Literary Snobs

There's a time and a place for badly-written populist mind-candy. This is neither. It is, however, the place to appreciate good writing - both past and present, genre or non-genre. No deathless prose, no cardboard characters, no idiot plots. The good stuff. Such as Lawrence Durrell, John Fowles, Anthony Burgess, DH Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Pynchon, Doris Lessing, Kathy Acker, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Georgette Heyer, Thomas Mann, Milorad Pavić, Kazuo Ishiguro, Michel Houellebecq, Roberto Bolaño, Harry Mulisch...

TopicTopicMessagesLast Message 
June, 2024 Readings: “I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.” L.M. Montgomery7 unread / 7iansales, Yesterday 5:45pm
2024: A Personal Message Board7 unread / 7RobertDay, Yesterday 10:11am
2024: Notable deaths, eulogies for the departed52 unread / 52Cecrow, Tuesday 11:19pm
2024 Cinema (Picks and Pans)27 unread / 27CliffBurns, Friday 11:53am
Sci Fi that doesn't suck219 unread / 219CliffBurns, May 29
May, 2024 Reading: "As full of spirit as the month of May, and as gorgeous as the sun in midsummer." Shakespeare19 unread / 19CliffBurns, May 29
2024: Articles on writers, the writing life and contemporary publishing21 unread / 21CliffBurns, May 28
In 2024, these are the things that make us go "Hmmmm..."13 unread / 13CliffBurns, May 7
Poetry III: A Poet Can Survive Everything But A Misprint37 unread / 37mejix, May 5
April, 2024 Reading: “April’s air stirs in/Willow-leaves…a butterfly/Floats and balances” (Bashō Matsuo)17 unread / 17CliffBurns, April 30
Book Hauls 6: A thread about buying books ...207 unread / 207jldarden, April 29
Great quotes, memorable bits of wisdom (Thread #2)124 unread / 124CliffBurns, April 29
Now That's What I Call More Modern Music, Part IV181 unread / 181Cecrow, April 23
March, 2024 Reading: “Our life is March weather, savage and serene in one hour.” (Emerson)25 unread / 25CliffBurns, March 30
February, 2024 Reading: "In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy." (Blake)11 unread / 11CliffBurns, February 29
Not really snobs....8 unread / 8CliffBurns, February 10
January, 2024 Readings: “I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.” (Melville)36 unread / 36CliffBurns, February 1
2023 Obits: Going, going...gone101 unread / 101Cecrow, January 10
2023: Personal Message Board26 unread / 26CliffBurns, December 2023
December, 2023 Readings: "“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.” Charles Schulz16 unread / 16mejix, December 2023
2023: Articles related to writers, writing & publishing73 unread / 73CliffBurns, December 2023
2018: Television shows/series worth watching105 unread / 105CliffBurns, December 2023
Cinema, 2023: Picks & Pans90 unread / 90mstrust, December 2023
In 2023, these are the things that make us go "Hmmm..."14 unread / 14CliffBurns, December 2023
November, 2023 Readings: “In November you begin to know how long the winter will be.” (Martha Gellhorn)14 unread / 14Cecrow, November 2023
October, 2023 Reading: "The clear light that belongs to October was making the landscape radiant." Florence Bone23 unread / 23CliffBurns, November 2023
September, 2023 Reading: “Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” Jim Bishop10 unread / 10iansales, October 2023
August, 2023 Readings: "Breathe the sweetness that hovers in August." (Denise Levertov)19 unread / 19betty_s, September 2023
July, 2023: Readings “Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.” (Russell Baker)37 unread / 37PatrickMurtha, August 2023
June: 2023 Reading: "It is better to be a young June-bug than an old bird of paradise." (Mark Twain)16 unread / 16justifiedsinner, June 2023
Only one text can be next3 unread / 3SandraArdnas, June 2023
May, 2023 Reading: “May, more than any other month of the year, wants us to feel alive.” (Fennel Hudson)17 unread / 17iansales, May 2023
April, 2023: Reading "Sweet April's tears, Dead on the hem of May." Alexander Smith11 unread / 11RobertDay, April 2023
March, 2023 Readings: “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” (Pablo Neruda)11 unread / 11CliffBurns, March 2023
Slow Reading14 unread / 14estragon73, March 2023
Sade Vs Sotos2 unread / 2PaigeBardon, March 2023
Ian McEwan4 unread / 4Crypto-Willobie, February 2023
February, 2023 Readings: "February makes a bridge and March breaks it." (Proverb)12 unread / 12CliffBurns, February 2023
Jan. 2023/Reading: "Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account." Oscar Wilde17 unread / 17CliffBurns, January 2023
2022: Articles on writing, authors and publishing68 unread / 68CliffBurns, January 2023
2022 Obits: Gone, but not forgotten60 unread / 60absurdeist, January 2023
December, 2022: Reading “Cold in the earth and fifteen wild Decembers, From those brown hills, have melted into spring.”23 unread / 23CliffBurns, January 2023
How/Where do you buy your books? (Thread #2)38 unread / 38Cecrow, December 2022
2022: Personal Message Board33 unread / 33CliffBurns, December 2022
2022: The Movies We Love (...and not so much)69 unread / 69CliffBurns, December 2022
November, 2022 Reading: “November at its best—with a sort of delightful menace in the air.” Anne Bosworth Greene15 unread / 15CliffBurns, November 2022
October, 2022 Readings: " October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins."29 unread / 29CliffBurns, October 2022
September, 2022 Readings: “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” (Camus)24 unread / 24Cecrow, September 2022
2022: Things that make us go "Hmmm..."23 unread / 23CliffBurns, September 2022
August, 2022 Books: "August arrives in the dark/we are not even asleep & it is here..."25 unread / 25CliffBurns, September 2022
