For the World is Hollow & I Have Touched the Sky.

littlewashu's pick for Eleven-Books Club was Journey to the Center of the Earth. After fordmadoxfraud's AD&D game ran late, we had to hustle. David, fatbutts& I jumped on the train & popped over to carmyarmyofme's apartment. Jennifer& Beatrice were already there, & Tony was around & about taking care of Hazel, who I found out is named after Hazel-rah from Watership Down, which is a hell of a pedigree. Kerry couldn't make it, so we piped her in via Google Plus, & as usual Terra lives in China, so she had to telecommute, too. Google Plus wasn't working for her but we had spotty success with FaceTime. Why isn't my free intercontinental video conferencing better, future!? All in all, the reaction to Journey to the Center of the Earth was pretty tepid; either tepid dislike (on mostly everyone's behalf) or tepid enjoyment (for Jennifer & Beatrice). What did David say? That it's identifying quality was "banal," or something insightful like that. My thesis remains unchanged: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a good book & this is like that, only without characters, scenes, or even a plot really. Then we discussed some "club business," including who is going to pick the next few books. On deck I think we have Evelyn Waugh's Handful of Dust, Beatrice's pick, then Lilly will pick one, then hopefully Jenny E. will pick. Hrm. The meeting was also bouyed up by camaraderie; Lilly is new so we talked about official rules (the only really official rule is "you can't have read the book first," designed to keep me from making everyone read Gene Wolfe all the time) & the unofficial rules, like "don't pick a hardcover,""don't pick a long book unless it is like, YA."James picked us up afterward & drove me & Jenny all the way home before I realized I'd forgotten my bag at Carmen & Tony's, but then he just drove me back & Tony ran it down! Crisis averted.