Sunday, July 7, 2013

A night talking about sci-fi books

A few SF novels beside my bed
The book club recently concluded our online read-along for science fiction. You can check out the online discussions here. As traditions go, we usually have a sort of meet-up to officially close the read-along. And compared to the monthly official discussions, the read-along meet-ups are pretty casual. We don't prepare discussion questions, we don't have any giveaways. We just talk about the books that we just read.

This time though, we decided to give the meet-up a little spin. Of course, we would still be talking about the 4 SF books that we've tackled: Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Isaac Asimov's Foundation, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. But aside from that, we asked people to bring 1 SF book that they want to talk about with the rest of the group. So, we had a SF book pimp night!

Here are a few pictures that R. took during last Friday night's meet-up. It was great to meet Flippers again, even though we just met up last week for an official discussion. Our venue was Tutto Domani, a quaint restaurant in the heart of the business district. With its odd collection of weird thingies on display, Tutto Domani was perfect! The place was a bit noisy though, being a Friday night, but it was all good. I believe everyone had fun. I know I did.

During the discussion, one hot topic was the difference between SF and fantasy.
I think this statement says it all:
Science fiction expands our world; fantasy transcends it.
Blooey especially loved Fahrenheit 451.
The novel's beautiful language struck her.
She even likened Bradbury's writing with that of a classic author.
Me, in Tutto Domani, while waiting for people to show up
I loved the place's weird vibe. Everything's up for sale!
And the food's very, very good too.
I pimped John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids.
Here I am showing Wyndham's illustrations of the predatory plant.
I wished I brought all my Wyndhams to show to the gang.
Arthur moderated the discussion for Foundation.
But he does have a bone to pick with other SF novels.
Such an SF geek, Arthur is.
Joko pimped the SF novels of Kurt Vonnegut.
Actually, Vonnegut's SF novel, The Sirens of Titan, is the book club's
official book for September, which Joko will be moderating.
Darwin moderated the discussion for Verne's novel.
He pimped one of my favorite SF novels ever—Dune! 
And Michelle, seated beside him, showed a very interesting book.
It has men with abs! I like! Hihihihi.
The guy in blue shirt, Anthony, is the owner of Tutto Domani.
Such a gracious host!
The bottom panel has Mitch, Gege, Marie, and me.
Marie moderated the online discussion of Snow Crash.
The SF gang
Last Friday's event was very nerdy indeed!
We did end up going home past 12 mn already. We couldn't stop talking about the SF books that we loved and hated. And we somehow managed to find ourselves from one restaurant to another restaurant during the night. Talking about SF books works up your appetite, I guess.

6 comments:

Raissa Rivera FAlgui said...

Should have gone. That's my uncles' restaurant! But it was a very busy day for me. Is there an online discussion?

Peter S. said...

Hi, Raissa! Oh, too bad! Would've loved to hear your inputs.

We've also concluded the online disussion. If you wanna check out the thread, here's the link:

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/12439/discussions/485905/May-2013-Sci-Fi-Read-Along#unread

Anonymous said...

I saw you guys there. I was on my way to Greenbelt 3 when I saw the girl with the long hair. I forget her name (we were introduced last year at Marie's discussion of No One Writes to the Colonel). I thought you were all just plainly hanging out, but I should've known better. :D

Peter S. said...

Oh, that's Mitch (Michelle)! It was a great way to let traffic ebb last Friday. Hehehehehe. You should've said hi!

Akshay Bakshi said...

The quote about the difference between Fantasy and Sci-Fi is perfect. Pretty much the reason why I got into books when I was 11. A good way for a kid to escape into worlds that he can only imagine.

Peter S. said...

Yes, a lot us started our love for reading because of SF and fantasy! Thanks for visiting, Akshay!