And our inaugural book club selection is:

A Confederacy of Dunces, written by John Kennedy Toole and chosen by Kevin.

According to Powell Books:

John Kennedy Toole's hero is one, huge, obese, fractious, fastidious, a latter-day Gargantua, a Don Quixote of the French Quarter. His story bursts with wholly original characters, denizens of New Orleans' lower depths, incredibly true-to-life dialogue, and the zaniest series of high and low comic adventures. Ignatius J. Reilly is a flatulent frustrated scholar deeply learned in Medieval philosophy and American junk food, a brainy mammoth misfit imprisoned in a trashy world of Greyhound Buses and Doris Day movies. He is in violent revolt against the entire modern age.

Ignatius' peripatetic employment takes him from Levy Pants, where he leads a workers' revolt, to the French Quarter, where he waddles behind a hot dog wagon that serves as his fortress.

A Confederacy of Dunces is an American comic masterpiece that outswifts Swift, whose poem gives the book its title. Set in New Orleans, the novel bursts into life on Canal Street under the clock at D. H. Holmes department store. The characters leave the city and literature forever marked by their presences — Ignatius and his mother; Mrs. Reilly's matchmaking friend, Santa Battaglia; Miss Trixie, the octogenarian assistant accountant at Levy Pants; inept, bemused Patrolman Mancuso; Jones, the jivecat in spaceage dark glasses. Juvenal, Rabelais, Cervantes, Fielding, Swift, Dickens — their spirits are all here. Filled with unforgettable characters and unbelievable plot twists, shimmering with intelligence, and dazzling in its originality, Toole's comic classic just keeps getting better year after year.

Well, we'll just have to see about that, won't we.

Okay everyone, you have one month. Meet you back here on December 10th.

The First Selection

If Kevin is not ready to pick a book, we could stick with "all quiet on the western front" unless that was just a drunken distraction. Then Kevin may not have so much pressure.

ps. the rules look good.  Let's keep it simple.

To those of you who have expressed interest in this online book club,

Welcome.  This should be fun.  I think.

Before we begin, we need to sort some things out.  Most pressing, of course, is a name.  I have compiled a list of possibilities for you to vote on via the poll you'll find to your right.  You may vote on more than one.  So please do.  Like...now.

Next, we need to determine the order of book selectors.   As discussed, this will be done based on our birthdays, most recent to not.  After a careful Facebook stalking, it appears the order should go as follows:

#1: Kevin (Nov. 10)

#2: Steve E (Nov. 16)

#3: Courtney (March 15)

#4: Paul  (April 18)

#5: Dan (May 22)

#6: Maggie (May 22)

#7: Steve L (September 17)

This means that Kevin Mauro has first book choice.  However, this is a right that he may waive, considering the fact that his interest in our club currently seems more "curious" than "fervent."  So Kevs, what's your story?

Finally, we need to decide on the rules.  My thoughts on this are as follows:

1.  We promise to read whatever has been selected, even if we think it's dumb.  We will all appreciate this rule when it is our turn to do the selecting.

2. We will have one month to read the book that has been selected. 

3.  After that month is up, the selector will be responsible for leading our discussion.  I envision a brief summary/review, followed by posing a few discussion questions.

4.  The rest of us will then post our reactions to the book and to the questions posed in the comments section.

5.  We will leave one week for discussing the book.  

6.  At the end of that week, the next person in order will announce our next book via a short post.

Of course, I am more than open to your feedback.  Please post your thoughts in the comments section.  If all seems well, then feel free to shower me with compliments, for I am worthy of them, yes?

In closing, if you are reading this then that means that you have already accepted my invitation to be a moderator of this blog - a blog which I may have breathed life into, but of which I am no totalitarian warlord over.  Please feel free to edit our template however you wish, add links, and post whenever you like.  I promise not to judge you.  Much.

That is all.  XOXO, dearies.  Read on.