July, 2022 Readings “Summer has filled her veins with light and her heart is washed with noon.” (C. Day Lewis)21 unread / 21BookConcierge, July 2022
June, 2022 Readings: "The month of June trembled like a butterfly..." (Pablo Neruda)25 unread / 25CliffBurns, June 2022
May, 2022 Readings: "What potent blood hath modest May." Ralph W. Emerson19 unread / 19CliffBurns, May 2022
They Whisper in my Blood1 unread / 1BAPS, May 2022
April, 2022 Readings: “April. Month of dust and lies.” (Naguib Mahfouz)28 unread / 28bluepiano, April 2022
March, 2022 Readings: “March bustles in on windy feet, and sweeps my doorstep and my street.” (Susan Reiner)9 unread / 9BookConcierge, March 2022
February, 2022 Readings: “February is the border between winter and spring.” (Terri Guillemets)22 unread / 22BookConcierge, February 2022
January, 2022 (Reading): “Hope Smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering 'it will be happier'...”29 unread / 29BookConcierge, January 2022
2021: Fond farewells and obits82 unread / 82CliffBurns, January 2022
2021: Personal Message Board43 unread / 43CliffBurns, January 2022
Dec. 2021: Readings "...it was in the bleak December/And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor."22 unread / 22mejix, December 2021
2021: Articles on authors and publishing53 unread / 53mejix, December 2021
2021: The Movies We're Watching83 unread / 83CliffBurns, December 2021
September, 2011--Early autumn reading189 unread / 189RODNEYP, December 2021
November, 2021 Readings "November always seemed to me the Norway of the year." (Emily Dickinson)23 unread / 23CliffBurns, December 2021
October, 2021: Readings "I wish that every day was Saturday and every month was October.” Charmaine Ford20 unread / 20CliffBurns, October 2021
Things that make you go "Hmmm..." (2020 Edition)64 unread / 64DugsBooks, October 2021
Sept. 2021 Readings: "Late September holds onto the summer / like that promise you made / you can never forget."16 unread / 16KatrinkaV, October 2021
August, 2021 Readings: "I do not think I have said enough about the splintered disorder of June, July and August."30 unread / 30Limelite, September 2021
July, 2021 Readings: “The Summer looks out from her brazen tower/Through the flashing bars of July.” (Francis Thompson)19 unread / 19BookConcierge, August 2021
June, 2021 Readings: "Green was the silence, wet was the light, the month of June trembled like a butterfly.” (Neruda)16 unread / 16BookConcierge, July 2021
May, 2021 Readings: "The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit."8 unread / 8Maura49, May 2021
March, 2021 Readings: "March is the month of expectation, the things we do not know..." (Emily Dickenson)29 unread / 29CliffBurns, May 2021
April, 2021 Readings: "April hath put a spirit of youth in everything." (Shakespeare)16 unread / 16CliffBurns, April 2021
What Light Prose/Comedy Meets Snobby Standards?13 unread / 13SandraArdnas, April 2021
Films we're watching in 2020139 unread / 139berthirsch, March 2021
February, 2021 Reading: “February is the border between winter and spring." (T. Guillemets)19 unread / 19RobertDay, March 2021
January, 2021--"And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” (R.M. Rilke)19 unread / 19mykl-s, January 2021
December, 2020 Readings: "On cold December fragrant chaplets blow/And heavy harvests nod beneath the snow." (A. Pope)7 unread / 7CliffBurns, January 2021
2020: Obits and Memorials152 unread / 152CliffBurns, December 2020
2020: Articles about writers, writing and publishing82 unread / 82CliffBurns, December 2020
2020: Personal news and announcements from our members32 unread / 32RobertDay, December 2020
November, 2020 Readings: "Since golden October declined into sombre November..." T.S. Eliot25 unread / 25BookConcierge, November 2020
October, 2020 Readings: "I have been younger in October than in all the months of spring.” (W.S. Merwin)18 unread / 18KatrinkaV, November 2020
On Nobel Prize Winners (Literature) Your Thoughts?33 unread / 33Cecrow, October 2020
September, 2020 Readings: "Like steps of passing ghosts/The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees/And fall…"17 unread / 17CliffBurns, October 2020
August, 2020, Reading: "That August time it was delight / To watch the red moons wane to white." A. Charles Swinburne14 unread / 14cindydavid4, September 2020
July, 2020 Readings "July is a blind date with summer." (Hal Borland)28 unread / 28BookConcierge, July 2020
June, 2020 Readings “At midnight, in the month of June, I stand beneath the mystic moon.” (Edgar Allan Poe)23 unread / 23CliffBurns, June 2020
May, 2020 Readings: “May, more than any other month of the year, wants us to feel alive.” (F. Hudson)24 unread / 24CliffBurns, May 2020
April, 2020--Readings "April... hath put a spirit of youth in everything." - William Shakespeare34 unread / 34CliffBurns, May 2020
March, 2020 Readings: "It was one of those March days...when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."22 unread / 22CliffBurns, April 2020
Great visuals--art and graphic design for smart people265 unread / 265CliffBurns, March 2020
February, 2020: "Surely as cometh the Winter, I know/There are Spring violets under the snow." R. H. Newell26 unread / 26Cecrow, March 2020
January, 2020 Readings: “Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings" (Muriel Rukeyser)31 unread / 31Limelite, February 2020
2019: Obits and Memorials202 unread / 202cindydavid4, January 2020
Judging Books by Their Covers141 unread / 141CliffBurns, January 2020
What does 'literary' mean and what makes something literary?12 unread / 12bookstopshere, January 2020
Best (and worst) books of 201912 unread / 12Limelite, January 2020
Things that make us go "Hmmm...." (2019 edition)162 unread / 162DugsBooks, January 2020
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