Starting a 'book club'

Well, it seems to me that it would be natural for us to commit to reading a book together, perhaps once a fortnight (or less/more often, as opinion dictates). Singling out a text would allow us to have an inclusive discussion, broaden our literary horizons and expose each one of us to a range of interesting perspectives that we might not have otherwise considered.

So, if you're interested just post in here! We can get round to picking our first text and deciding when we're going to read it afterward.

Sure, sounds like a great idea! Only, we might opt for shorter books, or otherwise I doubt we're all gonna read it.

I'd be down.

Kynes wrote:Sure, sounds like a great idea! Only, we might opt for shorter books, or otherwise I doubt we're all gonna read it.

I'd be happy to read novellas - suppose ~200 pages was the upper limit. We could simply have members of the group select texts on a rotational basis. Also, if someone really want to read a novel exceeding our page limit then we could space that book out over a couple of weeks (I'm assuming that a single week would be sufficient for most to handle a novella).

Maybe it would be a good idea to have a subforum for the 'reading club' where a new thread could be made each fortnight so we have an easy place to discuss it, and then the previous discussions could be easily found if someone wanted to check those out.

Cthulu wrote:Maybe it would be a good idea to have a subforum for the 'reading club' where a new thread could be made each fortnight so we have an easy place to discuss it, and then the previous discussions could be easily found if someone wanted to check those out.

I think you're absolutely right. Once I know there are a handful of people committed to the group I'll do just that.

Sounds like a great idea. I love that this forum is actually starting to come together.

I'm so down for this.

Will do.

I'm down. I nominate Cannery Row for reading. I liked it at least. Or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Never read it, but I have it and it seems pretty short/interesting.

How exactly will we decide what books to read?

perkunas wrote:How exactly will we decide what books to read?

There are, as I see it, two ways we could select texts.

1) We could use one of the 'essential novella lists' that have been circulating on /lit/ for some time. I have one saved on my laptop - the selection is quite good and the list sufficiently long to keep us occupied for quite some time

2) Each member of the group could be randomly assigned a week and when 'their week' rolled around they could select the book. That way, we have at least one member who's very eager to read that text. Also, I think this option is more likely to introduce us to interesting but obscure works.

How about we read modern literature. New books. To keep it exciting?

Perhaps every fourth of fifth book will be a classic?

I think the last option would make it more of a group effort and thus more fun.

theswedisheditor wrote:How about we read modern literature. New books. To keep it exciting?

Perhaps every fourth of fifth book will be a classic?

This sounds like a great idea. Otherwise it will just be books that we most likely would have read anyway. What's the point of a book club if not to discover new books?

Fergus wrote:

theswedisheditor wrote:How about we read modern literature. New books. To keep it exciting?

Perhaps every fourth of fifth book will be a classic?

This sounds like a great idea. Otherwise it will just be books that we most likely would have read anyway. What's the point of a book club if not to discover new books?

Third this.

I'm down.

I'm in. And in for modern literature.

This is where a forum is greater than an imageboard. I'm in.

Short and contemporary? How about 'An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter'?

I'm just gonna' go ahead and throw out The Red Pony by John Steinbeck for our first selection.

We should probably figure out what we define "contemporary" as. Last 10 years? Last 20? 50? Also, if we're doing it on a rota then we should sort that out first.

Last 10 would be truly contemporary I'd say, but the last 20 would open up more for it. Maybe we should pick the rota by join date from first joiner to last.

Shit, I totally forgot we were doing contemporary lit.

I feel like the contemporary guideline shouldn't be incredibly strict. Meaning if you have found something older which you really want to show off I don't see why not choosing that.