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This novel felt different from many other post-apocalyptic novels I've read, where survival is not necessarily characterized by suffering, heroic actions or unwavering optimism. Instead, the protagonist Ish is dismayed with the complacent, relaxed attitudes of his fellow survivors and descendants. Yet, they do survive and Earth abides, as the title suggests.

#ClassicLSFBC @RamsFan1963 @Ruthiella

#ClassicLSFBC
It was good to read a post-apocalyptic novel that didn't dwell on violence & murder (though it acknowledged those things), but rather told of how people went about surviving, preserving family and building community.
The study of the slow decomposition of the body of modern culture was interesting.
Stewart's presentation of xenophobia arising from a hygienic fear of disease & cultural contamination was plausible & sadly relevant. ⬇️

"He had always tried to impress the children with an almost mystical value of books. Still he kept the symbol of the burning of books as one of the worst things that men could do."
??? #UniteAgainstBookBans #ClassicLSFBC

(1949) This was a first read for me, though it's been on my TBR list forever. I'm content to have waited so long because I'm pretty sure its lack of plot and character development and its long expository pages would not have appealed to Younger Me. But Now Me dug it, less as a novel than as an extended meditation on relationships among individuals, civilization, and the planet. Very dated in spots but for what it is it's also surprisingly engaging

Halfway through the August #ClassicLSFBC book, so unlikely to finish before tomorrow, but I'm settling in with a Perry's Puffin-label Somerset cider, classic cheese balls snack, and a bit of John Coltrane to try and make some headway. It's possible I will be too chilled to actually read, but it's a risk I'm prepared to take 🫡

A few questions if anyone wants to discuss this month‘s #ClassicLSFBC 🦠 pick.

Question 3: I think for any Litten, the loss of literature would have been devastating…could the parents have at least read picture books to their children to keep stories alive? Or would this have been too strange, given that the world depicted in many of the story books would not make sense to the children given their extremely limited society?

A few questions if anyone wants to discuss this month‘s #ClassicLSFBC 🦠 pick. If you want to be tagged next month or untagged from the distribution list let me know.

Question 2: What about little Joey? Had he survived, do you think he could have influenced the trajectory of the tribe where Ish was unsuccessful?

A few questions if anyone wants to discuss this month‘s #ClassicLSFBC 🦠 pick. If you want to be tagged next month or untagged from the distribution list let me know.

Question 1: Earth Abides is speculative fiction - a thought experiment exploring how humans might change and adapt to an End of Days scenario. Did you find Stewart‘s depiction plausible? What did he get right and/or wrong?

1 ⭐️
Unpopular opinion, but I really didn‘t like this book. Ish is an absolutely insufferable protagonist and I couldn‘t connect with him or any of the other members of The Tribe. Every time I thought something interesting was actually going to happen, it doesn‘t or it‘s skipped over. Ish‘s self-importance and how he looks down on everyone around him drove me insane.

I was THRILLED when a glimmer of conflict came but that was also quickly ⬇️

#LSFBC
@RamsFan1963

Really enjoyed this post-apocalypse story about one man who survives and starts civilization over again. As he ages, we read beautiful passages about other species and structures aging. He has such high hopes for the future when he‘s a young man, and we find out what happens to those hopes as the years go by. I found this book to be very thought provoking.

"Fifth Avenue makes a beautiful corpse."

#ClassicLSFBC #postapocalypse

#ClassicLSFBC @RamsFan1963 @Ruthiella I've just started this; already enjoying it ?

"I like to be alone at times, need to escape from all the problems of dealing with people." (snap)

"During ten thousand years, [human population has] been on the upgrade in spite of wars, pestilences, and famines. This increase in population has become more and more rapid. Biologically, man has for too long been rolling an uninterrupted run of sevens." ???

#ClassicLSFBC
@RamsFan1963

I first read this in February 2020 when Covid was starting to arrive in Indonesia and have now re-read it post-pandemic (August 2024). Then, it was possible to imagine that this was the future we were facing, although we now know that Covid wasn't as fast or as deadly as Stewart's pandemic. ⬇

#coffeeandabook
#ClassicLSFBC

@RamsFan1963

83/150 I will definitely give this book a pick, because its beautifully written and descriptive of a world after a pandemic has wiped out most of mankind. With that said, I can't say I enjoyed the book, it left me with deep feelings of melancholia and sadness. Ish was an odd protagonist, strangely aloof and clinical when everyone he's known and loved is dead. Even when he becomes a part of a community, he is always the observer. #ClassicLSFBC

#12Booksof2023. March
@Andrew65

Published in 1949 the writing did not feel dated at all and the story relevant today. 3.75 ⭐

@NataliePatalie

#FirstLineFridays

 @ShyBookOwl

Currently reading.

#Movie2BookRecs @Klou
Prompt: The Quiet Earth

⭐️⭐️⭐️ The story is interesting from a societal or psychological or maybe even anthropological view point. I was not a fan of the main character or his viewpoint on the people around him, however, experiencing the end of civilization as he knew it was intriguing. Making connections from the book to today‘s goings on, was thought provoking, and while I will not read it again, it makes for a fun book club read.

