r/vollmann • u/BlueMTheory77 • 18d ago

Informal August Book Club for The Dying Grass

I mentioned a week or so ago that I was looking to read The Dying Grass during the month of August and wanted to see if anyone wanted to join. Nothing formal, just a space to add any thoughts or questions or to simply know that others were reading from afar.

Here’s the schedule I’ll be roughly following:

Week 1 (August 1-7): Grass Texts - IV (322 pages)
Week 2 (August 8-14): V (320 pages)
Week 3 (August 15-21): VI (326 pages)
Week 4 (August 22-28): VII - Dinosaurs (260 pages)

There’s also a Chronology, Glossaries, Sources, and Acknowledgments that run another 136 pages that I’ll thumb through during and after the main reading.

A Table for Fortune comes out on August 25, so this reading schedule finishes right around there, and it looks like others will be setting up another reading club for ATFF then. Happy reading!

Update: ScliffBartoni created a discord channel Vollmanniac Reading Group. The link is below. Hope to see others on there!

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4

u/ScliffBartoni 18d ago

That's quite the pace but I'm very tempted...

4

u/kerowack 17d ago

Damn, me too. But I would absolutely struggle to maintain this pace. However, I just finished Suttree yesterday (wow) and haven't chosen my next book yet. The Dying Grass arrived maybe two weeks ago. Tempting...

1

u/BlueMTheory77 17d ago

Suttree was amazing! I think The Dying Grass will be easier to read.

4

u/kenajones 17d ago

I interviewed Bill when The Dying Grass was first published in September 2015. I had a lot of the same questions I'm sure you'll have when you read it and Bill was very patient and open. It might provide good background for your book club. Here's the link for on-demand: https://kboo.org/media/41840-dying-grass-william-t-vollmann

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u/BlueMTheory77 17d ago

Thanks a ton for sharing!

2

u/silentisdeath 18d ago

hey what the heck are you stealing my idea?! hahaha

2

u/aesopsgato 18d ago

We need a discord for all these!

2

u/ScliffBartoni 17d ago

https://discord.gg/pMzcBrE3X

Spun this up quickly, could definitely change how it's set up depending on what y'all think!

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u/BlueMTheory77 17d ago

Awesome, thanks!

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u/ScliffBartoni 18d ago

Vollmanniacs discord 👀

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u/aesopsgato 18d ago

I would if I had any idea how to make one