Welcome to the closing ceremonies of Autostraddle’s Summer Book Club, in which you guys read ALL THE BOOKS. Seriously! Collectively, there were 486 books and 161,109.5 pages read! (Who reported half a page? I don’t know whether to be annoyed or impressed.) Obviously you are all winners, as reading is its own reward, you have now grown as a person, etc. Some of you are just slightly more winner-y than others, in that you will get actual prizes and your names typed out here on the internet. If it’s any comfort, though, many of the prizes are completely arbitrary! Let us begin.
First Prize:
Chloe!
Chloe read 46 books and 14,051 pages. She is obviously a fucking rock star. I was going to paste her booklist here but it is too long. Just know that there was a lot of Armistead Maupin, some Rita Mae Brown, Malinda Lo, Julie Ann Peters, and Michelle Tea! Chloe, you are a winner!
Second Prize:
Raksha!
Raksha has read 41 books and has a total of 12,571 pages. Intern Bren notes that “If there was an award for Most Detailed Book Review or something it’d go to Raksha.” Raksha, that is the kind of thoroughness and attention to detail that we appreciate here at Book Club HQ. Four for you!
Third Prize:
Candjones!
Candjones read 9,506 pages and 29 books. Some notable standouts included Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Tipping the Velvet, and We Have Always Lived In the Castle which is notable only in that I also read it this summer. The difference is that Candjones remembered to talk about it in Book Club and I didn’t.
Last Place Prize:
Cakes!
Cakes read 50 pages. They were out of Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice by Janet Malcolm. I feel really good about this. Cakes, you are a trooper.
Dumbledore’s Army Prize:
Katehhh!
You guys! Katehhh read ALL THE HARRY POTTERS. I haven’t even SEEN all the Harry Potter MOVIES. Clearly Katehhh is the Hermione to my Ron. Who is Harry in this scenario? Maybe you? Regardless, round of butterbeer for everyone.
Folie et déraison Prize:
Eleanor and Jessicav!
Eleanor and Jessicav read Foucault’s History of Sexuality! Just thinking about Foucault makes me break out in hives, and I feel personally that making it through an entire book of his deserves a prize. Also, that rhymed. Good fortune is really just raining down on you, you guys.
Favoritism Prize:
Steph!
Steph read one of my personal favorite authors, Joey Comeau, I think because of Intern Grace. Everything he writes is weird and crazy and I can never convince anyone I know to read him, and so I’m going to use the internet to reward the one person who stepped up to the plate. TWO THUMBS UP STEPH, read Too Late To Say I’m Sorry or Overqualified next.
Aaaaaand that’s it! I am ridiculously proud of all of you but all out of prizes. Chloe, Raksha, Candjones, Cakes, Katehhh, Eleanor, Jessicav, and Steph, please email me at rachel [at] autostraddle [dot] com and we will get you your earthly reward — you are now entitled to a bevy of delights, including but not limited to books, bookmarks, candy, and Things I Find In The Dollar Store That Seem Neat.
Everyone else: Intern Bren, whose work ethic and skill at spreadsheets brought you this episode of Book Club, has determined that along with Harry Potter, these were the three most popular books:
Yes! I knew I read that Foucault for a reason.
high five, my friend. high. five.
I was going to try and make some Foucault-related joke but I just couldn’t. But high five!
My girlfriend won! I’m so excited and I don’t even get anything. I just got to make fun of her all summer for reading all 7 HP books in 6 days.
Your girlfriend is, indeed, a fucking rock star! I couldn’t even manage that many books this summer, and I don’t have even a semblance of a social life! Clearly she needs to join the X-Men, what with her time manipulating power.
Congrats, Chloe!
46 books?! I thought I read a lot this summer. Way to give me a complex Chloe.
I love with Joey Comeau. It brings me so much joy that you are talking about him on Autostraddle.
whoops, double/accidental post
I love Joey Comeau. It brings me so much joy that you are talking about him on Autostraddle.
Seriously, though, I have read all of his books and they are all wonderful and one time I read The Girl Who Couldn’t Come on a train and it was pretty bad, because whoops, reading porn next to someone I didn’t know, BUT also it was awesome, because Joey Comeau.
hehe I also read All Of The Potters this Summer. Glad to be in good company =]
wow.. 46 books!! i am deeply impressed with your book reading skills/time. and also slightly jealous.. O_o
anyway, i really enjoyed this book club, thanks all :)
This is awesome/book club was really fun. Congrats to the winners!
Internet high five to all the people.
Cookies for everyone! *hands them out*
Sweet!
Thanks again for organizing this Rachael and Intern Bren!
Congratulations to all you adorable little bookworms!
My sophomore year, we read the first book of History of Sexuality for feminism & queer theory and I had to write an essay. I was worried about the essay so I e-mailed my mom to have her look over it for me.
My mom is not a stupid lady – she has a law degree as well as master’s degrees in history and political science. She’s definitely what most people would consider “overeducated.”
But she couldn’t understand my essay – a five-page essay ABOUT the book, not even the book itself – until I sent her the SparkNotes page on HoS.
I feel like that tells you all I know about Foucault. That’s why I laugh when smug conservatives talk about how women’s studies is “feminist brainwashing.” Um, yeah, no. Effective brainwashing is all happy, empty platitudes in the beginning until you have them hooked. You don’t brainwash people by making them read Foucault.
“all I know” should be “all you need to know”
Goddamn y’all. Snaps to everyone. Forming actual thoughts into sentences into book reports seemed so haaaaaaard, although I did read the (magnificent) 848 pg Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy.
Also, I am a Person Who Did Not Think Freedom Was All That. LET’S FIGHT.
i will be on your side in this hypothetical non-existent Fight
…there was a book club o_o
Holy crap, I got 2nd place?! Awesome! I did worry some that my reviews were so long. I’m a wordy bitch! I blame grad school. I was normal before I went there!
Y’all, this was so much fun. I love love love me some books and I love to talk about books with other people who enjoy reading them. My To Read list is, like, ridiculously long now because I’ve added so many books to it thanks to this club :)
awesomesauce! i think i read like 3 books this summer.
And here I thought I did a big thing reading Under the Dome, which clocks in somewhere around 1120 pages. Well done, you readers!
i am a big club fail. UGH. so sorry. BUT yay readers! i would date all of you or at least crush on you forevs.
Here’s to all the people who read books and never got to that part about reviewing them!
Anyone else or just me?
me!
Let’s do it again!