Round 1

Alan - The Scarlet Plague - Jack London

Nate - A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles

Matt - Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry

Glenn - Christian Philosophy as a Way of Life - Ross Inman

Tim - The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jared - Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov

Chris - Solaris - Stanislaw Lem

AJ - The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

Round 2

Alan - She - H. Rider Haggard

Nate - The Last Man - Mary Shelley

Matt - The Accidental President - A. J. Baime

Glenn - Land of Hope - Wilfred McClay

Tim - The Art of Living - Epictetus

Jared - Storm of Steel - Ernst Junger

Chris - We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite - Musa al-Gharbi

AJ - The Great Train Robbery - Michael Crichton

Round 3

Alan - Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer

Nate - Napoleon on Napoleon

Matt - Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Glenn - Doctors of Death - Philippe Aziz

Tim - The Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper

Jared - Norco ‘80 - Peter Houlahan

Chris - Starling House - Alix Harrow

AJ - The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

The Book Draft

Round 1

Chris Eich - Pale Fire

A. J. - Lonesome Dove

Jared - Roadside Picnic

Glenn - Norco ‘80

Tim - The Name of the Rose

Matt - The Great Train Robbery

Nate - Land of Hope

Alan - Solaris

Round 2

Tim - Into the Wild

Matt - Storm of Steel

Alan - The Woman in White

Jared - She

Glenn - Accidental President

Chris - Napoleon on Napoleon

A. J. - Starling House

Nate - Doctors of Death

The following are the results from the eighth annual Book Draft.

ROUND 1

Alan Bowley - No Country for Old Men by Cormac Mccarthy
Nate Evans - Lake Wobegone Days by Garrison Keillor
Tim - All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
Matt - Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Glenn - On Thermonuclear War by Herman Kahn
Joseph - Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
Jared - The Walls of Israel by Jean Larteguy
AJ - The Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang

ROUND 2

Alan Bowley - Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen
Nate Evans - When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Tim - Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
Matt - Pines by Blake Crouch
Glenn - The Jeeves Collection by PG Wodehouse
Joseph - Good Tidings of Great Joy by Charles Spurgeon
Jared - Silent Passengers by Larry Woiwode
AJ - The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

ROUND 3

Alan - Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
Nate Evans - What's Wrong with the World by GK Chesterton
Tim Rogers - Coming Up for Air by George Orwell
Matt - Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
Glenn - Redating the New Testament by John A. T. Robinson
Joseph - Witness by Whittaker Chambers
Jared - She Was a Queen by Maurice Collis
AJ - Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King

The Draft

Picks Round 1

Matt - Silent Passengers
Alan - When Breath Becomes Air
Tim - No Country for Old Men
Glenn - The Walls of Israel
A. J. - Butcher's Crossing
Jared - Coming Up for Air
Joseph - The Martian Chronicles
"Nate" - All the King's Men

Picks Round 2

A. J. - The Jeeves Collection
Glenn - Lake Wobegone days
Tim - The Picture of Dorian grey
Joseph - Pines
Alan - Brunelleschi's Dome
Matt - She Was a Queen
"Nate" - On Thermonuclear War
Jared - Witness

The following are the result of the 2023 Book Draft from the Pacific Literary Laboratories by draft round:

Round One:

Jared - Nightmares and Geezenstacks by Frederic Brown

Matt - Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

"Nate" - The Inferno by Dante

Alan - Exhalation by Ted Chiang

Glenn - Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky

Chris - The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald

Tim - Ordinary Monsters by J. M. Miro

A. J. - Around the World in 80 Days Jules Verne

Round Two:

A. J. - Dracula's Guest and Other Stories by Bram Stoker

Matt - Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne

Alan - That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis

Tim - Tomorrow, Tomorrow, & Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Jared - East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Chris - The Accusation by Bandi

"Nate" - Foundation, Book 1 by Isaac Asimov

Glenn - Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

All Entries

First:

Alan - The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald
Glenn - The Pearl of Greatest Price by Terrill Givens
Matt - Piranesi by Susannah Clarke
"Nate" - The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern
Tim - That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis
Jared - Notes from Underground by Fyodr Dostoevsky
A. J. - The Inferno by Dante
Chris - Tomorrow, Tomorrow, & Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Second:

