Introductory Comments

Welcome to the new iteration of book club associated with myself. After watching a number of previous attempts wither and die to to unavoidable logistical problems like members at different colleges, time spent waiting for books to arrive, and attacks of temporary illiteracy in certain people the week before the meeting, I have devised what seems to be a solution. Thus, welcome to the "Books--With Benefits" online discussion-based blog forum group.

Obviously the best way to explore such a daring new venture is simply by jumping in but theoretically the process will be something like this.

1. A book is selected.
2. People purchase/borrow/steal said book.
3. People will read said book at their leisure but will sign in to "Books--With Benefits" to post thoughts, questions, suggestions, etc. There will be separate sections of discussion to avoid spoilers for people concerned about this sort of thing.
4. When the majority of people have completed said book, a new round of book selection will begin, and the process will repeat.

The benefits of this system are that the book club will no longer be limited to the Triad/Triangle NC area. People abroad and in other states are invited to invite their own interested friends. Also there is no need to organize schedules now. The downside to this system is that you may feel you are discussing a book with a computer but people are also invited to post any forms of contact they choose (screen name, e-mail, phone, telepathic wavelength, etc.) in order to form a more perfect union with our fellow members.

To ease the selection process this first time around I have selected 5 possibilities that I think would be suitable. There are no genre/time/length constraints--we are simply looking for books that, for lack of a better word, SNAP CRACKLE AND POP, and will provoke spirited discussion. For the record, I have not read any of these books--descriptions are culled from Wikipedia, Amazon, and other sources.

#1: Red Lights by Georges Simenon (1955): French thriller which "charts a hellish road trip, fueled by bad choices and their twisted consequences, soaked through with existential dread"--Men's Journal. A young married couple goes to pick up the kids and ends up contending with an escaped convict--and the twisted corners of their own psyches. (144 pgs)

#2: Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley (1948): From the author of Brave New World. Two movie producers find a script in the trash and retire to a solitary house where interact with the creepy inhabitants and peruse the screenplay, Ape and Essence, which tells of the destruction of the world by nuclear warfare between intelligent baboons. (213 pgs)

#3: The Franchiser by Stanley Elkin (1976): Ben Flesh travels through America collecting franchises but begins to suffer from multiple sclerosis, and more spiritual ailments, as rolling blackouts signal a change in the bright hoped-for future of the country. (341 pgs)

#4: The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (1992): The lives of a burned man, his nurse, a thief, and an Indian sapper intersect in an Italian villa during the end of World War II. (320 pgs)

#5: The Raw Shark Texts by Stephen Hall (2007): Derived from "The Rorschach Texts", the novel traces the life of amnesiac Eric Sanderson, who begins finding letters from himself intended to reacquaint himself with--himself, but which instead lead him to a conspiracy involving a very strange, mind-wiping shark. (448 pgs)

Feel free to investigate any of these you wish--they can all be found pretty cheaply on Amazon, if you can't find them at your local library. If you have a suggestion of your own, post it below. Otherwise, record your vote--and it wouldn't hurt to introduce yourself either. Once a suitable number of people have checked in we'll get down to brass tacks, and let the fun begin.

--paul s. m.