Every book discussion group needs periodic refreshment: new topics to argue illogically. Keeping the Rules and Myths of Literature in mind, I made these suggestions (each poorly thought out in advance) to a large online reading group:
- Do you fall into a spiraling debt cycle every time you get a new Levenger’s catalog in the mail?
- Is a Barnes & Noble membership card really an advantage? (see Question 1).
- Is it true that all great English Literature is actually Irish?
- When hi-lighting important passages in Steven King you should use
- Yellow
- Pink
- The question is not logical.
- Do you suspect that Jacques Derrida was evil (or at least you think so since you don’t really understand him anyway)?
- Was the first book you remember reading about a horse or a dog?
- Did Question 6 accurately determine your sex?
- Do you have $300.94 plus $3.99 for shipping to buy Understanding Poetry?
- Can you send it to me?
- Does Dr. Atkins deserve the Nobel Prize?
- How many rhetorical variations of lying and cheating can you identify on the broadcast news each night?
- Why are there two sandwiches called “Sloppy Joe” and who is Joe?
- Do you think Laurence Sterne is as funny as Myron Cohen? Tony Clifton? Glenn Beck?
We all have events in our lives that we regret deeply. One of mine is this: at the end of Freshman English I sold my copy of Brooks & Warren back to the student bookstore for a dollar.
Note that when this was originally posted (2012) Understanding Poetry was less than $40; with this formatting update I checked and Understanding Poetry is now just less than one hundred dollars (oh what will I do with that extra nickel?).
A Celebration of Reading 