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Saturday, April 16, 2011

ANNOUNCING: Our Next Title -- KIM, by Rudyard Kipling

If Modern Library were to base their distinctive List solely upon reader preferences, their list wouldn't be worth much.  Thankfully, the "Reader's List" is ancillary to the "Board's List," upon which we find, at place number 78, our next book, Kim.  Perhaps more than just about anything else, this is what drew me to this particular work of Rudyard Kipling's, rather than my once top-choice pick, Just So Stories.

More than that, I really don't have anything to say more than what I've otherwise read at Wikipedia; I don't know anyone who's read the book, and I really don't know anything about it apart from, well, Kipling wrote it, likely it had something to do with his 1907 Nobel for literature, and it's set in British-ruled India (which for some reason keeps connecting itself in my mind to the film, The Painted Veil, based upon Maugham's novel).

Don't have a hard copy of the book (like me)?  HTML format here; or select another of Gutenberg's offerings here.

WE START MONDAY, APRIL 18

Check out the "Books Completed" list over on the sidebar.  Of six books, 4 are already Brits'; this makes 5 (not that that's a bad thing; they've produced a heckuva lot of fantastic books).  We're reading another American novelist next--and a modern one.

4 comments:

  1. They write like they invented the language!

    By the way, I don't know if you've had a chance to look at it, but the Modern Library also released a readers' 100. Not a big fan. The Ayn Rand cult basically hijacked it. Also, as much as I like Faulkner, he's probably overrepresented. But it's fun to compare the readers' list with the Library's official list.

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  2. The reader's list is baloney! Like you said, it really looks like they didn't get a very round survey base. As far as the language is concerned, wasn't it the Celts and Vikings...? :)

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  3. Haha I see that you've been reading. Isn't it a fascinating book?

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  4. Just slowly. Spring break is great, but....

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