GR Book Club - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K Dick

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Knoyleo
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PostRe: GR Book Club - Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau
by Knoyleo » Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:05 pm

Oscar's Wilde Ride

pjbetman wrote:That's the stupidest thing ive ever read on here i think.
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Rocsteady
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PostRe: GR Book Club - Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau
by Rocsteady » Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:18 pm

Don't say I'm not good to yous.


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PostRe: GR Book Club - Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau
by Rocsteady » Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:19 pm

Just realised they're in mixed formats so whatever e-reader you have you'll need Calibre to change the file type.

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Rex Kramer
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PostRe: GR Book Club - Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau
by Rex Kramer » Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:44 pm

Dorian Grey was my choice, mostly because it's short, we have it in the house and I really should have read it. Sometimes I just need a kick up the arse. I'll make a start on it as soon as I've finished the book I'm reading instead of Zazie (The ocean at the end of the lane, which is a most excellent read).

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PostRe: GR Book Club - Zazie in the Metro by Raymond Queneau
by Knoyleo » Sun Mar 19, 2017 11:29 pm

Finally finished Stars My Destination tonight.

I enjoyed it overall, but really found my interest waning as it went on.

The third quarter of the book just dropped off in terms of believing the characters and their motivations for me. Gully Foyle seems to transform himself from gutter speaking common criminal to high class Fourmyle with virtually no effort at all, just because he had a telesending partner by his side, with virtually no slip ups. I've no idea what the motivations of Olivia Prestign were, or why she decided the Vorga wouldn't save Gully at the start. In fact her whole character felt really poorly realised. She was just the posh, vulnerable, daughter of the antagonist who turns out to be evil just because. There wasn't even any resolution of story regarding her at all.

As had been mentioned already, Foyle was a really interesting, and modern character, but the trouble is, I found his original pursuit of revenge far more interesting than the eventual solar politics twist, and conscience driven transformation he underwent. As I mentioned already, I simply didn't believe his transformation to a high society player, and my attachment to the story dropped off from there.


3/5

I'll get started on Zazie this week, although it doesn't seems like many have enjoyed it, or even bothered reading it.

pjbetman wrote:That's the stupidest thing ive ever read on here i think.
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Parksey
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PostGR Book Club - The Picture of DoriAn Gray
by Parksey » Mon Mar 20, 2017 8:23 am

I'm still reading Zasie. Since the Switch came out I've found myself gaming in bed instead of reading so progress has been slow. I don't find Zasie that engaging either. The little essay at the start of the book kept mentioning how she's such a likable iconic character, but I can't warm to her at all.

I'll finish the book, as it's only 150 pages long and the short chapters mean you do progress quite quickly.

I read Dorian Gray not so long ago so might read a book from elsewhere instead.

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PostRe: GR Book Club - The Picture of DoriAn Gray
by <]:^D » Wed Mar 22, 2017 12:43 pm

just bought Zazie so will try and get it finished by the end of the week

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Parksey
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PostRe: GR Book Club - The Picture of DoriAn Gray
by Parksey » Wed Mar 22, 2017 1:44 pm

I managed to finish Zasie. It was easy enough to get through due to being quite brief and fast-paced.

It made me smirk a few times with a turn of phrase or a touch of the absurd, but it felt a bit like Ulysses-lite at times (I mean, pretty much any work of literature comes under that bracket).

It also felt a bit like a stage play, if that makes any sense. I could easily imagine it being performed by a comic troupe. I think it's probably be much more amusing like that. Not just in the way it was spelt phonetically, but some of the dialogue sounds like it was meant to be spoken out loud.

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Parksey
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PostRe: GR Book Club - The Picture of DoriAn Gray
by Parksey » Mon Apr 03, 2017 3:52 pm

Well this has died on its arse. Zasie seems to have killed it.

Did the Kaufman book technically start this last weekend? It's pretty short so everyone can easily get back on board.

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PostRe: GR Book Club - The Picture of DoriAn Gray
by Rocsteady » Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:45 pm

Yeah I ended up skipping Dorian Gray because I've read it a bunch of times, and quite recently.

I'll read this one.

We have: All My Friends are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman:

Epub:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/1bhcndkbm ... ub%29.epub


As Parksey says, it is a mammoth 108 pages so I'm sure a few of us can get through this one.

