OFFICIAL NIKETALK BOOK CLUB. #NTBookClub: A Tale For The Time Being By Ruth Ozeki (June 2015)

Which book should the #NTBookClub read for the month of June 2015?

  • A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Pedagogy Of The Oppressed by Paulo Freire

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Love Affairs Of Nathanial P. by Adelle Waldman

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2666 by Roberto Bolaño

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .
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OFFICIAL NIKETALK BOOK CLUB #NTBookClub


Welcome to the new #NTBookClub!

All are more than welcome to join. Just make sure to keep up with the readings as best as you can.

If you wish to join, please just reply to this thread with your NT name in RED so that I can add you to the member list.

I'll add each of you guys as soon as possible and divide us all into groups. Whichever group you end up in is dependent on the time you post your NT name on the thread.


Currently Reading:

"Halfway Point" Discussion Date: ???

Book Ending Discussion Date: ???


View media item 1560645
In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine.

Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.

Full of Ozeki’s signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.






Book Nominations For June 2015:

View media item 1560645
In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine.

Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.

Full of Ozeki’s signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.




View media item 1560646
I'd like to nominate "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"- Paulo Freire.

It discusses the relationship between teachers(the oppressors) and students(the oppressed) and how the current educational practices are flawed.

"In the book Freire calls traditional pedagogy the "banking model" because it treats the student as an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge, like a piggy bank. However, he argues for pedagogy to treat the learner as a co-creator of knowledge."

I've been always meaning to give this a read when Lupe referred to it in one of his interviews, it's more of a conscious read but I think it would make for great discussion.




View media item 1560648

A debut novel by a brilliant young woman about the romantic life of a brilliant young man.

Writer Nate Piven’s star is rising. After several lean and striving years, he has his pick of both magazine assignments and women: Juliet, the hotshot business reporter; Elisa, his gorgeous ex-girlfriend, now friend; and Hannah, “almost universally regarded as nice and smart, or smart and nice,” who holds her own in conversation with his friends. When one relationship grows more serious, Nate is forced to consider what it is he really wants.

In Nate’s 21st-century literary world, wit and conversation are not at all dead. Is romance? Novelist Adelle Waldman plunges into the psyche of a flawed, sometimes infuriating modern man—one who thinks of himself as beyond superficial judgment, yet constantly struggles with his own status anxiety, who is drawn to women, yet has a habit of letting them down in ways that may just make him an emblem of our times. With tough-minded intelligence and wry good humor The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. is an absorbing tale of one young man’s search for happiness—and an inside look at how he really thinks about women, sex and love.




View media item 1560660
quick take from Wikipedia about my book choice 2666

2666 is the last novel by Roberto Bolaño. It was released in 2004, a year after Bolaño's death. Its themes are manifold, and it relates, among other things, the unsolved and ongoing serial female homicides of Ciudad Juárez (called Santa Teresa in the novel), the Eastern Front in World War II, and the breakdown of relationships and careers. The apocalyptic 2666 explores 20th-century degeneration through a wide array of characters, locations, time periods, and stories within stories.

The novel's five parts are linked by varying degrees of concern with unsolved murders of upwards of 300 young, poor, mostly uneducated Mexican women in Ciudad Juárez (Santa Teresa in the novel) though it is the fourth part which focuses specifically on the femicides.


View media item 1560665
This stunning and elegiac novel by the author of the internationally acclaimed Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has sold over 4 million copies in Japan and is now available to American audiences for the first time. It is sure to be a literary event.

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age, Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.




#NTBookClub Members:

Group 1
01) Drew
02) datkidfiasco
03) MrSwagtastic
04) bballermarkie
05) rocman23

Group 2
06) THEJROB
07) plansb
08) Artest93
09) Suberzat1
10) spacedoodoo

Group 3
11) Melo0115
12) jm9312
13) davidme00
14) heatpinoyboy
15) omariwestafari

Group 4
15) sneakaprince
16) Gregory House
17) sh0rtyy12
18) Fantastic4our
19) Jays25
20) targiu23




-How will we decide on the book that we'll be reading/discussing for the month?

Each member will be assigned to a group (Group A, B, C, etc.). Each group will be assigned a month as we cycle through the groups to nominate a set of books. Each member in the respective group will PM me their nomination and I'll post up a new poll with each nomination for ALL the members of the #NTBookCLub to vote on at the end of each month.

Once we get the poll results, the book with the most votes will be the book that we will be reading/discussing for the upcoming month.

As each month ends, we'll cycle through each group to give in their nominations, then we vote again. Once all groups have had a turn in nominating their books, we'll cycle back to Group A, and so on and so forth.



-What are the dates of this month's book discussion?

Once we have a book chosen for the month, we will all set a "halfway point" in the book in that we can all agree on.

We will have a discussion regarding any material from the start of the book up to the "halfway point", 2 weeks into the month so we can have an open forum to discuss themes, ask questions, give insight, etc. on what we've just read.

Lastly, we will have another open discussion at the end of the month when we have all finished the book.