Alan - Nightmares and Geezenstacks by Frederic Brown
Glenn - Human Freedom, Divine Knowledge, and Molinism by Timothy Stratton
Matt - Exhalation by Ted Chiang
"Nate" - Planet Narnia by Michael Ward
Tim - Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne
Jared - A Frozen Hell by William Trotter
A. J. - The Accusation by Bandi
Chris - Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Third:

Alan - Foundation, Book 1 by Isaac Asimov
Glenn - Against All Hope by Armando Valladares
Matt - Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
"Nate" - Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
Tim - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Jared - Dracula's Guest and Other Stories by Bram Stoker
A. J. - East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Chris - Ordinary Monsters by J. M. Miro

See below for the draft rounds for the 2022 Book Draft

Round One:

AJ - A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters

Matt - City of Fallen Angels by Paul Buchanan

Eich - Kalevala by Elias Lonnrott

Joseph - Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

Jared - To an Unknown God by John Steinbeck

Tim - Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Nate Evans - The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

Alan - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Bob - Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeve

Round Two:

Jared - Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

Alan - The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (intro by S. T. Joshi) by H. P. Lovecraft

Matt - Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Tim - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre

Eich - A Dog’s Heart by Mikhail Bulgakov

Bob - The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany

Joseph - The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

Nate Evans - Children of Men by P. D. James

AJ - The Spirit of the Rain Forest (3rd Edition) by Mark Andrew Ritchie

All Entries

First:

Alan - The Children of Men by P. D. James

Jared - The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany

Eich - Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves

Tim - The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

Joseph - Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace

Bob - The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Nate Evans - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Matt - To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck

A. J. - Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

Second:

Alan - A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters

Jared - Ninety-Three by Victor Hugo

Eich - Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Tim - Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

Joseph - The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume II by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Bob - Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - REJECTED for having been submitted before

Nate Evans - City of Fallen Angels by Paul Buchanan

Matt - Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

A. J. - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre

Third:

Alan - Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Jared - Kalevala by Elias Lonnrott

Eich - The Simarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

Tim - A Dog’s Heart by Mikhail Bulgakov

Joseph - The Basic Writings of St. Anselm

Bob - Silas Marner by George Eliot

Nate Evans - The Spirit of the Rain Forest (3rd Edition) by Mark Andrew Ritchie

Matt - The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (intro by S. T. Joshi) by H. P. Lovecraft

A. J. - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

1851

5  time Book League Candidate

22 hour audiobook

If the whale embodies everything that is symbolized by whiteness—that which is terrifying; that which is pure; that which is excellent; that which is horrible and ghastly; that which is mysterious and incomprehensible—does he not embody those traits that are found in the fullness of the perfections in the being of God Himself? -  R. C. Sproul

2. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

1819

18 hour audiobook

Gene Edward Veith (Professor of Literature emeritus at Patrick Henry College) states that Scott "invented the historical novel.” Scott was also one of the only fiction writers read by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

In the twelfth century, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe returns home to England from the Third Crusade to claim his inheritance and the love of the lady Rowena. The heroic adventures of this noble Saxon knight involve him in the struggle between Richard the Lion-Hearted and his malignant brother John: a conflict that brings Ivanhoe into alliance with the mysterious outlaw Robin Hood and his legendary fight for the forces of good.

3. Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain

1894

6 hour audiobook

4 time book candidate

Mark Twain’s darkest novel—about a master and slave switched at birth—combines a courtroom drama with a provocative fable about race and identity.

4. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

2006 (our contemporary novel selection)

10 hour audiobook

2 time book candidate Never Let Me Go, by this Nobel Prize and Booker Prize winning author, takes place in the late 20th century, in an England where human beings are cloned and bred for the purposes of harvesting their organs once they reach adulthood.

5. One of Ours by Willa Cather

1922

5 time book candidate

14 hour audiobookOne of Ours is a 1923 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Willa Cather, an American author best known for depictions of life in the Great Plains. This novel follows the personal evolution of a young man named Claude Wheeler, dividing his story into two parts: his life on a family farm in Nebraska, and his experiences as a soldier in France during World War I.

6. Aeneid by Virgil

12 hour audiobook

2nd time Book League candidate

Epic poem - The Aeneid is widely regarded as Virgil's masterpiece and one of the greatest works of Latin literature.

A  Latin epic poem written from about 30 to 19 BC by the Roman poet Virgil.

