Hey you crazy kids! Nothing to do all summer? Sounds like you need to join a book club! We're thinking of bringing back the WF book club, and we need your help. If you're interested, check out the post in the Book Discussion thread--we want to know what you want and how we can make this club th most successful yet. Thanks!
If you're interested and want to volunteer a book to be discussed, post it over in that thread from now
I've just read Gravity's Rainbow and am iching to talk to others about it as not one of my friends read Thomas Pynchon. I don't think there will be many on here who have read it either.
The last book we read (The Road) was in July. As for the book club itself, it seems like there isn't enough interest to keep it going.
^Truth. I wish there were more responses, but it seems like it's just tough to have a good discussion online. Which is weird, since we manage to have such rad debates about other stuff.
I'm wondering how many people put there hands up to help this out for kindness only. Considering when it gets running, nothing much happens. It's pretty sad, and considering what this site theme it. Hope this does pick up proper one day.
It's not easy to get everyone on board for the same book, especially when you compress the schedule. You really need at least a week of book selection voting, and three more weeks for everyone to get their hands on the book and start reading it, at an absolute minimum. Then a month of discussion, while simultaneously preparing for the following month's book Even better is to have one book under discussion, next month's book decided (with weekly reminders to participants to get it and begin reading), and selecting the book for two months hence, as parallel tasks each month. But I'm not sure you can get enough people on board for it. One or two people have to actively promote it and keep people reminded of what is pending. It won't run itself. It has been tried two or three times already (one attempt never really got off the ground, hence the uncertainty about the count), but I think the key is finding someone who is sufficiently committed to stay on top of it and keep it from petering out.
Yeah, to be honest, after attempting twice to bring it back with mixed success, I think I'm gonna throw in the towel for now at least. Maybe it has something to do with the books that were chosen? Most of the regular participants tended to favour more general/literary novels...maybe if someone was willing to run a scifi/fantasy/genre fiction club it might get more interest from members? But (no disrespect to genre fic intended...) I wouldn't run it or participate.
I would very much love to be one of the people to head the book club and keep it going. But it makes me nervous because then if I couldn't keep up on it, I would feel bad. God knows, I'm around enough to do it, though...
Would be an idea if someone does want to pick this up in the future (As Heather above) to maybe talk to someone else. IF something did come up, it would be smart to have a backup person (who knows the whole deal) then to let it slide. It can be done, But it would need a bigger time range for these book's and a lot of time for whoever is willing to do this.
Yeah, I definitely think it would work better if there were two people involved in the running of things. And I was actually talking to Joel about it, bouncing off ideas about extending the timeline. A month seems like a long enough time, but with life getting in the way and people getting busy, I think having a longer time to read the book before actually discussing it might improve things. Also, like Cog said, I'd love to already have books chosen a couple months in advance, so people have time to secure a copy and start reading before it's actually time to start talking about it. I don't know about others, but I'm the type of person that needs to read something more than once before I really feel comfortable trying to have an intelligent discussion about it. Anyway, if anyone else might be interested trying to start this thing up again with me, PM me! I'm down with giving it a shot.
I'm more than happy to help out and lend a hand if someone else wants to take over and do the bulk of the organising. The other thing that I think needs to be rethought is the format of the discussion...some months were okay, other months we'd get just a couple of pages of one sentence thoughts, so maybe someone has some ideas about better ways to stimulate discussion (maybe it just had something to do with the timeframe being too short for people to develop any more substantial thoughts and arguments).
I think you might want to be careful about putting up a list of discussion questions. For one thing, people tend to come up with good discussion points on their own, and it's probably more effective to pick up on those and run with them, one member expanding on a point by a previous member. Also, questions that appear to be leading, or hinting at a particular interpretation or agenda, can put people off. Finally, a list of discussion questions feels more like a Literature class than a book club.
Instead of a full commitment for openers, why not dip a toe in and start with a new thread,--say "what are you reading?". This way if enough dogs were gnawing on the same bone they might be enticed to post their impressions, others might be motivated to pick it up, and with some "care & nurturing" it might grow to flower?? No fair with a "copy & paste" of the media, Literary Critics reviews, to look smart!. Pretty much doing the same thing with the popular thread "Movies". Admittedly that's quick and ---easy.
There already is a What Are You Reading Now thread. The Book Club is for those who want to go more deeply into a book analysis and discussion.
Let me know what is the general mood is for the book club, people. I don't really have a forum "project" at the moment and I am looking for one to spearhead. If there is interest in the BookClub, I am all about it. Cogito has already spelled out what needs to happen to keep the momentum going for such dynamic. I do think that there should be more variety in the genre of books we choose. Books more accessible to the general forum population.
Actually, I haven't spelled out anything, I'm just throwing my thoughts out for consideration. I'm just looking back on the previous attempts, and speculating on what seemed to me to go wrong. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
Wrey, if you want to spearhead a revamped book club, I'd love to help. I'm always down to talk about books...and encourage other people to talk about books with me. Edit: Also, I kind of agree about not posting discussion prompts. I would say it's something we should play by ear-start off the discussion, and if after the first few days or so it's kind of lagging, maybe post a prompt or two to get things flowing.
Ok, but I think you were completely on target. Any dynamic needs a predictable and timely plan of action to make it work. It can't just be willy-nilly. I think you hit the nail on the head in that, just like our story and poetry competitions, the next round of play needs to already be in place, ready to take over, while the present round of play is happening so that things flow smoothly from one to the next.
Count me in for the book club. I also don't mind helping to set it up. We should probably start getting some suggestions for October (and perhaps November and December as well).
I'm just bumping this thread to let you guys know that I've started a thread about choosing a book for October (WF Book Club for October). I'm actually not very busy for the next few months, so I have enough time to run the book club if that's ok with people.
