Literary The MR Literary Club • Welcome, Information & General Discussion

[sun surfer]

Here's the list of countries Dazrin has that we've read from, so this Journey around the World topic would be authors from any country not listed below:

United Kingdom
USA
Ireland
Australia
Russia
France
Canada
Italy
Japan
Nigeria
Argentina
Austria
Colombia
Denmark
Egypt
Germany
Hungary
India
Israel
Norway
Philippines
Saudi Arabia
South Korea
Turkey

[sun surfer]

Reading Bookworm_Girl's post once more, we could instead just have a topic called 'International Feel' and let each person decide what that means for them, but in general be directed towards books with some sort of international feel to them, whether because foreign language, because set internationally between multiple countries, or because some other interpretation of the topic.

[sun surfer]

Barring any other posts in the next ten minutes we'll go with 'International Feel' as it seems closest to what Bookworm_Girl spoke of, but if there are any other posts in that time I'll be happy to go with whatever else instead.

[sun surfer]

And now for my sixth post in a row, the nominations thread is up and International Feel it is!

Bookworm_Girl, I hope that's close enough to what you were hoping for, but if not there's always next month! That's a plus of the freedom of choosing topics throughout the year, and there's no rule saying we need completely different topics from one month to the next.

[sun surfer]

I've had an idea for topic suggestions, to get them in a somewhat more timely manner but still keep the flexibility that we're enjoying. What we could do is have the period for nominating the next topic open concurrently with nominations and voting for the current month. This would mean we'd need a topic nominated before voting is over on the month's selection. If there isn't one by then, then I would go ahead and nominate one for us so we'll have one out there. Someone else could still nominate one later than that to take precedence over mine. This would keep us from approaching the start of nominations without a topic chosen.

I think we could also drop the one-per-season-per-poster guideline and just have it be simply month to month with everyone eligible to pick the next topic each month. If there's ever any reason to think that through more carefully then we can but as it is I don't see it being a problem. I'd rather keep the process simpler with no one needing worry about eligibility on that front.

Any thoughts?

[sun surfer]

All right, we'll try it that way and see how it goes. It'll be easier for me since I'll be doing it the same days I'm already doing other things for the club, and I think it'll be good to have a tiny bit more structure so that people are reminded about it. If we keep it I may make a separate thread for it but right now we'll just use this one. So, we'll start that in December for asking about January's topic.

However, we still need a topic/theme/category for December! A few days are left before the first- get your suggestion in now!

[sun surfer]

I've had some ideas for December-

-Humour. This is a straight-up category so it basically is what is says

-Mysteriousness. This topic is not necessarily a mystery, but just something with an aura of mysteriousness about it or in it

-Poetic. This topic is not poetry per se but rather something with an aura of the poetic about it or in it, or perhaps a novel concerning or with a plot or subplot about poetry

-Heart. This one is more of a theme. It could be something to do with or with an aura of heartwarming, heartfelt, heartening, disheartening, coldhearted, lionhearted, blackhearted, hearty, or heartless, etc., or about the literal heart, or just something romantic, or with the word heart in it, or anything else you may interpret it as. It may be almost too broad but it could be interesting to see what we come up with

About half a day before I put up the December thread. I'm good with any of these, or alterations or tweaks to any of these, or some entirely different topic or theme or category if anyone else has any opinions, ideas or suggestions.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I don’t have any specific preferences.

[sun surfer]

Okay, we'll go with Heart and see what happens.

[sun surfer]

With our new guideline, now is the time to choose January's topic!

Any and all ideas are appreciated; just post! We are very flexible with the approach to our monthly topic and it can be a topic, theme, category or whatever else may work. It could be something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue... Also feel free to discuss or build upon anyone else's idea if you'd like. Here is a list of most of our previous topics in alphabetical and numerical order for perusal if interested; you could suggest something from the list, use it as inspiration or suggest something entirely different:

Spoiler:

1501-1800
1801-1900
1901-1920
1921-1940
1941-1960
1961-1980
1981-2000
Award Winners
BCE-1500
Biographies & Memoirs
Canada & the U.S.
Central Asia, East Europe & Russia
Ch Ch Changes
Contemporary
Fun! Fun! Fun!
Highly Challenging
International Feel
Ireland & the U.K.
Japan
Journey around the World
Korean Peninsula, Mongolia & China
Latin America
New Beginnings & Uncharted Waters
Non-Fiction
North & Central Europe
North Africa & the Middle East
Obscure
Open
Plays
Poetry
Portugal, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain & France
Region
Retrospective
Short
Short Stories
South Asia
South Pacific
Southeast Asia
Southeast Europe
Sub Saharan Africa
Time Period
With Heart
Youth Fiction

This process will last until around when the discussion thread for this month's selection goes up, which could be as early as around the 10th but could be some days later depending, at which point a topic will be settled on for January. We don't have any hard or fast rule for how it will be decided amongst the ideas presented. If there seems to be a consensus or majority interest in a particular idea, we'll go with that one. Otherwise, an idea by someone who hasn't chosen a topic before or in awhile might be the one we go with. If neither of those are relevant, we'll likely go with the first one suggested that isn't my own.

If we happen to have no ideas posted before the discussion thread for this month's selection goes up, I will choose a topic for the next month and announce it so that we'll have something. However, if this is the case, any others may still post ideas after this and we'll likely go with one of those instead if so. And with all that said-

The floor is now open!

[sun surfer]

I'm batting around three ideas for January:

-A Touch of the Poetic. This would be novels with some poetic element or atmosphere about them, or with poetry or a poet as an element or theme, or however else one may interpret the title, and of course actual poetry would be an option too. Since January was our Poetry month for years it would be a good month and a good homage to it.

-Fantasy & Science Fiction. It's an oldie but I don't think we've ever had this category in the lit club. While neither are normally go-to genres for me, I like well-written books in any genre and there is a healthy amount of literary fantasy and science fiction so it could be interesting to have a month devoted specifically to that and see what happens.

-Brand New Authors. This would be a month for nominating authors who've never been nominated before in any of the book clubs in this forum. While many of our monthly slates often have many nominations of brand new authors, it's rare to have a month entirely made up of them and it could be interesting to see what we find.


I'm going to mull over the options for a day or so. If anyone has any preference of these (or any other instead) just post and we'll go with that!

[Bookworm_Girl]

I like the poetic idea for January since we haven’t had anything like that in a while.

[sun surfer]

Done! We’ll use that for January’s topic.

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Done! We’ll use that for January’s topic.

Great news, now to finish reading the book I plan to nominate

[Bookworm_Girl]

Welcome, stuartjmz! I look forward to your nomination.