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

[Bookpossum]

I think that's a good analogy sun surfer, and I hope that HIMS and Caleb feel more comfortable with that.

[PandathePanda]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I've been thinking about this question and feel somewhat the same way. I'd like to see more people join the club. Although it's frustrating when people vote and then don't participate.

Best wishes and happy health to all!

Sometimes rl gets in the way. I'm trying, but getting married, work & the books I receive to be reviewed (but it fluctuate per month) you end with no time to read something else.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I think the only way for this to work is to be an all-in type of thing where anyone eligible gets the bonus regardless.

I agree with this. It's too difficult to manage if as well as working out eligibility you need to work out exceptions as well. It looks painful enough as it is.

I think that's a good analogy sun surfer, and I hope that HIMS and Caleb feel more comfortable with that.

I understand where the idea comes from, so I'm not terribly upset with the idea or the intention. It still wouldn't be my preference, but it doesn't really change my mind about the club one way or the other.

However, I do like that the barrier proposed is sufficiently low. I think this goes more towards alleviating any concerns I have for the moment. It doesn't look like an attempt at literary protectionism.

[sun surfer]

Hi PtP - congrats on the marriage! Glad to have you join in whenever you can.

Alright everyone, seems like things are wrapping up in the lead-up to the cycle changeover. Categories are chosen and we'll try the bonus votes out for a few months then revisit it to decide its fate.

Sorting the categories we chose is simple enough. Four are repeat categories and so can go in the same months as last cycle. That leaves July and March for Journey around the World and Non-Fiction. The two non-fiction categories (Non-Fiction and Biographies & Memoirs) shouldn't be too close, so Non-Fiction will go to March leaving Journey for July, which is also great in that I needn't update the terrific countries list HIMS made before we have it.

Here's the schedule for the 12 months:

July 2015- Journey around the World
August 2015- Rotating
September 2015- Biographies & Memoirs
October 2015- Rotating
November 2015- Region
December 2015- Rotating
January 2016- Poetry
February 2016- Rotating
March 2016- Non-Fiction
April 2016- Rotating
May 2016- Time Period
June 2016- Rotating

Sound like a plan? I'm looking forward to another year of enjoyable and horizon-broadening reading and discussion with all of you!

[Bookworm_Girl]

Sounds fantastic! Thanks for keeping us organized, sunsurfer.

[Bookpossum]

Yes, I agree it's sounding good and it will be interesting to try our new category in July.

Just to let you know, I shall be on a short holiday for the first two weeks of July (within Australia). I should be able to log in, but possibly not every day. I shall try to participate in the book selection, and shall certainly be able to get on with reading the chosen book (as long as I don't have problems getting a copy of course) in the second half of July.

[Lynx-lynx]

I've decided to join the literary Club. Owing to the MR Best Books exercise I've finally gotten my head out of crime/thrillers and back into literature. I've been away too long, and am greatly enjoying reading broadly again.

Thanks to sun surfer and everyone else for putting together the Annual Schedule, and doing all the other odds and end, bits and pieces that go into making this Literary Club work.

(I'm finishing reading Brideshead Revisited and will post my thoughts in that thread.)

Edit
A query, is there already a book listed for July?

[Bookpossum]

Great and welcome, Lynx-lynx! No, we start the process on or about the first of the month (it might not be until the 2nd for those of us ahead in time!) with nominations for the particular category, which will be the new one of Journey around the world.

@Sun Surfer.

So with July 1 now only five days away I am curious as to how the Journey around the World category will in practice function? A sequence of a vote as to which of the countries from the list prepared by HIMS will be the country of origin for the book followed by the process of nomination of books from said country and a vote to select the book for the month?

If so it would seem that we would need to start this process very soon, yes?

[Bookpossum]

Wasn't the list of countries from which we have already read one or more books? I suppose in that case we need to nominate a country not on the list, have that seconded, thirded and fourthed to get up, and then when we have selected a country, nominations as usual for the books from that country, followed by the vote.

So you are right Hamlet, we probably need to start the process a few days earlier for this category.

[Bookpossum]

Another thought to shorten the process: nominate a country and a book together. So for example someone could nominate:

India: Kim by Rudyard Kipling

That wouldn't stop someone else from also nominating a book from India, e.g.

India: Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy

What do you think HIMS?

[Lynx-lynx]

I'm new to this book club, so please disregard my post if I've got this a bit confused (or totally out of order) .....

What if someone just nominated a country/author/book, and then someone else nominated another country/author/book (or the same country) etc until all the nominations were in, and then the vote would determine the country and book.

This way it doesn't seem to be any different to the way it works now (or is it?).

So, for example, if I were to nominate Denmark, Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), Out of Africa, and someone else nominated an Argentinian author/book, and someone else a ...... then we voted for the book of our choice in the usual way.

The book (and therefore country) that won, would preclude that country from being selected again.

* BTW, Blixen's Out of Africa is a memoir, is that permissible in the round the world category?

[sun surfer]

Hello Lynx-lynx and welcome to the club!

My conception of Journey around the World is closest to Bookpossum's second post and Lynx-lynx - an open category minus any countries already chosen as indicated by the list HIMS made, and that's how it was explained it as an option on the categories poll. So each nomination could be from any author from a country not already on the list. As such, we need no build-up to it; it's ready to go on the first.

The other ideas are good as well but this category is already complex, and I think the other ways of doing it would be too difficult. Any which way, we'll still end up with a selection from a country we've never tackled before which is the point.

Is that good?

[Bookpossum]

Sounds good to me. We just need to pick ourselves a country not already covered and go from there. Well, maybe think of a book and make sure the author is from a country not already covered by the list.

And Lynx-lynx, as sun surfer said, it's an open category so a memoir would be fine.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

...it's an open category so a memoir would be fine.

Yes, I agree with you - any book from an author of a country not yet chosen. That keeps it fair between countries since the list is made from every selection so far, and those include every type of book. For instance, Canada is ineligible because of two authors, yet one book wasn't much about Canada with a main character from another country and a large part of the book set in other countries and the other book was a history concerning the Incas. In practice though, my guess is that because of the category many of the nominations for Journey may have somewhat country-related subject matter, but you never know!