Cellar Book of the Month discussion group

[Clodfobble]

1. Imajica
2. Gates of Fire

[wolf]

1. Snow Leopard (I have this guy's book on Tigers ... phenomenal pictures, excellent and unsual commentary.

2. Gates of Fire

It was actually difficult to choose between Gates and Imajica.

[Slartibartfast]

1) Imagjica

2) Snow Leopard

[Slartibartfast]

only 4 voters???

Monday looks like a good day to close voting.

[Griff]

I just have no time.

[Beestie]

A small but enthusiastic crowd has selected Clive Barker's Imajica as June's Book of the Month! I did not vote since there was a clear winner.

WoooHooo!!

Just so no one gets confused, this version of Imajica is the Part I version. The original work is almost 1,000 pages so they split it into two volumes. I bring this to everyone's attention so that if you think you want both books, you might find the 1,000± page original less expensive than Part I and Part II purchased separately. I'm taking the plunge and getting the big one.

I'm a big fan of Barker's and hope everyone enjoys the book.

[Slartibartfast]

I've just run the random number generator once more, and I have here July's Chooser of Books.

And the chooser is...

Stevedallas!


*golf clap*

Are you going to make us read some Bloom County? Or how about making everyone buy: The Complete Far Side Leather-Bound Set [Signed Limited Edition]

[SteveDallas]

I'm not worthy... I'm not worthy....


When am I supposed to post my three choices?

Heh heh heh..... I'm still narrowing it down... However cartoons are doubtful. ("The Complete Cherry Poptart" might still make the cut, but I'd be afraid to be responsible for giving blue a coronary.)

[SteveDallas]

This was such a tough choice--not only did I want to find interesting books, I also wanted to make sure they would be relatively easy to acquire and would be readable by most people within the month. In the end I will nominate the following three books, which I have lettered A, B, and C for your voting pleasure.

Since we have had two straight fiction nominees, I have decided to take us back on a nonfiction tack.

1. Witsec: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program
   by Pete Earley and Gerald Shur
   
   This book is co-authored by Gerald Shur, one of the driving forces behind the creating of the Witness Protection Program. It gives an inside (though obviously biased) account of the creation of the program up to the present day, and tells of the many problems and turf issues Shur faced in getting the program up and running.
   
   
2. Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
   by Jame Gleick
   
   A biography of nobel laureate Feynman. This book gives a fascinating counterpoint to Feynman's own memoirs "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman" and "What Do You Care What People Think?" As the title indicates, the book discusses Feynman's scientific work along with his personal life, including his time at the Manhattan Project, the Challenger inquiry panel, and the nobel-winning quantum physics work in between. However the level of technical detail is not excessive for a general audience.
   
3. Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping
   by Paco Underhill
   
   Underhill is the proprietor of a company that specializes in doing research for retail stores on how to maximize their sales by optimizing the design of their stores. For example, if a drugstore wants to sell more hair coloring products, what part of the store is the best place to put them? This does not sound like a very promising subject for casual reading, but Underhill's wit and liberal use of anecdotes and examples from his past research makes it very readable and thought-provoking for anybody who has ever been frustrated by their shopping experience.

Now, as a special added attraction, because I know many of you will have laid awake at night thinking, "Gee, I wish I could have more than three books picked out for me by SteveDallas," I have listed some favorites (along with typical quotes) that did not make the cut, primarily because they were too much fun, and I wanted to keep things serious. You may wish to check them out on your own time!

• The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs
  

  Misfortune lay outside the province of social action, and only this latter was connected by the link between doing and faring, the connective justice of ma'at."

• A New Firebolt Sweeps Clean: Reflections on Textuality and Intertextuality in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series
  

  Although the romantic[?] "triangle" of Harry, Ron, and Hermione is obvious, the more compelling relationship is that between Harry and Draco Malfoy, with its subtle but omnipresent homoerotic overtones.

• I Was A Teenage Dominatrix: A Memoir
  

  I'd always hated my muscular legs but I was grateful to them for the first time.

• pr0n: A History of Dirty Pictures on the Internet
  

  As these sample images show (see Figure 1a, "cheerleader" and Figure 1b, "cucumber"), even the most common and innocent search terms can result in image hits of breathtaking audacity and disgust.

• Techniques for Drawing Female Manga Characters"
  

  Female [bicycle] riders normally sit on their skirts, so a skirt that flutters behind in the wind is a fictitious manga effect.

[jaguar]

A New Firebolt Sweeps Clean: Reflections on Textuality and Intertextuality in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series

If you like that kind of thing look up a wonderful little tome called the Philosophy of Pooh, fantastic little volume that walks an incredibly tight line between poking fun at itself and being perfectly serious.

I Was A Teenage Dominatrix: A Memoir

Bit of *ahem* late night reading eh?

[Beestie]

I'll go with b.

[Slartibartfast]

They all look good. B is my first choice, but I can't make up my mind for choice two. I'll have to think about it some more.

[wolf]

A
B
C

It was actually choosing number 1 ... the Shopping book, while interesting (and marketing was something I was once fascinated with as an expression of human behavior and manipulation) I don't know if I could sustain interest through an entire book, no matter how many amusing and witty anecdotes it contains.

I love Feynman and have read The Pleasure of Finding Things Out as well as Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman which is why it ended up as my second choice ... it represents ground already covered, thus Witsec is #1.

[Slartibartfast]

Originally posted by SteveDallas
[b]

The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs

I think I read that a long time ago! I had two or three chapters as optional reading for a history class. The book itself is technical but it's not too dry or academic. I would call it a must read for all Ancient Egypt addicts!

[Slartibartfast]

It looks like Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by Jame Gleick
has won with only three votes cast.

To be fair, let's allow two more days of voting, but I think everyone that is going to vote has voted.

I can't tell if people are participating and not voting, or if we only have three or four people participating at all

I for one don't want to stop because we have yet to have a bad book, they've all been really good! Even most of the runner-ups look good to me.