[Catlady]

Originally Posted by issybird

Yes to a fluid group and no commitment. But still a monthly choice? Monthly seems too frequent to me for classics, at least of the 19th century doorstopper variety. But if we went with quarterly, it’s all the more reason to avoid as best we could selections that don’t achieve a broad consensus. And with only four books a year, I would hope that it wouldn’t be all that hard to take everyone’s preferences into account. It would be a pity to have to miss a choice out of sheer loathing, if we were to have only four selections in a year, but I really this presupposes a level of reasonableness, say? This probably wouldn’t be the club for someone who loathes moldy oldies who’d be vetoing choices right and left. Can we count on self-selection?

I was using "monthly" to avoid repeatedly saying "monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, whatever."

But I do sort of like the idea of monthly, which goes back to keeping the participation fluid. With a slate of a dozen books, maybe a potential participant might immediately decide that only half of them are of any real interest and sit out the others. With only four, I can easily envision myself not wanting to read any of them. There's also a lack of community if the discussions are starting and stopping every three months. Without a requirement to read the chosen book every month, there should be no pressure. Plus if this actually happens, might as well start high and scale down if needed.