TOUGH GUYS

If Chuck Palahniuk and George were in a fight club together, on whom would you bet?

Hearing voices

Did Palahniuk succeed in creating different voices for his different writers, or did it seem as if all the stories were written by the same person? Did certain character traits revealed of the writers in the narrative or the poems come through to you in the stories they were supposed to have written?

A novel idea?

How much did you care about "Haunted" as a novel? Was it more interesting just as a collection of short stories than a full narrative? Did you particularly care about the characters in the writers retreat?

And in particular, what did you think about the poems that introduced the writer before each story? Would you rather have preferred the novel have a more traditional structure to tell the story?

Best and worst

Of the stories contained in "Haunted," which did you like the best, and which the least, and why? Maybe also mention which you found particularly funny, insightful, gross and preposterous.

KIM'S PICK

My choice, because at least three out of five of us have never read it, and the other two did eons ago, is Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility." I think it would be a good companion piece to "Haunted." Or possibly not. We can discuss.

(My understanding is that we'll start discussing this in mid-September, but correct me if I'm wrong.)

Schedule suggestions

I wanted to propose some more formal guidelines so that we aren't lingering over one book for so long. I admit I am a bad slacker (not quite finished with Haunted, but can be done in a night), and I'd like to keep doing this because your suggestions have been so enjoyable. What about this, if we do a monthly format:

On the 15th of the month, the next moderator will announce their book choice for next month. Or, for KC, that would be soon. This gives us two weeks to start the book, if we need extra time, or to request it from the library, because I am so cheap.

Discussion could start around, say, the 10th or 15th of the actual month and remain active until the end of the month.

Or we could stretch this to a bimonthly format, but it's harder to get back into the discussion if we finish at such varying times, I think.

My other thought is that perhaps there would be a few months a year for a break ... I'm thinking mostly that G and B will be taking finals, and KC giving them, so maybe December and May should be off months. If we're still doing this by then, anyway.

What do you guys think? Is this too ambitious for all of our new kids in school?

FELLOW READERS!

When are we going to start discussing this book? I am in love with the baglady story.