After alerting the people on Steve's blog and giving out my address to about 550 people I know, I'm proud to announce the results.
Battle Royale - 3 (one being a verbal vote from Mama Chan)
Age of Innocence - 2
The Duke's Children - 1
The World Is Flat - 1
And two write in votes: Cages and War and Peace
Thank you to all who voted. Please feel free to vote for the next book I'll read. So far Age of Innocence is in the lead. But all that could change with YOUR vote.
So I will be reading Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. The title refers to a type of wrestling match, which the beginning chapter explains, is when 20 or so wrestlers all enter the ring at once and have a free for all. They may fight one on one or gang up on the same person. As a wrestler is pinned, they must leave the ring. Finally, only one wrestler remains and wins it all.
The second chapter is a secret government document. It is not clear what they are talking about but there is obviously evil afoot. The government appears to be a totalitarian type government whose concern for its people is nil.
The third chapter introduces a bunch of junior high school children, 42 in all. They are on a bus going on some sort of field trip. Could they be the participants in our Battle Royale? We learn about a young man, Shuya Nanhara (Male Student No.15). Yes, male student no. 15. How ominous is that? Each student introduces is given a number. We discover who is the school jock (Male Student No. 3), the protagonist's love interest (Female Student No. 15), the school bully (Male Student No. 10), the school patsy (Male Student No.1). It's very freaky. The chapter ends wiht the words "42 students remaining."
Yeah, this one has my interest.
9 comments:
Your next book should definitely NOT be Rhapsody, by Elizabeth Hayden. After a hundred and fifty pages of walking through the earth, the heroine's guide informs her that they've arrived at their starting point. I'll try to toss my stripped copy where it won't wash into your possession.
Thanks for the warning, Elmo.
I once read a short story that was kind of like that. A nomadic tribe wandering along, burying their dead as they go, eventually end up back at the beginning. I read it about 20 years ago (when I was 4) so that's all I remember. It was good though.
OH, the sheer joy of 'The Duke's Children'! Despite the results of Beepy's poll (you will end up either HATING 'Battle Royale' or being utterly bewildered by it ... you certainly will not under any circumstances LIKE it or consider it reading time well spent), it's rapturous to be submerged in Trollope's prose again - so I have manateeforallseasons to thank for that!
I must go now and find out what the Duke of Omnium writes to Mrs. Finn in response to her demand that he apologize for the curt note he sent her previously! Will he swallow his pride and abase himself, especially since when he brought the whole matter before Lady Cantrip, she agreed with Mrs. Finn entirely? Or will he remain obstinate and continue to snub her? Oh, why can't he see that his animadversion toward Mrs. Finn springs from his grief at the loss of his wife, who was Mrs. Finn's close friend? Why can't he admit he's HUMAN???
Must go!
By not reading Age of Innocence, you cheerfully give away the last dance at next month's social to Wilhemina. Oh, the horror...
Yours, S.
Sigfreid, I have no idea what you're talking about (thanks for commenting though; it's all about commenting) so I'm going to count that as a vote for "Age of Innocence."
Steve, you are wrong (I'm not on my deathbed yet so I get to say that). I am enjoying "Battle Royale". Stop already; you've hooked me on "The Duke's Children". I do want to read it - if only it wins the poll. (By the way, how can we not call the character Lady Catnip. Clearly that's what Trollope meant.)
I was reading along in "The Duke's Children" today, minding my own business, when I came to a part where the Duke of Omnium's amiable, dimwitted son Lord Silverbridge mentions a comment made by Phineas Finn. To which the Duke replies without batting an eyelash:
"If Mr. Finn said so it would probably be so, with some little allowance for Irish exaggeration. He is a clever man, with less of his country's hyperbole than others; - but still not without his share."
Ulp.
Pity (purses lips seductively)...
who IS this 'zigfreid' person? I'm repulsed, yet I cannot look away ...
Oh, another vote for Age of Innocence! Something fine to wash out the stain of murderous schoolchildren!
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