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Harry Potter discussion forum for movies, books, and more! - The Leaky Lounge _ Non HP Book Club: The Hobbit _ What should we read next?
Posted by: Dreamteam Jun 11 2008, 05:20 PM
When we finish reading "The Hobbit" we'll end "His Dark Materials" by reading the third book in the series, "The Amber Spyglass", we'll also include discussion on the two small books that Philip Pullman has written to accompany the series, "Lyra's Oxford" and "Once Upon a Time in the North".
What we'd like to look at here is which book we should read after "The Amber Spyglass", and what series we should read next. So please post here to give your suggestions, when we have enough we'll close this thread and open up a poll with two lists, one for the next single book (to start reading in August) and one for the next series (to start reading in September).
Single Book List
*Pride and Prejudice............Jane Austen
*Emma..................................Jane Austen
*Sense and Sensibility............Jane Austen
*Persuasion.......................... Jane Austen
*Mansfield Park....................Jane Austen
*The Hobbit.........................J.R.R. Tolkein
*Theater Shoes...................Noel Streatfeild
*Party Shoes......................Noel Streatfeild
*Ballet Shoes.....................Noel Streatfeild
*Hamlet.............................William Shakespeare
*I Capture the Castle..........Dodie Smith
*The Little White Horse..........Elizabeth Goudge
*The Moonstone...................Wilkie Collins
*Skellig...............................David Almond
*The Van.............................Roddy Doyle
*Wuthering Heights...............Emily Bronte
*David Copperfield..............Charles Dickens
*Catch 22..........................Joseph Heller
*To Kill a Mockingbird...........Harper Lee
*The Catcher in the Rye.......J.D. Salinger
*Animal Farm......................George Orwell
Series Novels
*His Dark Materials-Philip Pullman
The Golden Compass/Northern Lights
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass discussion in July
*Sally Lockheart Trilogy-Philip Pullman
The Ruby in the Smoke
The Shadow in the North
The Tiger in the Well
*Lord of the Rings-J.R.R. Tolkein
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
*The Chronicles of Narnia-C.S. Lewis
The Magician's Nephew
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle
Posted by: nifflergold Jun 14 2008, 11:34 PM
[color="#4169E1"]I say the Chronicles of Narnia is a good series or what about The Never Ending Story. 
Posted by: Mollycoddle88 Jun 14 2008, 11:51 PM
Single, would be Mansfield Park. I'm always up for LotR trilogy.
Posted by: Fer_keeper Jun 15 2008, 12:16 AM
I have a suggestion, how about Momo by Michael Ende? It deals a lot with imagination and how one seemingly unimportant orphan saves everybody's destiny (pretty much like a certain Harry Potter).
Posted by: shaylee_ann Jun 15 2008, 12:16 AM
I would most like to see Leaky do either Fellowship of the Ring or Prince Caspian next. (I suppose Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe should be read first, though.) Those are my picks. 
Posted by: Pyxis Jun 15 2008, 12:20 AM
Oooh, sounds like a great read, I may have to add that to my library list...which gets longer and longer! For now, the Book Nook discussions are focusing on books specifically recommended by J.K. Rowling. You can find a list in the first post of this thread. When we finish that list, we may open up the discussions to include many different books, so hang on to that suggestion.
Posted by: Fer_keeper Jun 15 2008, 12:24 AM
Oooh, sounds like a great read, I may have to add that to my library list...which gets longer and longer! For now, the Book Nook discussions are focusing on books specifically recommended by J.K. Rowling. You can find a list in the first post of this thread. When we finish that list, we may open up the discussions to include many different books, so hang on to that suggestion.
Ah, thanks a lot Pyxis, I didn't know about that!
Well, just be sure to get a good translation, as I have been told that there are two different versions available in the USA. The one named Momo is the one you should go with, the other one is something along the lines of The Grey Gentlemen (talk about translators taking artistic liberties!)
Posted by: luna_sparkle Jun 15 2008, 03:52 AM
I'd like to read 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' or Ballet Shoes'. They were two of my favourite childhood books. 
My copy of 'Theater Shoes' is called 'Curtain Up'.
