I’m worried that this will be our most unpopular book club theme ever.  That’s because old stuff is seldom sexy, unless you take Grandma’s ugly glass vase to the Antiques Road Show and learn that it’s worth $25,000.  Now that’s hot.  What I’m proposing is far less appealing.  I think we should read an old book for March.  

How old?  This is the difficult part.  I don’t want to throw us all the way back to the time of Shakespeare, but I also don’t want someone to slip in something too recent.  The whole point of this theme is to stop lusting after the newest books just because they’re new.  I want the club to take a step back, and acknowledge that great stuff was written before 2000.  But that’s still too recent in my opinion, so I’m imposing a 50-year buffer.  Any books nominated for March must have been published at least 50-years ago, and since this 2010, that makes the math nice and easy.  Our cut off date is 1960. 

So what kinds of books would I nominate for such an endeavor?  Well, I didn’t want to pick anything too large, so there went Gone With The Wind and The Lord of the Rings.  If I’m wrong in assuming that we don’t want to read 1,000 page epics, then please set me straight, but that’s my current assumption.  I also didn’t want to pick anything that would be on the reading list for a high school English class.  This is supposed to be fun after all.  I’m also staying away from Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, because I figure we’ve already read those books, or we have no interest in doing so.

Since we’re a bunch of pop lit junkies, I wanted to list equivalent ‘popular’ books from the past.  These novels may not have received critical acclaim from the book snobs, but they were big hits and well loved by the mob.  As such, many of these books were adapted into movies, which is a testament to their entertainment value. 

Here’s a sampling of vintage pop lit classics, along with my personal nomination for March at the very end.

For all you romance fans, I have good news.  The 1960 cut off date includes most of Georgette Heyer’s work.  Only eight of her novels were published after 1960, so if you’ve been meaning to try her stuff, here’s the perfect opportunity.  I read The Grand Sophy last year and I LOVED it, so reading more Heyer novels is definitely on my agenda.  If you’re at a loss as to which of her books are particularly read-worthy, I’ve heard good things about Venetia, The Devil’s Cub, These Old Shades, and A Civil Contract.

Do you hunger to read something so cool that when you drop the title people will say “oooh”?  I’ve got the book for you.  We could read The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, published in 1930.  This is a short novel by modern standards, only 224 pages, but detective Sam Spade goes down like a shot of espresso - bitter, savory, and intense.  If you’ve been curious about noir, this is the perfect introduction.  The movie of the same name starring Humphrey Bogart is also fabulous, and we could have one helluva discussion about the book, the movie, or both.

Here’s another classic novel that inspired an equally good black and white film – 1922’s Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini.  This book was a smash hit when it came out, and it’s no wonder why.  All subsequent pirate stories and movies owe a debt to Mr. Sabatini for penning a rip-roaring adventure that showed them how it’s done.  It has injustice, romance, adventure, sea fights and sword duels to the death.  The 1935 film starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland is an absolute classic in its own right, and as a kid I used to fantasize that I was Arabella Bishop in love with Peter Blood.  I read this ever few years, and I’m due for a reread.

I always felt a connection with this book because it shares my name.  When Daphne du Maurier wrote Rebecca in 1938, she hardly expected it to become so popular.  One of the brilliant twists of this story is that we never know the heroine’s name.  ‘Rebecca’ refers to another woman who looms larger than life, even though she’s dead.   Alfred Hitchcock adapted this book in his Academy Award winning 1940 film, and if I’m being honest I prefer the movie to the book, however it has been many, many years since I read Rebecca, and I wonder how I’d feel about it now.

I think this is the oldest novel in my list, but even as a teenager I enjoyed Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott.  He wrote this book about medieval knights in 1891, but the story is set in 12th century England.  It features a rather famous love triangle between a Saxon noblewomen named Rowena, a Jewish woman named Rebecca, and a Saxon knight named Wilfred of Ivanhoe.  There’s also a Templar Knight who has an unwelcome obsession with Rebecca, and a climactic fight-to-the-death scene.  Elizabeth Taylor played Rebecca in a good movie adaptation of this book, and the guy who played Ivanhoe was a sexy hunk as I recall.

I’m always grumbling about anthologies around here, but here’s ONE short story collection that ranks among my all-time favorite books.  Up in the Old Hotel is an omnibus of journalist Joseph Mitchell’s best profiles, and even though this book was published in 1992, all of the stories within it were written (and originally published) between 1930 and 1960.  After 1960 until his death in 1996, Mr. Mitchell suffered from a terrible case of writer’s block and he never wrote anything significant again.  Kind of sad, isn’t it?  But his work before that time was fabulous.  Most of his stories are factual profiles of real New Yorkers, but his Old Mr. Flood stories are fiction.  This is the best way to experience a real slice of life in New York City during the time of trench coats, fedoras, and tough-talking dames.

British author Ian Fleming created that suave heartbreaker, secret agent 007, otherwise known as James Bond.  He wrote 14 Bond novels, of which half were published before our 1960 cutoff date.  They are, Casino Royale (1953), Live and Let Die (1954), Moonraker (1955), Diamonds are Forever (1956), From Russia With Love (1957), Doctor No (1958), and Goldfinger (1959).  I think fans of the movies would be surprised at just how gritty the books are by comparison.  All those goofy one-liners?  Don’t look for them in these dark books about espionage during the Cold War. 

Now here’s the funny part.  When I imposed my 50-year cutoff, I inadvertently blocked my own nomination for this month.  I wanted to put forward The Princess Bride by William Goldman, but it was published in 1973!  Arrggh!  Okay, time for Plan B. 

Here is my nomination:

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, first published in 1939, immortalized private detective Phillip Marlowe.  I’ve yet to read anything by Mr. Chandler, but his books weren’t just popular with mystery fans – even book critics have high praise for his prose.  This is one of the pinnacle classics of pulp noir, and I haven’t read it, so shame on me. 

I’ve opened up a thread on the Book Club forum, so please stop by and nominate a vintage pop lit classic for our March discussion.  Anything is fair game as long as it was first published before 1960.   Also, feel free to nominate any of the books I listed above, or surprise us with your own pick.