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

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Nominate a book based on what criteria? Themes again? Or genres, as you mentioned? Those are restrictions that require research each month (or whatever time period).

I didn't see the New Leaf rule about voting only if you were prepared to read the chosen book as a problem; I abstained when the slate of books held no appeal for me--so what? And did anyone really care or notice if a voter ended up failing to participate for whatever reason?

So how would you select the books to be read? At the very least, someone has to choose something to be read.

I like the idea of genre based. The problem I found sometimes with New Leaf was that some books nominated didn't fit the topic but were allowed anyway.

TBH, it's unfair to vote and then not participate. The thing is, your vote could be the one to cause a specific book to win when maybe a different book would have won in a run-off vote. So I do think you should vote if you plan to participate. If something happens where you cannot participate, then just say you cannot participate.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So how would you select the books to be read? At the very least, someone has to choose something to be read.

I like the idea of genre based. The problem I found sometimes with New Leaf was that some books nominated didn't fit the topic but were allowed anyway.

TBH, it's unfair to vote and then not participate. The thing is, your vote could be the one to cause a specific book to win when maybe a different book would have won in a run-off vote. So I do think you should vote if you plan to participate. If something happens where you cannot participate, then just say you cannot participate.

I already said how I'd select the books--classics in the public domain, with one vote to select a year's worth of titles. That's it. No monthly voting, no run-offs, no commitment. Read the choices you want to read, avoid the others.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by issybird

Wellll, that rather blows out the notion of doorstopper classics! But it is the reason I personally think one book every three months is plenty.

Oh yes, doorstopper classics are still an option! I'm still back on the first page of posts responding lol and hadn't got yet to responding to the every-three-months (would that be called tri-monthly?) classics idea, which is also great.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by issybird

I’ve sometimes thought that a bimonthly discussion might be the answer; it wouldn’t take over your reading every month and the timing wouldn’t be as tricky.

That's an intriguing idea. I'm not sure who I'd told but I had been planning on asking CRussel about the possibility of both the lit and New Leaf book clubs going to alternate bi-monthly schedules so that anyone could participate more in both if they wanted as well as giving me and him intermittent breaks from running the clubs, but in a twist of fate he announced the New Leaf club would be closing down just before I had a chance to bring it up. C'est la vie!

[sun surfer]

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?

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

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

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

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

...[et al]


It sounds like a great idea. Who would want to run it? I wouldn't mind doing it if no one else was interested, but I'm totally fine and dandy just being a participant and it seems like who originally discussed it should get first dibs.

[JSWolf]

But what about having more genres? Just having classics might not be appealing to enough people.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But what about having more genres? Just having classics might not be appealing to enough people.

There seems to be sufficient interest to give this a flutter, or the discussion wouldn’t have got this far. It’s going to be classics only. Public domain, so no problems with price or availability. Participate or not, although it’s to be hoped people will.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But what about having more genres? Just having classics might not be appealing to enough people.

Is there a genre you particularly like? Maybe you could try starting a separate club for whatever genre you prefer.

[John F]

Originally Posted by issybird

There seems to be sufficient interest to give this a flutter, or the discussion wouldn’t have got this far. It’s going to be classics only. Public domain, so no problems with price or availability. Participate or not, although it’s to be hoped people will.

Shame about the public domain restriction. This was added to my library, and thought it would make an interesting read:

https://brooklyn.overdrive.com/media/1275365

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by issybird

There seems to be sufficient interest to give this a flutter, or the discussion wouldn’t have got this far. It’s going to be classics only. Public domain, so no problems with price or availability. Participate or not, although it’s to be hoped people will.

I would still like to agitate for more frequent than quarterly--since people won't be expected to read all the titles, and a discussion schedule can likewise be flexible.

Otherwise, it seems to me that a book will end up being discussed for maybe two weeks, tops, then everyone will go silent for 10 weeks till the next book. And if someone skips a book, it's a 22-week gap. If the hope is to keep the club as a going concern, it needs to become a habit, and can you develop a habit with such long gaps?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Is there a genre you particularly like? Maybe you could try starting a separate club for whatever genre you prefer.

I like a mix if genres. But given that the classics will only be every so often, we can use the other months for other types of books.

I'm good with science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and fiction. It depends on the book in question. But if we do it so we have a book each month, we have a better change (IMHO) of reading something that will be of interest (I hope) to enough people. So if one month is a bust to you because you don't want to read the book chosen, maybe the next month will work out.

I think that if we limit this to just classics, we might alienate some. I'm trying to be as inclusive as possible.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

Shame about the public domain restriction. This was added to my library, and thought it would make an interesting read:

https://brooklyn.overdrive.com/media/1275365

While I've never heard of the book or the author, the description does sound interesting and I would read it for the book club.

This is the sort of reason why just classic is not a good idea. That's why I want to have the other moths be other types of books so a book like this can be read and discussed.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I would still like to agitate for more frequent than quarterly--since people won't be expected to read all the titles, and a discussion schedule can likewise be flexible.

Otherwise, it seems to me that a book will end up being discussed for maybe two weeks, tops, then everyone will go silent for 10 weeks till the next book. And if someone skips a book, it's a 22-week gap. If the hope is to keep the club as a going concern, it needs to become a habit, and can you develop a habit with such long gaps?

There won't be a gap. There will be non-classic (public domain classics) books to read and discuss. So making it a classic only book club is not a good idea. We should try to have something for everyone (or as many as possible).

[issybird]

Originally Posted by John F

Shame about the public domain restriction. This was added to my library, and thought it would make an interesting read:

https://brooklyn.overdrive.com/media/1275365

Thanks for the tip, in any case. I’m a long-time Naomi Murchison fan and this one is new to me. But public domain solves the problems of price and availability and helps limit the discussion of “what’s a classic” since all the possibilities will at least be old. And there are a lot of classics out there....

Originally Posted by Catlady

I would still like to agitate for more frequent than quarterly--since people won't be expected to read all the titles, and a discussion schedule can likewise be flexible.

Otherwise, it seems to me that a book will end up being discussed for maybe two weeks, tops, then everyone will go silent for 10 weeks till the next book. And if someone skips a book, it's a 22-week gap. If the hope is to keep the club as a going concern, it needs to become a habit, and can you develop a habit with such long gaps?

I do take your point and I wouldn’t be averse myself. I love classics and they’ve been especially appealing this pandemic year. However, I also think the Victorian novels in particular can be a big commitment for some and we’re better off starting at an easy pace. We can always revisit or even fill in with another read if things are going well. We really want this to be low pressure - one of the reasons to eschew the whole discovery/nomination/voting process. Maybe bimonthly would be better; it’s all guesswork at this point.

[Dazrin]

Why try to put too much into a single club? I think issybird's quarterly classics discussion sounds like a good idea. I think if we had another quarterly or bi-monthly club for other books that would be fine. There have been 2 book clubs running for most of the last 10 years. People will be free to participate in any, all, or none of the available discussions based on their interests.

Keeping things separate puts less overhead on whoever is leading the group(s), so hopefully less stress. This also let's more people try different roles in different groups. Maybe issybird leads a classic's group but only wants to participate in another from time to time. I know people who are leading feel pressure to read or at least try every selection. So having more than one group will relieve some of that pressure.