Cerb book club choice for December and January.

[Guest]

Cerb book club choice for December and January.

 

Cerbies, feel free to start reading the book Life of Pi by Yan Martel. You can start commenting here on this thread about the book Life of Pi by Yan Martel a.s.a.p. You can read a couple of chapters and write how you feel about the book so far and comment as you go along. Or you can read the whole book and just leave a review as soon as your done reading. Or you can post your review at the end of January. It is your choice. It is understood that some people will be busy and will have to miss book club discushion; or will only be able to post a review at the end of January. Please do not feel pressured into taking part in the book club, if you can't participate this December/January. We all have busy lives at one time or another. There will be many chances to take part in the cerb book club.This is just a fun and friendly book club discushion. I can't wait to read about what you guys think of this book. Merry Christmas everyone. XoXo Peachy/Val.

 

Life of Pi by Yan Martel

 

Life of Pi is a masterful and utterly original novel that is at once the story of a young castaway who faces immeasurable hardships on the high seas, and a meditation on religion, faith, art and life that is as witty as it is profound. Using the threads of all of our best stories, Yann Martel has woven a glorious spiritual adventure that makes us question what it means to be alive, and to believe

 

[MightyPen 67414]

Very cool! I'm jumping on board (ha, ha) the book club this time. I'll be cheating a bit because I just saw the movie, but I've got the book at my bedside and I'm now well-motivated to read and consider the original text.

[baileydog 9367]

I agree ... a great choice

 

I haven't seen the movie, yet

 

I read the book when it first came out ... one of the best things I've read in years

 

I am going to try to re-read it over the next week or two and then see the movie

[piano8950 32577]

Just picked it up, using it as my study break. I've been wanting to read this book for ages now, and have a good enough excuse to finally start it

[Guest]

It sounds like we are going to have a great book club this December and January. Thank you everyone for taking part in the book club. XoXo Peachy/Val.

[Luckyme 41401]

I am looking forward to reading this book during this holiday season. Hope to finish reading it before going to see the movie.

 

Thank you, Peachy for your great efforts, enthusiasm and leadership in organizing the book club.

[Guest]

So I got a chance to read some of this book over the Holidays and I have to say that so far I'm really enjoying it. The book is set in a zoo and so far it's a story about a liitle boy growing up in a zoo. They story paints a magical setting of what the zoo may look like along with they animals that may be there. Along with interesting opinions on zoo politics, religion and much more. Pi tells a little story about his name and talks about attending school, the teachers he connects to and the parts I have read so far are leading on to the rest of the story of Pi's life. I'm really enjoying reading about Pi's adventures so far.

[MightyPen 67414]

So did anyone else finish Life of Pi over the holidays?

 

I'm all done and I'm curious to hear what others thought before I add to my wall o' text two posts up.

[Guest]

I'm not done reading the book but I will post my favourite story in the book so far. I find that in this book there's a bunch of smaller stories that lead to the bigger picture. One of the stories that carries on for a couple of chapters starting on chapter 17 is how Pi finds different religions. There are two different stories about two different religions followed by Pi's induvidual take on those two religions.

 

The first story is how Pi comes across the Catholic religion/Christian religion, which can be categorized as the same, but they have many differences. I will post some points from that story that I found particularly interesting.

 

"This son, on the other hand,who goes hungry, who sufferes from thirst, who gets tired, who is sad, who is anxious, who is heckled and harassed, who has to put up with followers who don't get it and opponents who don't respect him.-What kind of God is that? It's a God to human a scale, that's what."

 

 

"Christianity is a religion in a rush. Look at the world created in seven days. Even on a symbolic level, that's creation in a frenzy."

 

 

Growing up in a Christian home I have never looked at this religion in this manner. However, reading that Pi grew up learning the hindu religion and reading about some of the Gods Pi learned about in his religion. I can understand why Pi may feel this way about this religion.

 

 

The second story is about how Pi finds the Islamic/ Muslim religion. Thses two religions can again be looked at as seprate. I find that the author merges some of the religions together which alone can cause a debate amongst some people. Here are some of Pi's comments about the Muslim religion that I found interesting.

 

 

"Why, Islam is nothing but an easy sort of exercise, I thought. Hot-weather yoga for the Bedouins.Asanas without sweat, heaven without strain."

 

 

"It felt good to bring me forehead to the ground. Immediately it felt like a deeply religious contact."

 

"I discribed Mr. Kumar's place as a hovel. Yet no mosque, church or temple ever felt so sacred to me. I sometimes came out of the backery feeling heavy with glory. I would climb onto my bicycle and pedal that glory through the air."

 

 

"I knelt a mortal:I rose an immortal. I felt like the centre of a small circle coinciding with the centre of a much larger one. Atman met Allah."

 

 

I don't know much about the Islamic or Muslim religion. However, I could really connect to how Pi describes this religion through the points I posted.

 

 

This is my favorte story in the book so far and I feel that there are many stories to go, that coincide together to paint a bigger picture. I like how the author broke this story down and gave an in depth picture of how Pi came across different religions.

[hoodaddy 210]

This was quite an enjoyable read. The solitude and survival aspect of it reminded me a bit of Henry David Thorough's "Walden" (which is probably my fave read).

I could easily imagine myself on that boat with Pi. The story is a good metaphor for life (at least mine) as we all drift aimlessly through life at the mercy of wind and waves, going with the flow, sometimes landing on a beautiful island that turns out to be poisonous or meeting someone that at first glance you think is a friend and turns out to be Hannibal.

It was refreshing to see a positive spin on the major religions. He really brought home a good message that there is good in every religion, unfortunately we only hear the negative because of all the extremists out there.

In any case, it was a good read. I wonder if the book could have done without the last part. It was okay, but unnecessary (IMO). Maybe I missed the big picture in the last part, I don't know.

Thanks for choosing this book. Looking forward to the next (whatever it may be).

[Guest]

So I'm almost done reading this book and the story has tured into an amazing tale of a castaway sharing a life boat with a tiger. This is the story about how this odd cupple survives 7 months on the Pacific Ocean. There are all kinds of ups and downs, triumphs and losses and ulitmately Pi learns how to be a survivor. It is an unexpected tale that can be used as a metaphor that can be compared to our regular everyday lives. I can't wait to read the rest of the book. I wounder what the conclusion of this book will be?

[piano8950 32577]

Haven't forgotten this, just got delayed starting this. Should be done shortly!

 

So far, I'm loving the book

[Luckyme 41401]

Having seen the movie, was all excited to read the book. However, got distracted and have not finished reading. Will definitely make an effort to finish it.

[fredsmith 5240]

I'm just seeing this now, the movie was great, I enjoyed it very much. Will be interested to hear from those who have seen the movie and read the book.