And Then There Were ?… The future of the book club here

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I grew increasingly resentful of the time and effort involved, especially when the choices were not classics. (With classics, I could feel virtuous about finishing a book, even if it was boring and awful.

I could totally get behind a classics book club! Once a month would be way too often, however. Once a quarter?

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by issybird

I could totally get behind a classics book club! Once a month would be way too often, however. Once a quarter?

That could be fun. And yes, it takes time to read a triple-decker, especially if it's good enough to savor ...

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by issybird

I could totally get behind a classics book club! Once a month would be way too often, however. Once a quarter?

Ooh yes, I would enjoy this too. Once a quarter sounds about right.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Ooh yes, I would enjoy this too. Once a quarter sounds about right.

I agree. It might be a way of dealing with collected works of poetry such as the works of Gerard Manley Hopkins or Dylan Thomas.

One issue does come to mind—how is the club going to define a classic? The term is frequently used more or less loosely to refer to all sorts of works that are considered “significant” or “seminal”.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by issybird

I could totally get behind a classics book club! Once a month would be way too often, however. Once a quarter?

Yea, I'd also like a classics club. I try to mix classics into my reading list. I'm currently reading Ben Hur.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

I agree. It might be a way of dealing with collected works of poetry such as the works of Gerard Manley Hopkins or Dylan Thomas.

One issue does come to mind—how is the club going to define a classic? The term is frequently used more or less loosely to refer to all sorts of works that are considered “significant” or “seminal”.

I think one criterion would be age. Set a hard date limit. And those interested could decide what other criteria would apply. With a small group - and I think this would be a small group! - there would have to be some discussion on each selection anyway, which would torpedo the outliers. But yes, no “modern classics”!

[gmw]

I can see various difficulties with a strictly "classics" reading group. Instead, this:

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

[...] What could be of interest to me and perhaps to others would be an occasional “buddy read” of a specific book nominated by an individual inviting others to join him or her in reading and discussing it.

strikes me as a better suggestion. It's more flexible: there could be multiple running at the same time; there are no specific time limits. It's just a informal arrangement among 2 or more people interested in tackling the same book.

You could have a pinned thread of outstanding suggestions and when multiple people say they're ready for a particular book a new thread for that book could be started and away it goes.

Edited to add: The ideas thread could be like those reading target threads, where people reserve a post to hold the list of books they'd like to buddy ready. When a few people have the same books listed they might hook up (PM or another discussion thread or whatever) and organise when etc.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Catlady

When I participated in New Leaf, forcing myself to read a book I didn't really want to read felt too much like homework, and I grew increasingly resentful of the time and effort involved, especially when the choices were not classics. (With classics, I could feel virtuous about finishing a book, even if it was boring and awful. Otherwise, I felt I was wasting time when I could have been reading something I enjoyed.)

I am disinclined to repeat the experience, though I could see myself joining in a discussion on a random basis if intrigued by a particular title.

My problem with New Leaf was the rule that said if you voted, you have to read the winning book. So if the winning book is one I know I do not want to read, I'm stuck at least starting it. I also didn't like that books not the first in a series (where all the ones previous were not read for the book club) were allowed to be nominated.

[Catlady]

Well ... since I seem to have inadvertently sparked something ...

If I were setting up a classics book club (which I'm not), I would start with one of the many online lists of 100 must-read books, eliminate books not in public domain everywhere (so as to avoid anything too modern and/or geographically restricted), gather additional suggestions, then ask people to vote for their top 10 or so choices to winnow the list further and create a slate of books for the year. That way, potential participants would know the schedule up front and could plan accordingly.

[JSWolf]

I would be OK with the suggested classics if I did not have to read the winning book if I did not want to. For example, if a Jane Austen book was the book for that month, I would not want to read that book.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Well ... since I seem to have inadvertently sparked something ...

If I were setting up a classics book club (which I'm not), I would start with one of the many online lists of 100 must-read books, eliminate books not in public domain everywhere (so as to avoid anything too modern and/or geographically restricted), gather additional suggestions, then ask people to vote for their top 10 or so choices to winnow the list further and create a slate of books for the year. That way, potential participants would know the schedule up front and could plan accordingly.

Since we’re kicking this around....

