I'm confused. Is this a reading club or a photoshop/logo club...? ;)

I didn't do well regarding book club participation in 2017 (only read and reviewed one, I think), but I will get involved in this one in 2018. Cannot promise to participate every time, but will add to my 2018 challenges that I will aim for at least one every quarter (so a minimum of four for the year).

Congrats everybody for floating a new book club! I wish I could take part in club activities but my terribly busy schedule does not permit me at present. Wishing all success to the club! :)

Thanks Dazrin - I think I just forgot to hit the Upload button!

Hello orlok and drjd! We would welcome whatever level of participation you can manage. As issybird said, the more, the merrier.

There are going to be times when the winning book will be one I do not want to read for any number of reasons like too expensive, not able to get from Overdrive in time, just don't want to read that book, etc. But I will try to read more for the book club when possible.

OK, Jon, we're going to do our best to keep prices reasonable and availability high. That said, "just don't want to read that book" is not going to be a legitimate reason not to participate and the Guidelines are explicit on that. If you vote, you're committing yourself to reading the eventual choice if you possibly can. If you're unwilling to read a possible selection, then you're expected to pass on voting; you'd still be more than welcome to participate in the discussion if the choice appealed to you.

Yes, stuff happens and we recognize that. But as with Bruno, there's a difference between "ca'n't" and "wo'n't." And certainly we expect people not to be so rude that they say that they won't read the selection because they "just don't want to." Reading other people's nominations is a courtesy to extend to them in expectation of the same courtesy in return.

So no more voting and then just not bothering? We had too much of some voting and when the winning book won, not all of those who voted for it bothered. That was a problem as we had too many books that were not all that good win when some of those books would not have won.

Correct, Jon. No more "drive-by" voting. We all recognize that for any given month, one might not be able to read the book. But don't make it a habit.

Definitely the logo club. :)

I'm just trying my own variation now. I wish there was a way to have left and right sides as [div] sections, but I think this one works okay ... for now.

I rather like it, gmw. Well done. If this is a Logo club, we've definitely got some good nominations. ;)

What are people's thoughts with regard to nominating short-story collections, or perhaps individual stories (novellas or whatever) within a collection?

For the March nominations I have a book in mind, from which one story was made into a movie. The particular story is around 55 pages (approx 18k words), and it may well be complex enough for discussion on its own, but the whole collection is only 281 pages (91k words), 8 stories, and all of it's good and interesting.

I can see how short stories might make things messy (especially really large collections) in the discussion. On the other hand, some collections are truly excellent as a whole.

Perhaps this question is best left to the specific vote? (So each book gets judged on its own merits.) But thought I'd see what reaction I got here before spending a nomination on something people might rather not attempt.

I have no issues with the nomination of a shorter work. And we can focus on the individual story, or look at the collection as a whole. Either one would be an acceptable nomination, IMNSHO.

My own nomination this month will be for a book of only 128 pages. Though if I do a second nomination, it will be for a rather longer work.

It depends on the collection. If it's one of those where the stories are part of a series then that won't work. If the stories are all truly stand alone, then it may work. Another thing that might work is to nominate two novellas.

Can we please make it that if you look at Amazon or Kobo for availability that you also look at both? I do look at Amazon for those with a Kindle. So it would be nice if those with a Kindle would reciprocate with Kobo. Thanks.

P.S. An Overdrive link would not go amiss.

Overdrive has no meaning to me in the UK.