RIP Book Club?

[sputnik]

i'm in.

i like the system we had going before. people would suggest books, and then we'd have a poll and the book with most votes would win.
but to make sure that a certain number of people are happy with the book, i suggest 2 polls. maybe a first one with more options, then another poll with the 2 or 3 most popular from the first poll.

[McJag]

Me too. I just bought The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. I haven't had a chance to read it yet.
Amazon.com: The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective: Kate Summerscale: Books





Does anyone like this sort of thing?

Me,me! I just ordered it-looks really good! Thank you-I'd never heard of it before.

[A*O]

Based on my Real Life (yes I have one) book club if you try to get widespread agreement on which book to read in the first place nothing is ever agreed! One of the great things about book clubs is that you sometimes have to read a book you wouldn't ordinarily pick. Sometimes it's a dud (in which case don't read it!) and sometimes you discover a book you really love that you wouldn't otherwise have chosen.

There are quite a few GR posters who'd like to do a Book Club but experience has shown that getting any kind of concensus on the book picks is almost impossible so the whole thing falls over before it's even started.

Maybe we need to look at, say, Amazon's Top 10 Fiction Books on the first day of each month and go with that, whatever it may be.

[Laurent]

I'd like to get in on a book club here, but I think to have a successful one you do have to have people with somewhat common interests. A book club does force you to expand your literary horizons, but most people in one have common literary interests with most of the people in it. I have an acquaintance in a book club and they read fluff along the lines of The Devil Wears Prada with nothing else interspersed - and that's fine, because it works for them. I'm not in it with them because it's not my cup of tea. By the same token, she'd be miserable in mine, because we read mostly fiction/historical fiction with some other stuff mixed in occasionally.

I think that may be sort of the problem we're running into here - we have a lot of wildly differing tastes. It's good to read stuff you wouldn't otherwise, but we may not have enough common ground to hold more than a few people's interests.

I don't know if we have enough (intersted) people for it, but we may need to have more than one mini book club going on based on interest in topic. Each section could choose a different book and people could pick based on their interest. Sounds like a lot of work, I know - just throwing it out there.

[A*O]

You're right. While it's great to have so many interested people it's going to be hard picking a book that everyone will be curious or intrigued enough to read. As you say, some people like chick lit, some like historical stuff, non-fiction, literary literature, etc etc.

If you want to organise mini-groups to cater to those broad categories then I wish you luck but I think the only way this will work is to get a impartial third party to pick a book and that's that. If people want to read it, fine. If not, try again next time. Now we have to pick an impartial third party! I know! Let's ask Oprah!!!

[Tati]

I think we could stand to have some choice, but the amount we had last time was probably overwhelming - there could be no clear majority with so many choices, at most we knew maybe two or three people were interested in the same book.

It might work well to have a third party (or whomever) pick five books or so, then everyone vote from there - or, have one big vote in which we select every book for the next year in one fell swoop. Voting on the suggestions of twenty or more people for each selection is just too much, imo. I like the idea of everyone getting a suggestion in, but at some point we just have to run with it.

You know, maybe we could even choose each selection alphabetically by username for that matter. We could firm up a solid membership list (people can be added at any time) so we know when our turn to pick will come, and people could always feel free to pass to the next member if they wish.

[A*O]

Agreed. Last one in has to organise it!!! [runs away]

[sparkly]

NY Times Best-seller Lists for fiction:

HARDCOVER FICTION
Top 5 at a Glance
1. THE ASSOCIATE, by John Grisham
2. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
3. HEART AND SOUL, by Maeve Binchy
4. THE HOST, by Stephenie Meyer
5. FOOL, by Christopher Moore

PAPERBACK MASS-MARKET FICTION
Top 5 at a Glance
1. THE APPEAL, by John Grisham
2. SECRETS, by Jude Deveraux
3. CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC, by Sophie Kinsella
4. HONOR THYSELF, by Danielle Steel
5. THE GHOST WAR, by Alex Berenson

[A*O]

I haven't read any of those. I'm happy to go with the majority vote on that list.

Important rule of book clubs - if you really can't get along with the chosen book you are allowed to give up. Just be prepared to say why!!

[sputnik]

tati, if i understood correctly, you're saying we should make a list of book club members, and each member would get to choose a book? we'd do this alphabetically? that sounds good to me because then we'd get a diverse list of books, based on each member's interests. i'd rather do that than use the top 10 lists which, to be honest, are often full of stuff that is popular but crap.

[Tati]

tati, if i understood correctly, you're saying we should make a list of book club members, and each member would get to choose a book? we'd do this alphabetically? that sounds good to me because then we'd get a diverse list of books, based on each member's interests. i'd rather do that than use the top 10 lists which, to be honest, are often full of stuff that is popular but crap.

Me too - looking at that list above... ugh.

[Mel1973]

HARDCOVER FICTION
Top 5 at a Glance
1. THE ASSOCIATE, by John Grisham
2. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
3. HEART AND SOUL, by Maeve Binchy
4. THE HOST, by Stephenie Meyer
5. FOOL, by Christopher Moore


There's my vote. I haven't heard of it but I'm choosing randomly. I'd be glad to join but can we set a time limit on the vote? I'd like to order my book and get started....

[sputnik]

no! let's not use the top 5 or top 10 option! please.

[Mel1973]

OH!!1 alright, then make a suggestion, missy!

[Laurent]

I can't believe I am going to suggest something along the lines of anything Oprah Freaking Winfrey does, but maybe the easiest thing to do is have one person be a director of the book club who chooses the book for the month and whoever wants to read it participates that month. Every few months we could choose a new "director" so no one gets burned out.

Yes? No?

And for the record, I'm not angling to be the first director. I actually had A*O in mind, if she's agreeable.