3.5🌟 I wouldn't call this an enjoyable book, exactly, but I did find it an interesting read with plenty to discuss. It made for a very good book club read. Ish, the MC, is not a likeable character, but it was fascinating to see the fall of civilization due to disease through his eyes. I'm not sure I will ever have the desire to read this again, but I am glad that I have read it.

Smokey is being very stubborn with his affection. How dare I not let him lay on both of my hands? What do I mean I need at least one hand to turn pages?

#catsoflitsy

Rain storm and reading: the perfect way to start the day.

You know you've read too much Stephen King when you can't help but notice the number 19 in the post-apocalyptic book that you are reading. Even if it was written decades before anything by King.

1. 📖 Earth Abides
2. 🖊 Jenny Erpenbeck
3. 🎥 Edge of Tomorrow
4. 🎸 ELO
5. 🎶 Eight Easy Steps

#ManicMonday

@JoScho

A very powerfully told post-apocalyptic novel with a focus on Ish's activities as he drives from San Francisco to New York and back and eventually becomes the centre of a community of survivors and on Ish's anthropologically and historically informed thoughts about people's reactions to the disaster and how the community should best face the future.

It's not an emotional book, but I did get weepy in the last 30 pages or so. An enthusiastic pick

1949

#coffeeandabook #mycover

Perhaps not the most sensible choice of book in the present circs

On sale in US ebook stores today - the new Becky Chambers stand alone and Stewart's Earth Abides, which is one of my fav post-apoc books. Plus a lot of sci-fi and fantasy.

This is a fascinating but flawed sf classic that I‘ve wanted to read for a while and picked up because of my #bookclub. After a disease wipes out the vast majority of humanity, young geography student Ish is one of the few survivors to pick up the pieces. This book does a bad job when it comes to women, race, and disability, but a great job of considering the methods in which civilization would decay after an event like this.

...the Year That We Sang.

Can someone with a better grasp of English #grammar please explain to me what the problem is here?

Each time I read this book, I find something new to adore. I love the smart choices Stewart made with this book. He examines the fragility of civilization throughout the narrative. The story is a fun thought exercise. Although this story has a plot that has been done to death, I still think Earth Abides is one of the finest post-apocalyptic tales.

Fair warning: This book was written in 1949 and that‘s very obvious from the language used.

I‘m sitting here reading the tagged book and I look up to see this pitiful pile of beagle shaped objects looking at me. Heaven forbid Biscuit and Gravy have to use their dog bed instead of my lap. They think I‘m a tyrant. 😂 #dogsoflitsy #scifi

Also, Earth Abides is still an awesome book! 🎊

This is a re-read for me but I typically name this book in my favorites list. Time to make sure that I still love it as much as I think I do.

But in no way did civilization change life more than by sharpening the line between work and play... Men marched on picket lines and threw bricks and exploded dynamite to shift an hour from one classification to the other, and other men fought equally hard to prevent them.

Starting my latest #bookclub book. Had to get this one from the university library because the public one didn‘t have any copies.

Excited to find out what the apocalypse looked like 70 years ago.

Day 1 of #tarottakeover. Today‘s card is The Sun which represents Vitality, Invigoration and Energy.

I choose a book that deals with the dichotomy of social breakdown. On the surface Earth Abides is a post apocalyptic novel, and the break down if society as we know it, much of the book is about the Earth and nature reclaiming it‘s order. As the book says, “Men come and go, but Earth Abides.”

#Octoberphotochallenge

I've gone for a pick, as it was really engrossing, and really interesting. What if a few very normal, not particularly smart or special, people survived a worldwide plague? Beautifully written. But it's definitely dated. Women just make babies, right..? It was written in the fifties, so still worth a read, keeping in mind it's a product of it's time.

Today Daisy models my new charity shop find. Looking forward to reading this, the SF masterworks selections have been a great way for me, as a late comer to sci-fi, to find some top reads in the genre. Also a late tag for #astheworldfallsdown #septembowie @Cinfhen #dogsoflitsy

“Men go and come, but the earth abides”
This was such a mindblowing book!
I found it was a realisric perspective of how civilization might end with a lethal virus.
There was many lessons learned from how the main character lives in this post apocalyptic world.

I only regret not having put a notebook next to me while reading to note all the innumerable inspirational quotes!

I really wanted to like this book, but for some reason it just wasn't working for me. I really disliked the narrator's haughty superiority ... and I know the book was written in the fifties, but the blatant sexism just made me dislike it even more. Didn't want to waste my time slogging through something I didn't enjoy whatsoever.

This is not the actual cover I have but there are a TON of covers out there for this one. Sci-fi was and still is a favorite genre of mine. This is a classic, that is soooo amazing and accessible unlike other classics in the genre. Basically, a man goes into the woods, comes back out and everyone is dead. Then he tries to survive... #readathonblob

One of the first, and still one of the best in the post-apocalyptic genre. I first read this in high school, and recently reread it. Still taunt, exciting, detailed and an example of great story telling.