How about this time, either someone (Wolfram, Heather, whomever) just pick from the suggestions, and then we work on a process. I'm inclined to keep an ongoing list, and let people pick from it, rather than do something mathy. But in the long run, I don't really care, because if we're not happy with the process, we can change it.

For randomizing purposes we could trust a human to pull a name out of a hat.

Make the list, post the list, use whatever number post comes up and add the numbers together, pick that number book?

Nilly would be proud.

For randomizing purposes we could trust a human to pull a name out of a hat.

True. And if we're lucky, it'll match one of the book suggestions.

Question about Mary Reilly - Do you think we should read the original Jekyll/Hyde story before reading the re-telling? Is it something we might want to try as a pairing?

I see that as a pairing. I see Paradise Lost and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as a pairing, too.

For randomizing purposes we could trust a human to pull a name out of a hat.

Yes.

For randomizing purposes we could trust a human to pull a name out of a hat.

How retro. I like it.

Tim Winton-- Ooh, I worshipped Cloudstreet, his previous novel. Brilliant writer. Plus, Australian!

Question about Mary Reilly - Do you think we should read the original Jekyll/Hyde story before reading the re-telling? Is it something we might want to try as a pairing?

I don't think it's necessary, but it might be fun to compare and contrast the pairing. (This from someone who -- cough -- never read the original but loooved the book written from its mythology.)

I'm up for Wolfram picking the first book, and randomizing the pick from there on out is fine with me, too, although (and I think someone already said this) the list should probably be whittled down first.

I'm with Heather on the excitement. And the going to smoke, actually.

ETA P-C, does that mean you're emailing it to me? Wheee!

Okay. I may be a little out of line, or against the grain, or whatever with this suggestion, but I REALLY like it.

I think we shouldn't make a pool of books and then randomly choose books. Instead, we should make a pool of participants in the Book Club who might be interested in suggesting books, and randomly choose THEM (without duplication, or at least with no chance of choosing two books too near each other), to pick books themselves. A book suggestion list on the side is great, I've enjoyed reading these recs and stuff, and they could be helpful in the picking process for whoever's in the hotseat.

I think this might maximize breadth of genre, among other things. And somebody out there could make a simple web page to keep track of the current participants, with easy ability to add and remove themselves from the list as necessary. And it will help prevent people with lots of books they want to recommend from having too much of a say in the list of books.

(All that said, I've got no recs. I wanna read new stuff. But I would also love to re-read Remains of the Day.)

How retro.

Isn't it though?

Personally, I like the idea of us each nominating one book and drawing from those names. If several people want a particular one it's chances are higher of being selected, but all the books have a shot.