Composed in hexameters, about 60 lines of which were left unfinished at his death, the Aeneid incorporates the various legends of Aeneas and makes him the founder of Roman greatness.

The work is organized into 12 books that relate the story of the legendary founding of Lavinium (parent town of Alba Longa and of Rome). The town is founded by Aeneas, who was informed as he left the burning ruins of Troy that it was his fate to found a new city with a glorious destiny in the West.

7. Dracula by Bram Stoker

1897

New

17 hour audiobook

Bram Stoker’s famous epistolary novel about unmatchable evil. This story not only features Count Dracula but other timeless characters such as Dr. Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker. While largely a creation of Stoker’s acumen in horror writing, many aspects of the book were sourced by folk legend around Vlad the Impaler.

8. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

1604

39 hour audiobook

New

Distant relative to our scrivener?

“Don Quixote. I read that every year, as some do the Bible.” --William Faulkner

Originally published in 1604, this is known as the “first modern novel.” Satiric, adventurous, and keenly self aware, Cervantes Saavedra’s masterpiece has exerted an indelible influence on Western literature

9. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

1939

New

6 hour audiobook

The Big Sleep (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first in his acclaimed series about detective Philip Marlowe. The work has been adapted twice into film, once in 1946 and again in 1978.

The story is noted for its complexity, with many characters double-crossing each other and many secrets being exposed throughout the narrative.

10. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev

1862

9 hour audiobook

NewIvan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons explores generational differences and their tragic consequences. The story centers around Arkady and Bazarov, two young men who return home from college to a world that has remained static. They have changed but must now redefine old relationships, both their friendship with one another and their relationships with their fathers. The main conflict of the novel is between the nihilistic Bazarov, who espouses a strictly materialistic attitude toward life, and Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov, an uncle of Arkady’s, who upholds the aristocratic tradition in the face of Bazarov’s ridicule.

Round One

1. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs selected by Tim
2. Murder in the Cathedral T.S. Eliot selected by Glenn
3. Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher selected by Alan
4. Return of the Spirit by Tawfiq al-Hakim selected by A.J.
5. The Once and Future King by T.H. White selected by Jared
6. The Rational Bible by Dennis Prager selected by Chris
7. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine selected by Matt
8. Hyperion by Dan Simmons selected by Nate

Round Two
9. Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace selected by Glenn
10. 1984 by George Orwell selected by Alan
11. Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck selected by Tim
12. King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard selected by Nate
13. The Chosen by Choim Potok selected by Jared
14. Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott selected by A.J.
15. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner selected by Chris
16. The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson selected by Matt

Power Ranking

1. Live Not By Lies by Rod Dreher (10)
2. Murder In the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot (8)
3. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (6)

Greetings all,

Thank for your contribution to good books and repartee. To recap the Book Draft 2021, we accomplished the following:

• Completed our fifth annual Book Draft. See full results.
• Set a date for our next Book Draft. January 8, 2022 at 1 PM PST.
• Appointed Tim Rogers to the position of club Treasurer.
• Established club fees at $25.
• Ratified club rules regarding: Dress Code and The Sabbath Year

You have stumbled upon something rather unusual and wholly unoriginal. The Pacific Literary Laboratories is a club for men who are both busy with all the normal responsibility of modern life and deeply devoted to reading. The club has multiple aspects to it, but the undercurrent is the simple truth that reading does not have an important place in our lives because we have time, but, rather, reading has an important place in our lives because we make time for it. Things of great value are not given but sought after and taken. The Pacific Literary Laboratories is a home for those who seek.

• We discussed the possibility of an early Summer barbecue to discuss estival reading plans and strategies and feature a lecture from a member. These plans have been temporarily shelved due to scheduling difficulties and aspects may be integrated with existing meeting dates.
• The Rules Committee will determine how to reward and/or acknowledge undrafted picks that proved, after some consideration, nevertheless valuable.
• Glenn recommends the BBC Bleak House series.
• Alan mentioned the work of Joseph Campbell and The Hero's Journey.
• Jared mentioned discovering the works of Jean Larteguy through Glenn's 2019 draft candidate A Solder Reports, including The Centurions and The Walls of Israel.
• Here's the collector's edition of C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man.
• Here are the current titles from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn being published from University of Notre Dame Press.
• Members were excommunicated. No further comments will be made.