This way the book thread won't be dead for the majority of the month and we can actually inspire each other to continue reading.
:nthat:



-Tips on getting some reading done throughout your day (Contributed by Suberzat1).
 
  • Avoid “dead time.” My wife gets hooked on HGTV programs because when they finish an episode they cut straight to the next one without a commercial break. That’s their hook, and it’s quite effective. Treat reading the same way. Finish a book knowing what you want to read next and try to start it immediately. Even reading 10-15 pages might be all it takes to get you immersed in your next book.
  • Read every night as you fall asleep, or find time to squeeze in a chapter or two during break times at work. If you can read ~30 minutes to an hour a day, you should be able to finish the challenge quite easily (and maybe even early).
  • Lists can be super helpful! Goodreads, in particular, is a great way to track what you’ve read and what’s in your queue to read next.
  • Consider picking up a Kindle or e-reader of your choice. One very common trend you’ll hear among e-reader users is they actually read more and at a faster pace than they do with physical copies of books. That has certainly been my experience.
  • Check out some classics. Some stuff may be dated, but there are a ton of gems out there ready to be discovered by a younger generation.
  • Find your niche! I’m a science fiction and fantasy guy. I can blast through a 1K page fantasy book faster than I could ever finish a 300 page love story. Feel free to expand your horizons but know what’s in your current wheelhouse.
  • Ask for suggestions in this thread and monitor what others are enjoying. A few of the very best books I read or movies I saw were direct recommendations in last year’s thread.
 
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My offer is 2666 by roberto bolano

No other reason than I've been meaning to read it for a few months and it was supposed to be excellently written
 
Count me in.

Post from the last thread don't want this to get lost:

I just finished reading The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It was a really good read about a guy who grew up in West Baltimore with an ex Black Panther father. It's his coming of age story involving hip hop, black consciousness, and his struggle to find himself growing up in Bmore. I highly recommend it.
 
On my phone so can't do the red right now, but count me in for sure. Let's make sure we pick a book that will lead to good discussion.

THEJROB
 
Count me in.

Post from the last thread don't want this to get lost:

I just finished reading The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It was a really good read about a guy who grew up in West Baltimore with an ex Black Panther father. It's his coming of age story involving hip hop, black consciousness, and his struggle to find himself growing up in Bmore. I highly recommend it.

I might hit that up.

Realyl like the coming of age stories most of them tend to be about whiney white kids

Love to see a new perspective
 
I've updated the member list, fellas.

I'll let the roll call continue for another day or two and then hopefully we can get things rolling. :smokin



-Drew
 
I've updated the member list, fellas.

I'll let the roll call continue for another day or two and then hopefully we can get things rolling. :smokin



-Drew

Gotta finish up my star wars books before we get bumping

Fully understand, bro.

I'll ask on the thread when you guys are ready.

I believe we still have time since we're still trying to get as much as we can into the member list. :smokin


Can I get in this?

Most definitely, bro!

I've added you into the roll call. Let me know if you have any suggestions for the book club. :smokin



-Drew
 
Dont know why my name was not added to the list

Some help
 
  • Avoid “dead time.”  My wife gets hooked on HGTV programs because when they finish an episode they cut straight to the next one without a commercial break. That’s their hook, and it’s quite effective. Treat reading the same way. Finish a book knowing what you want to read next and try to start it immediately. Even reading 10-15 pages might be all it takes to get you immersed in your next book.
  • Read every night as you fall asleep, or find time to squeeze in a chapter or two during break times at work.  If you can read ~30 minutes to an hour a day, you should be able to finish the challenge quite easily (and maybe even early).
  • Lists can be super helpful!  Goodreads, in particular, is a great way to track what you’ve read and what’s in your queue to read next.
  • Consider picking up a Kindle or e-reader of your choice.  One very common trend you’ll hear among e-reader users is they actually read more and at a faster pace than they do with physical copies of books. That has certainly been my experience.
  • Check out some classics.  Some stuff may be dated, but there are a ton of gems out there ready to be discovered by a younger generation.
  • Find your niche!  I’m a science fiction and fantasy guy. I can blast through a 1K page fantasy book faster than I could ever finish a 300 page love story. Feel free to expand your horizons but know what’s in your current wheelhouse.
  • Ask for suggestions in this thread and monitor what others are enjoying.
 
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suberzat1 suberzat1 Apologies, brother. I've added you onto the list!

I had to get everyone to submit their name in this thread so that it'd be more streamline.


I'll add your tips onto the original post as well. Thanks bro!



-Drew
 
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No worries

Not going to lie im interested in the little brother series or Infected series. I need to knock out the book Real Happiness first.

But on the real I think i'm going to shoot for 2-3 books a month then grown from there. I really need to get back into reading for the GRE and my vocabulary. 
 
How big we looking to make the sub groups Drew?

From the looks of it, i think we'll be making 3 subgroups in groups of 4 or 5, bro.

4 or 5 book nominations a month seems good since it will give us some options on what we can vote on.



-Drew
 
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