What should Literature & Latte’s Book Club read next? Please cast your vote in our poll. The result will be announced early in March, to allow everyone time to acquire and read the selected title before discussing it in April.
You are also invited to make suggestions for other books for us to read together — either reply to this message, or send me a PM. We’ll keep a list, and over the months ahead we’ll consider adding such suggestions to future book-choice polls.
When making a book suggestion, please remember that we will be reading books that are in the public domain in the UK and EU, where copyright laws protect work until 70 years after the author’s death.
Where do fiction writes get their ideas and inspirations?
What about texts like The Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar, (or any work by him - he was a great writer). Xenophone’s Anabasis, one of those “truth stranger than fiction” stories has been an inspiration to many writers (it would be great if this was turned into a historical movie on its own accord - hint to screen writers out there ). Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, was one of Shakespeare’s main sources for his historical plays. Parallel Lives (along with The Gallic Wars) was also a source for HBO’s Rome TV series, but frankly the writers of that series should have been crucified for completely misrepresenting the people and the history. (For example Atia, Caesar’s niece, was a kind and virtuous woman, she was the mother-in-law of Anthony not his mistress). Histories of Herodotus influenced - The English Patient and 300. These and many more classics that have inspired great writers are in the public domain and can be found on project Gutenberg or the internet archives.
And, then there is The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (80% historical) a few chapters of which was the basis for John Woo’s movie Red Cliff. It has the same influence in the far east as Shakespeare has in the English language. It was written almost 1000 years ago and in the public domain. Here is an Chinese/English edition done by the Chinese text project. Here is an edition that was originally published in 1929 so also in the public domain.
Then there is the Mahabharata which is one of the two great epics of India. The much acclaimed Bhagavad-gita is a small section of this massive work. This work has influenced all of South Asia and the far East, and the whole world through the Bhagavad-gita. A faithful public domain translation of the Mahabharata is available here. If you are just interested in the Bhagavad-gita then click here. One of the main plot devices of the Matrix trilogy is based on the teaching of the Gita that you are not the body, but an atma (soul) caught up in the temporary illusory world (virtual reality) of Maya (the Matrix). Subsequent movies based on the idea of virtual realities, reincarnation and karma such as Cloud Atlas and Vanilla Sky have this as a philosophical underpinning.
Thank you for the feedback and suggestions, Orpheus. We’re starting with long-form fiction to see how it goes. If the Book Club proves popular, we hope to expand it in other directions later, with additional reading projects running in parallel – non-fiction is certainly a good candidate for this. I’ll update the FAQ now, to clarify this.
Thank you, Kazz. Tess is now on the list of books that we’ll try to include in future polls. Indeed, as the first suggestion received, Tess is at the top of that list!
We’re trying to achieve a diverse selection of types of novel, country of origin, and period of writing, so that the options in any month’s poll will be quite varied.
We’ll close the April poll at the end of this month, when we announce the final result. But the voting fun won’t stop there! Next week, we’ll open our next poll, to choose May’s book — and, of course, to invite any further suggestions that you may wish to make.
This poll is now closed, and the results are in! Literature & Latte’s Book Club selection for discussion in April will be Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf (1925).
Thank you to everyone who voted. We are opening a new poll to invite your input for our May book selection (and beyond).
). Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, was one of Shakespeare’s main sources for his historical plays. Parallel Lives (along with The Gallic Wars) was also a source for HBO’s Rome TV series, but frankly the writers of that series should have been crucified 
for completely misrepresenting the people and the history. (For example Atia, Caesar’s niece, was a kind and virtuous woman, she was the mother-in-law of Anthony not his mistress). Histories of Herodotus influenced - The English Patient and 300. These and many more classics that have inspired great writers are in the public domain and can be found on project Gutenberg or the internet archives.