NaNoReMo 2008: Nominations Are Open

Matthew NaNoReMo 2008

Mail call!

Hi, I'm curious if you'll be hosting a NaNoReMo 2008? I understand if you're not, considering it's only 4.5 days till Nov. 1st and there has been no discussion of it on your blog {not that i found anyway}. If you are and if there was a horrible oversight on my part i'd love to know what book will be discussed this coming November.

Thanks,
V

Uhhh… You know, I’ve been so busy not blogging and preemptively eating Halloween candy that I plum forgot about National Novel Reading Month. Talk about your horrible oversights.

So what’s it gonna be? Right now I’m thinking either The Kite Runner or Lolita. Yes, contemporary fiction is now in the mix. In fact, if there’s anything you’ve been meaning to read–classic, modern, genre fiction, or non-fiction–feel free to nominate it in the comments or email me at matthewbaldwin@gmail.com. We’ll hold another vote, and start reading the selected book on November 3.

Update: I’ll be listing some of the nominations here. Feel free to second (or third, or seventeenth) any of them in the comments.

108 thoughts to “NaNoReMo 2008: Nominations Are Open”

  1. Sorry, Mindar, but alt-history is most certainly a subgenre of sci-fi. Sci-fi encompasses most any speculation on the future of society or humanity, even if the point of diversion from reality is in the past.

    I wasn’t into Heinlein before, but I recently read “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,” and that was a superb read. Nice mix of politics and spaceships. But that and Old Man’s War are both short enough and rapid-enough reads as to be too easy for NaNoReMo, IMO.

    As for the unrecommendation of Cormac McCarthy– read The Road at some point, and I’m enjoying the Border Trilogy (haven’t started the third) but they are depressing, depressing, depressing. Them who ain’t dead is dying. And yet the lives encountered by the protagonists are amazingly rich ones, and strong characters abound. “The Road” was bleak, but post-apocalyptic books strip away anything that isn’t death or survival, and it’s a story of loss and mortality. Such books end with death or hope, and I won’t tell you which, except that based on McCarthy’s previous books, death or hope is a coin-toss. (No election jokes, please.)

  3. I love The Monster at the End of this Book – always thought it was a great pint-size allegory for much grown-up stuff. Plus kids LOVE to throw Grover under the bus by turning that page. I’ve never had a kid want to save Grover from himself and just stop turning pages. Never have read Lolita – will now.

  4. A monument of sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern – this is Ignatius J Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. In magnificent revolt against the twentieth century, Ignatius propels his monstrous bulk among the flesh posts of the fallen city, documenting life on his Big Chief tablets as he goes, until his maroon-haired mother decrees that Ignatius must work.

    full disclosure: I did not write that, but I heartily second it. This book rocked my world every night on a three week tour of China. The combination of disequilibrium I felt in a foreign country along with the kaleidoscopic prose of John Kennedy Toole made for a delicious and unforgettable read. So, um, in a nutshell–I recommend it.

  5. I’m voting too late, but I think you should have read The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. That book was sheer brilliance. Definitely the most progressive book I’ve read all year. Lolita is a yawn, way overtaught in college. Can’t believe there is anyone who hasn’t yet read it.

  6. “The Shipping News” by E. Annie Proulx (Canadian).
    “The Transit of Venus” by Shirley Hazzard (Australian).
    “Harnessing Peacocks” by Mary Wesley (English), or her “The Camomile Lawn” – brings out the very low key eccentricity of the English, which is fast disappearing.
    “Oyster” by Jeanette Turner Hospital (Australian). At the moment I will read anything JTH writes. Even her short stories really grab me, and I dont really like reading short stories. The fragility and bravery of human beings are brought home in her writing – just thinking of it gets me.

    Maybe it is something that just resonates for me – I have lived in both Australia and England. And yes, I do realise they are all women writers – I am one.

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