Now look here - Book Club Discussion

How fast could you read the book

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T

Twitch

Someone said something about a book club in some thread and I'll be damned if I'm going to let that slide. Step forward, choose a book, or I'll have to grab one off of the shelf and I doubt you'll like The Agony and The Ecstasy.

mod: I edited the subject to be more descriptive.
Sherlock Holmes 10% 10% [ 2 ]
Dracula 29% 29% [ 6 ]
Count of Monte Cristo 48% 48% [ 10 ]
Paradise Lost 14% 14% [ 3 ]
 
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Twitch said:
Someone said something about a book club in some thread and I'll be damned if I'm going to let that slide. Step forward, choose a book, or I'll have to grab one off of the shelf and I doubt you'll like The Agony and The Ecstasy.
Why don't you have two separate polls? One for genre, then one for a group of books from the winning genre. You might generate the most interest this way.
 
T

Twitch

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Krisken if I went about doing this in an organized fashion things would get done... I'll brb...

-- Mon Jun 29, 2009 12:14 am --

So there's Romances, Mysteries, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thrillers, Horror, Historical Fiction, Alternate History, what else?
 

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Lally has been in touch with the mods about getting this going. Perhaps you two could collaborate?
 
T

Twitch

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Lally, that's who it was that in my laziness I couldn't be bothered to search and find the name for. I shall send her a message upon my awakening.
 
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I'd suggest Don Quixote, if only because I've found out it isn't as widely read as I thought. Or, if people are scared of long, hilarious, books, The Hobbit is accessible enough for a first book and a lot of people have probably read it when they were younger, so bonus nostalgia points.
 
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I'd be interested in learning more about this topic as things develop and wish to subscribe to the newsletter.
 
D

Dusty668

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I don't have time for a book club, is there just a newsletter club?
 
E

elph

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Daniel Quinn - Ishmael (or My Ishmael for the younger readers)
 
C

Chibibar

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are we limiting to a single genre? or is it open to all? how often are we meet and talk about it? thread only? or vent? (might as well use Halforum vent server)
 
L

Lally

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I got really excited about this idea when it was brought up in the other thread.

My thoughts were:

1) At least to start, pick books that are in the public domain. There's a ridiculous amount of classic literature that can be found for free legally online. That way, especially until we really get the ball rolling and see what the interest level and participation level is going to be, no one has to shell out any money to join up (unless they would much rather read a paper version than online). It's also possible I'm one of the few that would be excited to read classic literature, since I was a lit major... but once again, it's free and legal, and both of these things are good for getting the most people possible to participate. Maybe eventually we can work up to cheap e-books or something. I just know that a lot of us are on a budget, so free = awesome.
2) The Gutenburg project is the most obvious public domain collection that comes to mind. There is a site that takes works from the Gutenburg project and breaks them up into short segments and emails them to you every day (dailylit.com). I've used this to read books before and it would be a nice way to set at a recommended pace for finishing... It may require having more than one section sent per day since many of them are well over 100 short segments.
3) Someone suggested utilizing the Vent channel -- definitely a good idea but I would much prefer ALSO doing it in forum style, using the forum primarily, because I think we'll get a lot more participation that way. I know the times I'm available online, there aren't people in the channel and since we're all over the globe and all have different schedules (and microphone capabilities) it would be nice to have text discussion so as to not take a chance on leaving someone out.
4) Since there are so many options for books, maybe we can start by having a poll to decide the genre, and then take suggestions to ultimately be decided by poll? (maybe in that case we can take whatever comes in 2nd or possibly 3rd, if it's close, and use it for the next book)

I've been thinking about this a lot the past couple days. :oops: Someone tell me if my ideas are good or if I just sound bossy.
 
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Sounds like an awesome plan, again count me in.

I mainly use http://www.online-literature.com for reading online free books, they're quite legit and have a very extensive library.

I don't know about the book selection process, but I think that if we have a bearable number of initial members we could just boil it down to a simple poll/debate, instead of a multi-tiered one (that'd take time).
 

Cajungal

Staff member
I might follow along myself depending what book is chosen. I just bought my big fat Child Development textbook today :bush: but one of my summer goals is to better balance my required reading and pleasure reading.

And you don't sound bossy, Lally. :p It's best when someone takes the reins, and I like your ideas, myself.
 
C

Chibibar

ditto. I can go either way. Depending on the book, my wife might join in also.
 

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DarkAudit said:
You could do a chapter on Koufax's left elbow alone.
Have you ever seen the documentary "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg"? Fantastic. He was a hell of a guy.
 
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ZenMonkey said:
DarkAudit said:
You could do a chapter on Koufax's left elbow alone.
Have you ever seen the documentary "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg"? Fantastic. He was a hell of a guy.
No I haven't, and since he was a Bucco, I am quite remiss in not doing so...
 
T

Twitch

Well you seem to have found the thread without my messaging you so I can continue to slack off. I am all for classic literature, especially since it's pretty much all free.
 
Twitch said:
Well you seem to have found the thread without my messaging you so I can continue to slack off. I am all for classic literature, especially since it's pretty much all free.
Not only that, but how hard is it to go to the library? Chances are pretty good classic literature will be there.
 
T

Twitch

Just so we have an idea, when I say classic I mean Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, AQotWF, as much as I mean The Prince, and P&P.
 

Krisken said:
Not only that, but how hard is it to go to the library? Chances are pretty good classic literature will be there.
Or in my case, mostly ratty paperbacks in Russian.

If it's Gutenberg or something I already own, I'd love to participate. Or if it's a book I've been meaning to get anyway.
 
T

Twitch

A few titles that are simple reads, well not simple but not heavy texts, that I saw on Gutenberg.

Sherlock Holmes
Dracula
Count of Monte Cristo
Huckleberry Finn
Frankenstein
War and Peace (Ok, that one might be considered heavy reading)
Around the World in 80 days
Les Misérables
Paradise Lost
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
A Tale of Two Cities (Some people I know had trouble with this one, so it might not be a good choice)
The War of the Worlds


And those were just from the top 100. I've read all of these so I can say that they're mostly reasonably easy to read for even those who speak english as a second language. I did select fiction but if there was demand for non there are some good ones available. What do you think of these going into a poll?
 
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