Posted by: The Whomping Willow Jun 15 2008, 03:58 AM
I would love to read the Chronicles of Narnia again. The have so many hidden 'messages' and the series just ends so, for want of a better word, nicely!
Also, I REALLY should read Lord of the Rings again... :S Must add that to my list of books to read.
Posted by: Harry's Horntail Jun 15 2008, 04:29 AM
If we're going for a single and we want something other than Jane Austen again (even though I'd love that) I think I Capture the castle would be a great next one to go to.
Posted by: Moose_Starr Jun 15 2008, 11:37 AM
It's so tough to think of choosing another book when we've just started reading The Hobbit which I love.
But, for single book I guess I would choose either The Little White Horse because I have that book & I struggled with reading it so, rereading it with everyone would be more fun. Or, Sense and Sensibility because I love the Alan Rickman movie so it would be fun to read the book.
For book series, being in Hobbity mood I'd have to say LOTR 
Posted by: DramioneForever Jun 15 2008, 05:18 PM
I think Persusion By Jane Austen (Love this one 
.) or I Capture The Castle By Dodie Smith (which I have but have not read yet.)
Posted by: aburgess68 Jun 15 2008, 07:29 PM
Oh wow! So many good choices!
Growing up, I read all of the Shoes books by Streatfeild, and would love to read any of them again. I also read the Narnia series and am now rereading it with my son (already finished The Magician's Nephew and am just starting The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe).
But I also loved all of the Austen books, although I haven't actually read them all, or the Sally series by Pullman.
However, I did not like Animal Farm AT ALL. So I guess, I'd really just prefer to vote "not that". 
Posted by: fidelia Jun 15 2008, 10:12 PM
I'm beginning to feel like what my grandmother used to call a "one note johnny" - but Im going to vote one last time for "I Capture the Castle". It's an awesome read....hand on heart, you'll love it!
Posted by: Dreamteam Jun 16 2008, 05:27 AM
So far we have suggestions for:
Individual Books
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
Series
Narnia by C S Lewis
LoTR by J R R Tolkien
Sally Lockhart Trilogy by Philip Pullman
Please let us know if there any other specific books or series to add to this list, rather than"anything by ..." so that we can then add that title to the list for the voting poll. We hope to eventually read all the books listed in http://read-next-t62526.html&view=findpost&p=1628064#entry1628064.
We'll close this thread in a day or two so that voting can begin. 
Posted by: Elwood J. Blues Jun 16 2008, 08:11 AM
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis please!!!
Posted by: schopenhauerfan Jun 17 2008, 06:06 AM
I noticed that this "Leakycon" thingy having some affiliation with this site is going to be held in Boston next year. Maybe you should throw in some Boston (or at any rate New England) based fiction at some point? Since I'm quite new to the site, I'm not really sure what "works" and does not work as a recommendation, meaning I haven't a clue if Louisa May Alcott works better than HP Lovecraft, though my personal preference would be to feed Jo et al to the Deep Ones. 
I quite enjoyed an abridged audiobook of The Dante Club I listened to about a year and a half ago, but I'm not sure if a work of historical fiction that's also a murder-mystery would work on this site. I do plan on reading the full text at some point, but the extent my personal preferences in reading material are applicable to others is unclear to me.
Posted by: Dreamteam Jun 17 2008, 08:48 AM
I quite enjoyed an abridged audiobook of The Dante Club I listened to about a year and a half ago, but I'm not sure if a work of historical fiction that's also a murder-mystery would work on this site. I do plan on reading the full text at some point, but the extent my personal preferences in reading material are applicable to others is unclear to me.
Hi schopenhauerfan
to the Leaky Lounge. I loved Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and the sequels, I read them over and over again as a child, I always wanted to be Jo March 
but I haven't read The Dante Club, I'll have to look out for that one. For now we're only looking at books recommended by Jo Rowling, you can see a list in post #1 http://www.leakylounge.com/read-next-t62526.html&view=findpost&p=1628064#entry1628064 to choose from but, once we've exhausted that list, we'll start to branch out a little a look for other suggestions. Meanwile I hope you'll enjoy discussing The Hobbit and come back to discuss some of the future books which will be The Amber Spyglass next (we've already read the first two books) followed by whichever book comes out of the poll from this thread. Pyxis is right, it does sound more complicated when written down lol. http://www.leakylounge.com/read-next-t62526.html&view=findpost&p=1628064#entry1628064
Posted by: schopenhauerfan Jun 17 2008, 04:20 PM
Sorry about failing to follow instructions. Completely missed that.
