I think we shouldn't make a pool of books and then randomly choose books.

This is very important. The way that book clubs live is by finding books all or most of the members want to read all or most of the time. So, I think it's a good idea to Mr. Poll or discuss/consense each choice, rather than allow any one person to choose.

I'll confess, of the list thus far, I've ever heard of about 5, and it is hard to work up enthusiasm for books totally unknown to me.

I like the idea of paired books we read in tandem, like Jekyll & Hyde + [modern interpretation thereof]. They automatically provide something to talk about: a basic compare/contrast. Someone suggested Starship Troopers and The Forever War back in Literary, and I could be persuaded to try these. Other doable pairings: two different novelizations of Arthurian myth; Brave New World and 1984; two novels with unreliable narrators. Note how this only works with shorter books -- trying to read two 800-page novels in a month can only end badly.

I suppose Henry Adams is not really beach reading; I have absolutely no perspective on the subject, since I love the book with an unreasoning adoration.

How would new people enter?

I assume they would introduce themselves in the thread, and add their name to some list (probably kept off-board) from which new choosers are randomly chosen whenever necessary.

I also like the caveats mentioned. Here, then, is my total proposal for picking of new books.

A list of buffistas interested in participating - or, specifically, interested in picking books - will be kept somewhere (on the buffista webspace if possible, or somewhere else if necessary - I'll volunteer my personal computer for as long as I have a university connection if necessary). Each month, 3 months ahead of the opening of discussion, a member of the list will be randomly chosen from the list and approached to suggest a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 5 different books for their period, in-thread. After a bit of discussion, these books will be placed in a Mr. Poll, and the thread will choose the book for that recommendation period.

For the first three books, well, I don't know the best way to pick them. We could implement the scheme above immediately, but that would ignore all the fine suggestions we've already had. Or, we could just let Wolfram and Heather pick the first two books (as proposer and original idea-person, respectively) from the suggestions made, and let the third book be chosen by the above method as soon as the infrastructure gets implemented.

I would also like to see, perhaps in the same location as the "Interested suggestors" list, a list of book suggestions with mini-blurbs and pimping, for those who like that sort of thing. I like the pimps here, but will find them annoying once the discussion starts, and would prefer to have them off-thread (plus, then we can make them searchable and more easy to find, so they could be more useful for recs outside of the Book Club). This could be an invaluable resource for the person doing the picking, too.

My PHP skills are rusty, but I could probably implement something that's purely functional, given a couple of weeks. Somebody else on the board could probably do it much faster (email me and I can give you an account on my school machine, if we want to do it there.)

Discuss.

I like the idea of paired books we read in tandem, like Jekyll & Hyde + [modern interpretation thereof]. They automatically provide something to talk about: a basic compare/contrast. Someone suggested Starship Troopers and The Forever War back in Literary, and I could be persuaded to try these. Other doable pairings: two different novelizations of Arthurian myth; Brave New World and 1984; two novels with unreliable narrators. Note how this only works with shorter books -- trying to read two 800-page novels in a month can only end badly.

This pairing idea excites me to the point of being unseemly.

Also, I think that we should have at least two books "in the hopper", so to speak, for upcoming months and this is why: I'm sure that for some books the discussion is going to be long and intense. I suspect that for others NSM. If we were all a book ahead it would allow us to truncate a dead discussion (say if the thread were quiet for more than a few days) and move on to the next book without having to wait for the month to be out.

And I like Nova's proposal.

Also, without naming names, there are several Buffistas who previously made their enthusiasm known for this thread and mentioned wanting to make recs, who we have yet to hear from. So how about we keep recs open until tommorrow evening, narrow them down (however we agree to do that) by Thursday evening, and we make the selections (however we agree to do that) on Friday?

t popping into thread

t bouncing

I have many book suggestions, but I'll hold off this month.

I also wanted to x-post with my b'cracy post that once discussions actually start, I have a plethora of reading discussion techniques (not moderator stuff, just ways to get conversations going etc.) that I'd be glad to share. I promise not to get too English teacher if anyone takes me up on it.

Also wanted to pimp Reading Reminders by Jim Burke, not as a book club suggestion (it's nonfiction) but as a great set of suggestions to have active and engaged discussions about lit. The book is designed for English teachers, but it might be interesting to many of you.

I've never been in a book club per se (since I pretty much run five of them throughout the school year!), but I imagine many of the techniques I use in the classroom would be useful here as well.

Just to be clear, I am in no way trying to take over or tale charge or tell everyone that I know the "right way" to discuss books. I just wanted to offer up my experience FWIW.

t still bouncing!

I've only posted here a few times, but I lurk. I'm very excited about the book club thread. I used to be an avid reader, but then life and two little ones happened, along with some time-consuming rl stuff, and reading got lost in the shuffle somewhere. I like having a deadline. It'll motivate me. I hope.

So how about we keep recs open until tommorrow evening, narrow them down (however we agree to do that) by Thursday evening, and we make the selections (however we agree to do that) on Friday?

Sure. I picked 2pm board time as about 24 hours after collecting recs for 24 hours was mentioned :-). I can shift it, no problem.

I've never done any sort of book club at all. I'm really looking forward to this.

From Nutty:

The way that book clubs live is by finding books all or most of the members want to read all or most of the time.

While we're doing recs, just thought this could use another mention.

Suggestion: Lilty got the first post in this thread. If she would be so kind as to share her post, we could keep the list (and whatever other structure-related things we settle on) in her post. She could edit them in. The first post of a thread is any easy place to find stuff, and people new to the thread will hit on it first.

Also? Although I think we should follow Wolfram's idea of closing suggestions at whatever time tomorrow, for our first book (or first set of books), we have a whole month where we have nothing to post on, because we'll be reading. If people want to make suggestions, and pimp stuff in the meanwhile, is that okay? Because this is the first month, it's going to work a little differently this time, than it will in the future.

I'm very excited about reading books with the buffistae, but the idea of suggesting one scares me (What if everyone hates my book? What if it's boring? What if it's dumb? and so on.) So, I probably won't be suggesting anything, but I will definitely read once we choose something.

ETA: I think that picking one person to choose the book could be a lot of pressure (see above) but that's just me.