Clubbing

The titles are all in for the family summer book club. There are two 1,000+ pagers on there, so that should be interesting. I toyed with suggesting Don Quixote. The new-ish Edith Grossman translation has been on the shelf for a few years, but I foolishly thought it would be rejected in favour of shorter reads. Now who feels like the lightweight? I went with The Anthologist, which I’m still keen to read, especially having read a couple of great reviews. Here’s the list, arranged in descending order by weight:

The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
In Dubious Battle, John Steinbeck
Goodbye to Berlin, Christopher Isherwood
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
The Anthologist, Nicholson Baker

Shortly after I bullied my way into book club I discovered The Rumpus.net and their summer book club. Clearly I won’t have time, but I like the idea, mainly because I like it when things come in the mail. They almost seem free by the time they arrive, and it’s always a little miraculous that they do arrive.

A couple of years ago I read Al Silverman’s The Time of Their Lives, about the three-martini-lunch days of publishing in the United States. It was a good overview, but an entire book could be (and in some cases has been) written about almost all of the publishers included, and I don’t know that I retained much of the whirlwind tour, in spite of the author’s enthusiastic telling. Silverman was CEO of the Book of the Month Club for several years, so it also overlaps with the club's own heyday. I believe Book of the Month still exists in some form, but I don't think it's the institution it used to be.

I’ve sometimes wondered if a poetry-specific subscription program could fly. I have a handful of publishers (Coach House, Vehicule, Gaspereau, Porcupine’s Quill, Counterpoint, Graywolf, Faber) whose poetry lists I keep an eye on, but only a small fraction of their titles ever make it to my shelf, mainly because in between (often) not finding them at my local seller and trying very hard to give my business to independent bookshops which are becoming increasingly fewer and further between and not keeping a list in my pocket and not actively acquiring the sorts of gadgetry that would allow me to be reminded, say, hourly of the books I want and my ranging proximity to a store that might have them in stock…I simply forget to buy them. What if a third party made a selection of twelve titles a year and offered the package at a small discount (small—I'm forgetful, not cheap)? This requires more thought. Or maybe just the swift and unambiguous kibosh from someone with business sense!