I guess what I’d like to see in a classics club would be one where I haven’t read most of the selections already, or at least not in decades. Like Jon, I wouldn’t want an Austen novel, but for the reason that they’re all quite clear in my memory. And I think any Top-100 list will lean heavily on favorites, that is, the ones that people will tend to have read.

With a small group, I would hope it wouldn’t be that hard to settle on what would be only a handful of suggestions in the course of a year, while at the same time allowing for singularities rather than the standards. No reason why any individual couldn’t use such lists as a jumping off point in any case.

[poohbear_nc]

What about throwing out titles/authors that you've never read, and think you would/should like to read? I tend to re-read personal favorites and see how they age with me. It would be interesting to encounter fresh reads that I've missed or skipped.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by issybird

Since we’re kicking this around....

I guess what I’d like to see in a classics club would be one where I haven’t read most of the selections already, or at least not in decades. Like Jon, I wouldn’t want an Austen novel, but for the reason that they’re all quite clear in my memory. And I think any Top-100 list will lean heavily on favorites, that is, the ones that people will tend to have read.

With a small group, I would hope it wouldn’t be that hard to settle on what would be only a handful of suggestions in the course of a year, while at the same time allowing for singularities rather than the standards. No reason why any individual couldn’t use such lists as a jumping off point in any case.

Just thinking out loud. The lists are useful for refreshing one's memory, I think, plus the synopses they provide are helpful. So start there, add other suggestions. The main thing I'd like is to decide all the choices initially, not bother with repeated monthly polls and the requirement to read a book because you voted in a monthly poll.

So if Pride and Prejudice was one of the monthly choices, and you didn't want to read it again (or ever), fine; no guilt.

After the initial setup and choices, I would hope for a fluid group, with participants coming and going based on the monthly choice and their level of interest. I think this is feasible for a classics-oriented book club; I wouldn't necessarily want to reread a familiar classic, but I might still be interested in joining a discussion.

[4691mls]

I have often looked at but not participated in discussions of the various clubs. I'm one of those who wouldn't vote if I knew there were some choices I really didn't want to read. I didn't want to feel obligated to read something I had absolutely no interest in. There always seemed to be at least one such book. And of course by not voting, I was reducing the chance that a book I liked would be selected....

Often if one of the selected books was an author or topic I might have been interested in, it was a book I'd already read and didn't want to reread. Or I'd look at my Overdrive library and they'd have other books by the author but not the book club selection.

How much I'd be willing to pay for a book depends on how interested I am, so I don't have a firm price limit.

Someone above suggested a buddy read. Maybe if someone has a book they think looks interesting and that they are planning to read soon, they could start a thread in Reading Recommendations describing the book and inviting anyone interested to join them? Give a few weeks to read it before discussion starts so that interested people would have time to obtain and read it. If nobody responds, then hopefully the OP of such a thread would still enjoy reading the book on their own and could maybe report back later regarding what they thought about it.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

What about throwing out titles/authors that you've never read, and think you would/should like to read? I tend to re-read personal favorites and see how they age with me. It would be interesting to encounter fresh reads that I've missed or skipped.

Rereading/not rereading is quite personal, of course, and with me it’s mostly that I’d rather not reread something I know thoroughly or read fairly recently. Basically though your suggestion is what appeals to me; people come up with a list of suggestions and see if a consensus can be reached, taking into account each others’ strong preferences and aversions. Personally, I’d like to avoid formal polling this go-round; this is also in reference to Catlady’s post below.

Originally Posted by Catlady

Just thinking out loud. The lists are useful for refreshing one's memory, I think, plus the synopses they provide are helpful. So start there, add other suggestions. The main thing I'd like is to decide all the choices initially, not bother with repeated monthly polls and the requirement to read a book because you voted in a monthly poll.

So if Pride and Prejudice was one of the monthly choices, and you didn't want to read it again (or ever), fine; no guilt.

After the initial setup and choices, I would hope for a fluid group, with participants coming and going based on the monthly choice and their level of interest. I think this is feasible for a classics-oriented book club; I wouldn't necessarily want to reread a familiar classic, but I might still be interested in joining a discussion.

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?

BTW, I like the criterion of public domain everywhere. There might be other criteria, also, but public domain covers both age and price.