I'll second Hoya choosing something.

I nominate the next person to be nominated to even the vote count

In that case I nominate you. Don't screw this up.

Fiction: James Salter, All That Is

This would be my fiction selection. Not a tedious read, not difficult, shortish (368 pages). Happy to try to curate discussion about it. Can be discussed re: social sea change, women, gender relations more broadly, parenthood, death, aging, identity, sources of confidence, temptations, etc.

Has the ring of truth re: male / female behavior, at least to some degree.

Nonfiction: C.J. Chivers, The Gun

Longer read but obviously a great and important book. The result is a thorough modern history told through the eyes of those whom the AK-47 harmed, and helped. Longer (496 pages) and slower. We would need a longer window to get through it. I will also note that though the material is important and fun to read, the author from time to time writes pretty terribad sentences.

This book's supposed to be pretty good for all you nonfiction fans.



Never read Bryson, but he's allegedly very good at what he does

+ SPOIL, SPOIL, SPOIL
LAWL BOOKREADERS HARHAR

Sando you in particular will enjoy All That Is.

I'm apprehensive based on this Amazon customer review:

3.5 stars!

Mother****ing Vintage Books better get their game straight.

look i tried reading GoT, just going have to lol @ the prose. breaks immersion which is kinda the whole point of books. might be just me gettin all curmudgeon-like in my old age

Treason to The Belgariad/The Malloreon will not be tolerated.

Re: Salter, A Sport and a Pastime would be more up SE's alley (but not because of the word 'sport'!).

I'm not a fan of his prose style, despite all the praise it seems to get. To my ear at least, it's awkward rhythmically.

i love unreliable narrators and nmh so i'm all up in gene wolfe's perfect little demographic niche, but yeah, he's just super sick with vivid scenes of dream-state consciousness and tons of whathappenedjustthen like it'd be in a random juncture that you find out:



http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-New-G.../dp/1568658079 is his most acclaimed work. like a true hipster i think i prefer some other stuff. it's not particularly difficult to read, but its incredibly difficult to piece together a coherent 3rd person standard narrative from the what the unreliable narrator provides. like he would say this chick he was probably the least beautiful of all his women he's lusted after, but then it turns out she had already hired people to kill him after some stuff happened involve a duel of venomous plants with her brother which probably influenced his perspective when he supposedly sat down and wrote it. it's probably not hard to figure out given the title of the 4-book omnibus being Book of the New Sun but:





also i know i'm writing less than stellar grammatical prose but wateva.

In for selected work of fiction.

edit: prefer a focus on great novels rather than wheelhouses

How about "A Fan's Notes?"

Seems to be right in the SE wheelhouse plus this will give me a reason to finally read it

I think all of them are gonna be pretty SE appropriate what with the banging beautiful women and ALPHA PROSE

I`m in for whatever. Make the official pick so i can order it.

If it's sports related, you'll get more participants (this is SE, afterall)

I take that to be a pretty good point upon reflection. Thoughts?

SHARK's point? Veto. The dubious participation gains (are that many people really more interested in sports novels than their non-sports counterparts of comparable quality?) are more than offset by the restrictiveness.

Nah, f that (@ shark)

Gatsby, he was who he was, and he did what he did, and cause he wasn't ready to get real with the story...that **** caught up to 'em.