Huh. So... questions about timing things. How do we want to structure the actual reading of the books? Like, do we want to have goals for each week and free discussion on everything up to that point? Just go away and read things for a month, coming back to discuss them all in their own threads at the end? Should we run the poll for the last ~5 days of the month, or wait until we've started discussing the books, since presumably "next in series" gets a spot on the list for sure? Or would having the chance to talk about things (I liked X so we should read X2/I hated X let's do Y instead of X2 this time) ruin the experience for people finishing up? I mean, not everyone is going to read every book anyway, necessarily, so there's always going to be some risk of that... Thoughts? EDIT: Should the poll we're running now end at the end of the month, rather than the current end date, so we have the books ready to go March 1st? I mean, there are three faaairly clear winners, although it certainly wouldn't be impossible for one of the others to catch up if people changed their votes -- is it worth waiting an extra few days if the same outcome is probable?
I feel like folks are inevitably going to read at different paces - book acquisition time, life getting in the way, etc. - and also it's difficult to avoid spoilers 'up to page 100' for folks who've already read the book. So maybe the latter would work better, though I think it would work okay for folks to pop in as they read and liveblog feels / talk about the book once they've finished it? That might allow for more ongoing discussion, rather than a couple days of commentary and then nothing. If we started discussing the books before the end of the month, that would also make the poll timing easier, hopefully. Hmm. Pros and cons all around, obviously; I may be sleep-fuzzy and missing something.
Hey, bookclub! Our first three books have been chosen! Here are links to the appropriate threads. Monstrous Regiment The Amulet of Samarkand The Golden Compass/Northern Lights
OOH! do that thing! I'm also bad at staying on schedule, but I like throwing books at other people (not literally!) and getting recs. So do that thing! (I don't think we're ever going to say "nah, we don't need that thread.")
I think that's a really good idea, yeah. For specific books, or series, or just fiction in general, whatever kind of thread or threads you want to do. This is meant to be a way for people that like the structure or find it helpful or whatever to get some, but we really don't want to be the only kind of book/fiction discussion going on here, that'd be really unfortunate. And I agree with @boyacrossthestreet, I can't see us ever not needing new and interesting threads about stuff.
You can always start a Google doc or spreadsheet to keep things organized! Like, Fic/Book Name - Fandom/Genre - Recommended by. If it's open to be edited by anyone who has a link, you won't even have to do upkeep on it, and everyone can find things on and add things to the list.
@Valerie It's easier for me to just make one instead of explaining it, and I can't find a good tutorial, so I just threw one together. My friends and I do spreadsheets like this all the time, so it only took a minute. Whenever you start a new thread, just throw the link at the top. I've already put the book club's choices on it. Kintsugi Book Rec Spreadsheet All of the columns are different colors, so hopefully that will help. All you have to do is click on the box you want to edit and type!
Late, but thirding all of this; unstructured squee and book recs are awesome. I just thought a book club might be fun for those who enjoy them. Make ALL the cool threads. [/hyperbole and a half reference.]
@Valerie No problem! If something gets messed up too badly (although I doubt that it will), let me know. I'll be happy to fix it. I figure that having a formatted list in addition to all the random squeeing could be helpful to some folks.
@Starcrossedsky Long ago - I read them all in middle school, and loved them; I think I'm due for a reread. Loved the AI-type-thing that the second protagonist makes, and the way the Amberites shape non-Amberian societies. I think I'd be a lot less freaked out by the sex now that I'm not thirteen, though; I seem to remember something along those lines that freaked me out at the time. :P
Ghostwheel is my fucking favorite. And yeah, there's a good amount of sex and some Consent Issues scenes, for sure. Also the ridiculous male-centrism of especially the first batch, but. that's a thing. (If you want to reread I bagged epubs of all of them and they're on my dropbox, including the short stories)
... oh my god, there are short stories? I've never read them. o_o I actually own an omnibus version, and I'd just assumed that was everything. Doesn't help that I read them before Wikipedia really hit it big, so it was harder to look up full bibliographies...
Yep, just a handful. They were building up into an anthology that told its own story, but the author died before there were more than five of them. There's also a special edition prologue to the sixth book that talks about Merlin's trip through the Logrus.
I loved Zelazny when I was young. Lord of Light was my favorite. The Amber books were lots of fun too. I'd participate in a reread.
*pokes abandoned thread* i was going to make a new thread but I found this one so here I am. i was wondering if anyone still wanted to actually try and do this book club thing? I figure that a distraction from the world being stressful would be Nice and I'd like to get back into reading stuff that's not news articles, academia, or fanfic, and people on here have mentioned some p cool books, so i figured why not?
I'd love to pick this up again, coming back to the forum this time. I didn't see another bookclub-style thread, did I just miss it or did it not get off the ground? If the latter, I'd be happy to start a new set of polling, aiming to start reading maybe in the new year?
Oh! I don't think there have been any others--I think I sorta forgot about my post in here for a while since I've been caught up in RL stuff. But I'm definitely still on board to try doing a book club! :> I especially like the idea of starting to read in the new year. Gives us something to look forward to!
