Forum Book Club

NOVEMBER'S BOOK: Everything is Illuminated



Because of time constraints and distractions I never get to read quite as much as I would like to. I have been looking into joining a book club as a way to encourage myself to do more reading since the month end discussions provide a motivational goal to finish. The website io9 has one going that matches my tastes of scifi, fantasy and philosophy and I plan on participating.

Seems like there may be some similar minds here. The forum is full of very thoughtful and insightful individuals and there already is a personal connection. My question is whether there would be interest in that format here, where we select a book (couple hundred pages only) and reconvene to discuss. Could use the books io9 picks, or another club or nominate our own stuff. Thoughts and ideas? Interest?

Members who have expressed interest so far:

Emergence
RantFromRant
bunnywink
Noob-of-Artorias
WhatDoesThePendantDo?
Spurgun
DoughGuy
vatar5
dancash1808
nsane32
JoeBroski09
ROOSTER330
Dough

this actually sounds pretty cool, i say ringworld first!!!......i already read it though.

This sounds like a good idea! I would only suggest having other members suggest book(s) to read for that month. I like how intimate that would make the club, since I find that the books people choose to share say a lot about the individual.

A book club eh? I read a lot, sounds like fun.

I just finished reading "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien.

It's an incredibly hard to put down book, a compilation of short stories from Vietnam War soldiers, haunting in some places, inspiring in others.

I was also leaning towards choose our own so nice to see similar opinions. I have a few on my to read list and would like to hear other perspectives on those books. We can present it as a nominate and poll format and member not allowed repeat nomination until others got their selections picked.

To alleviate the organizational duties, whoever's book is picked can guide the discussion when it comes up.

Yeah, I'd definitely be interested.

I'll keep an eye on this and see where it heads.

WhatDoesThePendantDo? wrote:Yeah, I'd definitely be interested.

I'll keep an eye on this and see where it heads.

I was going to say the exact same thing.

Spurgun wrote:

WhatDoesThePendantDo? wrote:Yeah, I'd definitely be interested.

I'll keep an eye on this and see where it heads.

I was going to say the exact same thing.

Wot? :roll:

Johnny come latelies.

Be a part of the movement to give it steam, rather than wait to jump on a moving train

Emergence wrote:

Spurgun wrote:

WhatDoesThePendantDo? wrote:Yeah, I'd definitely be interested.

I'll keep an eye on this and see where it heads.

I was going to say the exact same thing.

Wot? :roll:

Johnny come latelies.

Be a part of the movement to give it steam, rather than wait to jump on a moving train

Be the change you want to see, beyotches!

WhatDoesThePendantDo? wrote:

Emergence wrote:

Spurgun wrote:

WhatDoesThePendantDo? wrote:Yeah, I'd definitely be interested.

I'll keep an eye on this and see where it heads.

I was going to say the exact same thing.

Wot? :roll:

Johnny come latelies.

Be a part of the movement to give it steam, rather than wait to jump on a moving train

Be the change you want to see, beyotches!

Effin A Man.

Since I have been coerced by the fores of darkness into posting here (i.e. Bunny) anyone read the 40k novels? Just me? Thought so.
I'll join, but I honestly doubt anyone reads the same books I do.

That's the point, Dough! You can nominate your own reading material and we'll all endeavor to read it.

I know some french books I can only but recommend.

DoughGuy wrote:Since I have been coerced by the fores of darkness into posting here (i.e. Bunny) anyone read the 40k novels? Just me? Thought so.
I'll join, but I honestly doubt anyone reads the same books I do.

Friend of mine in college was reading them today

This sounds cool I'm in

WARHAMMER !!!! also still need the rest of Rangers Apprentice

Looks like there is enough interest to get something going Ok well let's start thinking about format and timeline. And start thinking about what you want to nominate. Looks like we are gonna get slammed with Warhammer so we may have to apply some kind of topical restrictions to keep things fresh for everyone.

:| O god whats my favorite Warhammer book :|

I need to read more, too. So, im in. I'll just have to make sure I keep up with my emails from the forum.

I've been reading up on how to select book for book clubs and here are our choices:

Vote—All members make suggestions, followed by an open discussion, and vote.

Rotate—Members take turns, each choosing a book for a given month.

Mixed—Members rotate each month, with the member whose turn it is proposing 3 different titles; members then vote to select 1 book out of the 3 choices.

I actually like Rotate or Mixed the most.

We will need a page limit too. I'm fine with reading upwards to 800 pages within a month (I could probably finish it faster if I really enjoyed the book), but I'm not sure how comfortable everybody else is with larger books.

I think a month is a good time frame to start with though.

I like the idea of the vote although it may not give the choice to everyone to offer books to read so for this I prefer the mixed method.

I like the mixed setup, seems like it gives the most flexibility. As far as page limit I was thinking initially a 300-500 if we think of it 10-20 pages per day. This would be just to start to give folks an opportunity to ease into it. Maybe we ramp it up later? I am flexible though. A month is enough time to plan out a page/day ratio for most books.

I only really enjoy 2 series: one that's 300 to 500 pages each, and another that's 700 to 1200 pages each. Lol.

Another tip I came across was to not suggest your "favourite" book. Remember, we will be discussing these books and might not have the same opinions about them. It would be like inviting someone to critique your choice in haircut.

Of course, if you don't take it personally, it should be okay?

I guess we should figure out who is actually participating first? I know I'm game!

I probably won't suggest my favorite favorite. It's a 14 book series. I doubt we'd get it done.

I'm a member that needs to know what new books to read. So, I won't be suggesting anytime soon.

PS: I just found out that my Lore video has 700 views. Wow. Just wow. I need to put my LP playlist in my signature now!

Shall we design randomly who shall start? o/