I might reorder some of the choices after this one because to be frank I think there's a couple of other books that will be Zazie- levels of unpopular.

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Rex Kramer
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PostRe: GR Book Club - All My Friends are Superheroes: 108 Pages of Greatness!
by Rex Kramer » Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:15 pm

I'm about 1/3 of the way through Dorian Gray. Quite enjoying it but for some reason I thought it was much more sinister than it currently is. It's amusingly arch though.

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Parksey
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PostRe: GR Book Club - All My Friends are Superheroes: 108 Pages of Greatness!
by Parksey » Mon Apr 17, 2017 12:43 pm

So I managed to dust off the Kaufman book in about 30-40 minutes last weekend.

Which book was supposed to be next? Have that physical copies of Hedgehog, Joyland and Palmer Eldrich so I'll be working my way through them regardless of inactivity here.

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Errkal
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PostRe: GR Book Club - All My Friends are Superheroes: 108 Pages of Greatness!
by Errkal » Mon Apr 17, 2017 12:45 pm

The link to the epub doesn't seem unable, is there a full links somewhere?

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Rocsteady
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PostRe: GR Book Club - All My Friends are Superheroes: 108 Pages of Greatness!
by Rocsteady » Mon Apr 17, 2017 1:09 pm

Parksey wrote:So I managed to dust off the Kaufman book in about 30-40 minutes last weekend.

Which book was supposed to be next? Have that physical copies of Hedgehog, Joyland and Palmer Eldrich so I'll be working my way through them regardless of inactivity here.

What did you think?

I lost track of time, was thinking the next book was next weekend and not this.

I enjoyed the Kaufman book, it was incredibly short but a nice unchallenging read.

I've lost my copy of it Errkal as I'm back home and had it on my other PC, I'll maybe grab it again another time.


How about The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K Dick for the next, think this was Falsey's choice. I'll get links to it soon.

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PostRe: GR Book Club - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K Dick
by <]:^D » Tue Apr 18, 2017 11:40 am

i like a bit of Dick, going to pick this up now

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PostRe: GR Book Club - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K Dick
by <]:^D » Sun Apr 23, 2017 7:45 pm

im beginning to dislike Dick, because whenever i read his books i feel stupid :lol:
the only one ive understood is Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep?, Ubik was bizarre, and so is this.
only click if youve finished the book! :fp:
from what i can gather, the overarching finale is that Palmer Eldritch was parasitically colonised by some bizarre alien that spreads through Chew-Z.
however, ive got no clue about the final few pages with Leo and Frau(sp?), or whether Mayerson is 'himself' or not by the end of the book, or what has actually happened to Eldritch.
help!

Last edited by <]:^D on Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Rocsteady
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PostRe: GR Book Club - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K Dick
by Rocsteady » Sun Apr 23, 2017 8:36 pm

I stopped reading halfway through that post but have you just written what happens at the end of the book?

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PostRe: GR Book Club - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K Dick
by <]:^D » Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:38 pm

Rocsteady wrote:I stopped reading halfway through that post but have you just written what happens at the end of the book?


yeah im a strawberry floating idiot :fp:

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PostRe: GR Book Club - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K Dick
by Rocsteady » Mon Apr 24, 2017 1:03 am

No worries none of it has stuck in my brain.

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Parksey
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PostRe: GR Book Club - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K Dick
by Parksey » Mon Apr 24, 2017 4:56 pm

Any chance we could get the next book up as a PDF in the next day or so?

Got a flight to Australia on Wednesday afternoon and am saving the Dick book for then (plus had a long-ish physical one I was dusting off).

Would prefer getting the kindle version for the next one as well, as it means I don't have to cart loads of books about, especially as I'll likely move through them quickly and they'll be dead weights.

As for the Kaufman book, I found it quite sweet and endearing. Nothing massively effecting, as it's short length lends it a whimsical throwaway feel and it doesn't really stay in your brain. I can't really remember any particularly evocative imagery or language, but it makes a good impression on you and is "funny" in that very bookish way that, erm, books sometimes are. I'd read it again, which obviously isn't saying much as it was only 45 minutes long, but it was perfectly formed for what it was and an enjoyable way to pass that time.


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