Let’s do this: a Reader Support Group for Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Has life tasted a little stale and flat to you lately? Have the books you’ve read and the films you’ve seen recently left you cold? Are you afraid that you’re becoming boring and predictable?
You could jump out of a plane or start a fight club. Or you could read this book.
It is horrifically violent.
It is apocalyptic. It is genius. It is insane.
It’s a goddam masterpiece.
If Blood Meridian doesn’t slap you out of your stupor nothing will.
If it were easy we wouldn’t need a support group. Are you in or not?
How it works.
1. Sign up in comments.
2. If you don’t have a copy, get one.
3. Wait for further notice.
* * * * *
Per Momelia’s suggestion, the culminating activity for this reader support group is a live discussion with drinks. Trust me, we’ll need alcohol.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 19th, 2011 at 01:15
I just finished Letters from the Earth, by Mark Twain, and it made devilish fun of the Bible. I am now reading The World’s Most Evil Psychopaths. You got me at “It is horrifically violent.” Count me in, please, and I’ll be looking for a copy in Bestsellers in Robinson’s Galleria.
June 19th, 2011 at 03:26
Did some reading on this book, and all that scalping is making me, ah, horny. Plus, I remember you using the word Trauma in reference to this same piece. What the hell is with this book? I’ve never been in a reading group, so I wonder how this will go. Do we drink while reading?
Chapter One… kampai?
June 19th, 2011 at 10:17
Yay Momelia! You, me, cats, our multiple personalities, we have a reading group!
June 19th, 2011 at 12:00
OK, I’m in. Will get my copy on Tuesday. Woohooo
June 19th, 2011 at 14:01
I can see it in my head. We’ll be huddled in this large circle, and we’ll be in this room with this warm yellow glow because we have nothing but reading lamps on. There will be several of those lamps scattered all around, and three of those lamps won’t have their lamp shades no more. The airconditioning will be strong enough, and we will have our reading coats on in consequence. And because that’s nakaka-shala. There will be a faint whiff of cat pellets in the air, Whiskas, that is, because some of us will bring our cats with us. And they will be curled in our laps as we are reading.
Our room will have wall to wall carpeting, and it will be this plush red number that’s beginning to fade in places. Particularly in those areas that border the five, dark blue single seater sofas and three, white lazy boys. There will be a storm of throw pillows of varying sizes all over the place.
And there will be this exquisitely finished wooden center table that doubles as a tabernacle of sorts; it will have glasses. There will be several shot glasses, maybe a flute glass or two, sliced lemons, a salt shaker, an ice bucket, tongs, and a criminal scattering of our drinks of choice. This feast of alcohol will be the awful bane of teetotallers, an ambrosia for alcoholics, and will be the equivalent of San Miguel’s gross sales for June and July combined.
Someone toasts the first chapter and observes the same ceremony with each succeeding chapter. Now, there will be several of us in that reading group, and we all read at varying paces, and we will drink to celebrate a new chapter, and that includes somebody else’s reading accomplishment. This system will guarantee a cross-eyed member by the time he or she gets to chapter three, and it will … oh I don’t suppose that will work.
I have never been part of a reading group, so this is how I imagined things to proceed. But then again, I’m game for anything, so just let me know what you think is best.
June 19th, 2011 at 14:26
just as you read Salinger for your reading list, I read your blog for my reading list. just got my Blood Meridian.
June 19th, 2011 at 17:07
I’m in! (books and alcohol are love!)
Will be checking the NBS branch near the office for a copy :)
June 19th, 2011 at 17:43
I’ve been reading a lot of Patricia Highsmith short stories lately and she does not leave me cold.
I wanna join! I have an ebook of this but I might get a paperback para feel na feel. Yes to alcohol too.
June 19th, 2011 at 20:07
Ooo, I have read Blood Diamond, a copy was mailed to me by a friend with the directive to read it (or else lose his respect). I enjoyed it, but it was difficult at times.
Even if I can’t be there physically to join the reading group, I’ll definitely toss in any two cents I have when I see the posts. The baby tree!!!! Eeek!
June 19th, 2011 at 20:34
Ack, sorry, that’s Blood Meridian, not Diamond.
June 19th, 2011 at 21:42
Let’s see if this whole thing works. Count me in. :)
June 20th, 2011 at 02:07
I’ve had this Modern Library hard edition for a couple years now that I don’t wanna touch (just like my Moby Dick) because it’s just so freaking beautiful! It’s the one with the intro written by Harold Bloom, who thinks it’s one of the greatest books ever and he has read a LOT. Maybe I should just get a trade paperback copy that I can take with me anywhere and not be afraid to dog-ear and such.
June 20th, 2011 at 02:37
Okay…I just re-read what I wrote and I swear to a god that I don’t believe in that all the naughty connotations were unintentional (at least consciously). LOL
June 20th, 2011 at 08:57
Sign me up. Will be ordering Blood Meridien from my closest bookstore… And maybe will be picking up a bottle of Jack Daniels at the closest liquor store. Neat please!
June 20th, 2011 at 22:43
Hmmm, after I finish devouring Ian McEwan’s The Comfort of Strangers (I’m 20 pages na lang!), I’ll join.
June 25th, 2011 at 22:06
pwede pa bang sumali? Nabasa ko ang The Road at natatakot akong basahin ang Blood Meridian kasi baka umiyak ulit ako ng litro litro, sayang naman ang ginagastos ko sa anti-ageing eye creams. Pero promise, lahat ng tao, pinipilit kong basahin ang The Road, lalo na kung lasing ako. Tsaka kahit gising ako, feeling ko nagkakanightmare ako about it. Hay naku, talk about being blown away…Anyways, I think I would need this reading support group as a crutch before approaching another Cormac McCarthy book