I'll do a Dobby-style penance should you deem it necessary.
I'm about to start it, once I finish a re-read of DH. Possibly in time for the club, possibly not. I think I've read the Hobbit and LotR in total about seven or eight times by now, doing a re-read about once every three to five years or so.
I've read the trilogy. Liked the first book, but didn't particularly care for the second or third. Both seemed to me to have a great deal of padding and pointless questing, but I'll see how I feel about doing a re-read.
to the Leaky Lounge. I loved Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and the sequels, I read them over and over again as a child, I always wanted to be Jo March but I haven't read The Dante Club, I'll have to look out for that one. For now we're only looking at books recommended by Jo Rowling, you can see a list in post #1 http://www.leakylounge.com/read-next-t62526.html&view=findpost&p=1628064#entry1628064 to choose from but,Funny, two seconds after I posted that last message I had an "ah-ha" moment about what might have caused me to post as I did. Per Time magazine, as of 2005 it looked like she liked neither Tolkien nor Lewis. Link and excerpt follow...
It wasn't until after Sorcerer's Stone was published that it even occurred to her that she had written one. "That's the honest truth," she says. "You know, the unicorns were in there. There was the castle, God knows. But I really had not thought that that's what I was doing. And I think maybe the reason that it didn't occur to me is that I'm not a huge fan of fantasy." Rowling has never finished The Lord of the Rings. She hasn't even read all of C.S. Lewis' Narnia novels, which her books get compared to a lot. There's something about Lewis' sentimentality about children that gets on her nerves. "There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found sex," Rowling says. "I have a big problem with that."
I guess she changed her mind at some point, post 2005? Or did Time Magazine pull a Rita Skeeter? Since I'm decidedly on the 'casual fan' end of the spectrum I'll certainly defer to the experts here....but I'm guessing I was just remembering that article, and presumed that neither Tolkien or Lewis would get a JKR endorsement. (Though it has been decades since I've read the Narnia books, I thought Susan didn't turn out as she did until the last book? http://java%20script:add_smilie( )
edited by dreamteam to merge two consecutive posts
Posted by: Pyxis Jun 17 2008, 06:45 PM
Hmm, interesting quote schopenhauerfan. The list we have worked from is the list in the Cauldron Shop as being recommended by JKR. I did find a quote from a 2001 interview http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2001/1001-sydney-renton.htm in which she says this:
Ideas come from all sorts of places and sometimes I don't realise where I got them from. A friend from London recently asked me if I remembered when we first saw Hogwarts. I had no idea what she was talking about until she recalled the day we went to Kew Gardens and saw those lilies that were called Hogwarts. I'd seen them seven years before and they'd bubbled around in my memory. When Hogwarts occurred to me as a name for the school, I had no idea where it came from.
I found myself thinking about the wardrobe route to Narnia [in the CS Lewis series including The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe] when Harry is told he has to hurl himself at a barrier in Kings Cross Station - it dissolves and he's on platform Nine and Three-Quarters, and there's the train for Hogwarts.
Narnia is literally a different world, whereas in the Harry books you go into a world within a world that you can see if you happen to belong. A lot of the humour comes from collisions between the magic and the everyday worlds. Generally there isn't much humour in the Narnia books, although I adored them when I was a child. I got so caught up I didn't think CS Lewis was especially preachy. Reading them now I find that his subliminal message isn't very subliminal at all.
So perhaps she has changed her mind about the Narnia series. I also found one biography-type article in which the author claims that Rowling acknowledged reading and like LOTR, but there was not a direct quote from Rowling herself to substantiate that.
Posted by: Dreamteam Jun 18 2008, 07:22 AM
As we now have suggestions for seven individual books and three series I'm going to close this thread. I've put all the suggestions into a poll http://www.leakylounge.com/Lets-Vote-Read-t62649.html#entry1632074, so please come and vote for the next individual book and the next series.
*finite incantatem* 
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