FREEPER READING CLUB Discussion---"Traveller"

Self | April 15, 2003 | PJ-Comix

[PJ-Comix]

Sorry for the one day delay of the discussion of the next book on the Freeper Reading Club list---Traveller, written by Richard Adams who also wrote Watership Down. I was busy yesterday putting together the FR Comedy Hour Broadcast set for tomorrow. Anyway, did anybody read both of those Adams' books? If so, how did Traveller compare to Watership Down?

[PJ-Comix]

The next Freeper Reading Club book assignment is Babbit by Sinclair Lewis. It is due on May 27.

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[PJ-Comix]

Post away your observations about Traveller. This was a great look at the Civil War through a whole new perspective---Through the eyes of a horse.

[Snake65]

Hard not to love this book. Kind of like Black Beauty meets Sam Watkins's Co. Aytch.

I liked the way the book skipped and hopped around in Traveller's life as he tells the story to the stable cat. I'm a huge Adams fan so I read some interviews when this first came out, he spent a lot of time listening to Virginians to try and get Traveller's accent right--but being a Midwesterner hellifiknow if he succeeded.

Traveller's little portraits of the major Confederate Generals make for interesting reading, I thought. There were parts I found genuinely touching: his belief that Marse Robert won and his wisful longing to one day see this wonderful "war" (which he thought must have been like a big picnic in some idyllic setting, with lots of food and ladies and horses, or why else would the men be so excited about getting to it?).

You can't compare this to Watership Down and I'm not sure if it is even fair to try. Traveller is a memoir and Watership Down is an epic. About they only thing they share is Adams's skill at telling us what is important to the animals (in Traveller's case, a skilled rider, the company of other horses, good food, and a friend to stand next to and to swish the flies off each other).

[Guna]

Hey Mr./Ms. Comix,

Thanks so much for bringing up Raymond Chandler quotes a few weeks ago. I never actually read any of the Phillip Marlowe books and picked up "Farewell, My Lovely" a week ago. It was great fun to read and I am starting "Lady in the Lake" now.

So far, my favorite quote is "He was as inconspicuous as a black widow spider on an slice of angel food cake". HAR!

[warchild9]

On a similar note, try "In Lincoln's Dreams" by Connie Willis. An excellent book.

[meowmeow]

Traveler is a lighter read than WD, but very enjoyable. I borrowed it and would love to have a copy of my own but can’t find it anywhere! If y’all like Babbit, check out It Can’t Happen Here, also by Lewis. It’s downright scary.

[PJ-Comix]

A lot of people might shy from the Babbit book because it is viewed as a Classic. However, if you forget that label, Babbit is very HILARIOUS. I'm reading it now and having a lot of laughs. The pathetic ways Babbit keeps trying to give up or cut down on smoking is especially funny.

[SamAdams76]

I just got through the first 200 pages of Sinclair Lewis's Babbit today while sitting out in my yard. The weather was so perfect that I sat out there all day reading. I am definitely roped into this book, it's a great read about how people are stifled in domestic and business life. Book was set some 80 years ago but it's seems surprisingly modern and true to life today in a lot of ways. Look forward to discussing this in more detail next week.

Sorry I never got around to Traveller, it's the first book I missed in your series. (Just couldn't find a copy.) Anyway, let this bump serve as a head-up for others who want to get in on a good book. Still not too late to join next week's discussion.

BTW, I was made to read Sinclair's The Jungle back in high school. The book about meat factories and how rough working conditions were in them after the turn of the century. I might re-read that one later.

[PJ-Comix]

I just got through the first 200 pages of Sinclair Lewis's Babbit today while sitting out in my yard.

Let that be a HEADS UP for all the Freeper Reading Club Members who keep complaining that they don't have enough TIME to read these books.

Book was set some 80 years ago but it's seems surprisingly modern and true to life today in a lot of ways.

I was really struck by how modern it seemed as well. Remember this book was written in 1922 but the modern feel of it is incredible.

BTW, I was made to read Sinclair's The Jungle back in high school.

Actually that was UPTON Sinclair. Different writer.

And since I have your attention the NEXT Freeper Reading Club assignment after Babbitt will be The First Circle by Aleksandr Sozhenitsyn. It is perhaps his BEST novel. This is the book that will separate the MEN from the Boys here (and the WOMEN from the girls). Yeah, a lot of folks love to cite Solzhenitsyn on this forum but how many have actually READ him. Well, now is your chance. And the good news is that the book is RIVETING. There is a convenient list of the Russian names at the front of the books and with 87 chapters, each chapter is very brief. And don't anybody give me grief about not having time to read it since I am giving a FULL SUMMER to read The First Circle. You have until the day after Labor Day---September 2. And believe me, this book is INCREDIBLE from the get-go.

[RightWhale]

Through the eyes of a horse.

Gen. Lee's horse, no?

[SamAdams76]

You are right, it was Upton Sinclair who wrote The Jungle. For some reason, I get those two authors confused with the same person.

Anyway, would you believe that the book I got on Amazon.com with Babbitt was Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago? Guess I have two Solzhenitsyn books to read this summer.

[PJ-Comix]

I found The First Circle to actually be a more interesting book than Gulag.

[Utah Girl]

I just picked up Babbitt yesterday, and will hopefully have it finished this week. And I look forward to reading The First Circle. I just finished Gulag, look forward to comparing the two.

[Capitalism2003]

I bought the abridged version of the Gulag Archi...sp?
still need to read it

[Utah Girl]

The Gulap Archipelago is excellent as is One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. I went through a Solzhenitzyn phase when I was going to college. But I never read the First Circle, so I am looking forward to the read this summer.