OK, I was roaming around LT and came across an interesting thread on one of those 50-book challenge threads. I think it was because there were a number of recent posts. And it had a good discussion about a book I've really never liked much (Jane Eyre) and a book I do (Wide Sargasso Sea) and almost made me really want to read more Bronte (check that - made me want to read more, until I remembered the last time I did). And it talked about a bunch of folks I haven't read in an interesting way. I thought, hey, wouldn't it be good to have a place where we collected interesting serious discussions that we came across while stalking, ah, while lurking, ah, by random chance. Perhaps a bit creepy, yes, but, let's face it, we all lurk on a few threads here and there.

This is the place. Let's post interesting discussion links here.

This was the discussion I came across: http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.ph... The part that attracted my attention started with the review of Jane Eyre (post 159).

Message edited by its author, Nov 10, 2009, 9:04pm.

That's a great thread! I lurk there too.

You know what group often has good discussions: Romance from Historical to Contemporary - http://www.librarything.com/groups/roman...

I love love love this thread! I am a promoter at heart and this thread speaks directly to core Salonista Philosophy: Point Outward, Praise Others, Seek & Find that which is Good so that the Good will have no choice but to Multiply.

Heartfelt thanks, A_Musing!

...b-b-b-but... that's ME!

*speechless*

I suddenly feel incredibly valid. Thanks!

Yeh, well, good job, but there's more work to be done....

Have you read Hour of the Star??!!!???

Slick, I checked out the most recent monthly read there - they do have good discussions! Those people actually listen to each other.

Message edited by its author, Nov 11, 2009, 8:23am.

My dear friend, BeckyJG, has just had one of her LT reviews blurbed by Coral Press Publishers for their online "Top Musical Fiction" list: http://coralpress.com/playlist/charts/ca...

Becky is quoted at #28 on the list, in her review of Bill Fitzhugh's Radio Activity. Way to kick ass, Becky, even if, as you say, self-deprecatingly, it's just "fun" literature! I've never been blurbed. Can't think of too many here who have.

I lurk a lot in Becky's reviews and on her exceptional, underappreciated blog, The BookFrog:
http://thebookfrog.blogspot.com/2009/05/...

Becky's niche is mystery thriller's. In other words, she reviews books that are actually fun to read! and don't require the utmost mental concentration! I believe it's high time Le Salon Litteraire embraced BeckyJGs contributions to LT, even if she's not oh so highbrow as us. Drop by her page sometime and say hello. Infidel Freeque commands it!

>6 sadly, no. I haven't. And my foreseeable future is clogged with books already, so I don't know how I can get the time to read it.

Does anyone else see the name Clarice Lispector and immediately think of a detective in a crime novel? I don't know exactly why, but that's what the name sez to me. Maybe because Lispector is like Inspector??

>7 Rique, thanks for introducing us to BeckyJG's reviews, I will be keeping an eye on them.

ETA I just read urania's explanation of Lispector's name a little late http://www.librarything.com/topic/75951#... and didn't mean to be overly flippant about it

Message edited by its author, Nov 12, 2009, 12:56am.

I have to confess "Lispector" also makes me think "Inspector." I am still waiting for my library copy to come in so I can dash that misconnection.

Congrats to BeckyJG! The best literature is the fun kind. People just have different ideas of what's fun :)

"I'm in complete agreement with all those people who say, regarding movies, 'I just want to be entertained.' This populist position is much derided by my academic colleagues as simpleminded and unsophisticated, evidence of questionable analytical and critical acuity. But I agree with the premise, and I too just want to be entertained. That I am almost never entertained by what entertains other people who just want to be entertained doesn't make us philosophically incompatible. It just means we shouldn't go to movies together."

from the opening of Richard Russo's Straight Man

8 & 9: Also Clarice is the FBI Agent in the Hannibal Lechter books and movies. So its a double-whammy.

11 and all the others: Before reading her book, her name made me think of detective/mystery genre fiction too. For both the Silence of the Lambs reason and the Inspector reason.

But according to my Brazilian experts, her name is pronounced Clariceee, so get Silence of the Lambs out of your heads and read the book -- it's short -- you can read it in an hour -- but it will never let go of you.

13: Good to know!

The Librarians who Library Thing group gets some interesting discussions: like these:

Creepy requests from patrons
http://www.librarything.com/topic/25403

Funny requests from patrons
http://www.librarything.com/topic/17962

Odd things found in the library
http://www.librarything.com/topic/37594

Message edited by its author, Nov 13, 2009, 5:10pm.

I am having the best time procrastinating on those threads. Thanks Slick!