 P.M. MST (-7 GMT). If you go here you will be able to access an online IRC client or you can use a desktop client (I personally use Colloquy on my iMac). The chat server we use is chat.zoite.net and the chat room name is #lit-bit. As always, if you have any problems or need help getting to the discussion feel free to leave a comment here or leave me tweet.

     For the month of April it has already been decided that we will read the book Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. If you have any recommendations, feel free to leave a comment at any time. I’m gonna make my way on over to update our list of potential books to read. Hope to see more and more people at the Lit Bit Book Club discussions.

 

Comings and Goings

     I am almost finished with the application process for schools. Just one last batch of paperwork and applications to send off and fill out. And then it’s the waiting game, the sit and twiddle thumbs nervously game. That I can handle. On top of applying to Graduate schools I am also in the middle of moving. The actual move will take place this weekend. I’m leaving behind the city I’ve lived in for about six years now while I pursued my undergraduate degree. It has been an abundance of ups and downs. Although I may not have wanted to admit it to myself, as this weekend draws so close, I realize that I will actually miss this place. It was the first place where I asserted my independence, where I chose to follow the path in my life that I wanted, not the one everyone else thought I should follow. I still mentally pat myself on the back for the steps I took in that direction; I’m proud of myself.

     Aside from all that jazz I am also reading This Clumsy Living by Bob Hicok and hope to have a review of the book of poetry up sometime in the next couple of weeks. I’m excited about finally getting some poetry reviews out. The Book Club is currently finishing up the third book of the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by the end of this month. For the month of February we are going to read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison in honor of Black History Month.

     Even though I am currently not in school I am certainly not lacking in things to do. I can’t wait to get moved and settled, which will hopefully result in more time for me to commit to Lit Bit and the Book Club. Undoubtedly I will keep everyone posted on how the school search goes.

 

Absent Posting

     Well, I’m ashamed to say that I have been ridiculously scarce here on Lit Bit. I would love to be around more and feel a bit guilty for not, but I swear I have some good excuses. A) I don’t really have anything new to talk about; just more complaining about the application process of Graduate School and current classes (though there isn’t really much complaining to be done there), and B) My spare time is packed and bogged down with none other than that insane process that is applying for Graduate School. So, as you can imagine, my life is very one-track-minded at the moment, which leaves me quite dull and boring when it comes to posting. Sad to say, I know.

     While I may not have a whole lot to post about, I do have a couple of things to mention. Last night we finished our third discussion for the Lit Bit Book Club. It was our first meeting of the month about the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. As we move (far too quickly for my taste) toward the second half of November, I am naturally contemplating what book we will read for December. At the moment I am a bit torn. I had originally decided on One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but I’m afraid that graduation, holidays, and the mad rush to get my applications out by the end of the month will not allow me to dedicate much time to reading. So I’ve decided to turn our focus to a less intense read and something very easy and enjoyable. I figured I wouldn’t be the only one bogged down during the holidays.

     The book I am now considering having us read for December is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. That’s right folks, I am seriously considering forcing you down that Harry Potter madness path. I know that there is some reluctance by some members of the book club, but I really want you to be open minded about this and maybe push yourself a bit outside of your comfort zone. Now, if the majority isn’t quite reconciled to the idea of reading Harry Potter quite yet, our other option (suggested kindly by Skunkie) is The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. I took a quick glance at it and I think it would be an interesting and insightful read considering the up and coming shifts of power and such. So those are the choices on the table for now. I’m personally leaning toward Harry Potter for December and then Obama’s book for January, but this is your chance to let me know if you’re not quite up to the task that is Harry Potter.

 

Tonight’s Book Club Meeting

     I just wanted to remind everyone that our meeting is taking place tonight for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig at 8:30 P.M. MST (-7 GMT).

     - Our meet will take place in an IRC chat. If you go here you will be able to access an online IRC client (Thank you Skunkie for getting the Lit_Bit channel set up for us.). Or you can use a desktop client. If you need any help getting this set up, or figuring out how to use the online client, just let me know, and I’ll help you or enlist one of my more tech-savvy friends to help. Either way, we’ll figure it out.
      – If you are going to use a desktop client the chat server is: chat.zoite.net and the chat room name is: #lit-bit

     Hope to see you all there this evening!