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.

I don't think we'd force you, Nonian!

(What's your book? Tell me in white font. I won't tell anyone. :)

Weren't we getting to more of a "here's 3-5 books I think we might want to read" place for the recommender? Eases the pressure somewhat. And you'll have all the recommended books that haven't been read, yet, as a resource.

ETA: I also really really like the idea of reading pairs of bboks. Maybe a couple of times a year we could take extra time and do that, or something?

I'm with Nonian, on the "what if they hate my book" point. Not that I think you will hate any book I suggest, but random draws of some sort will minimize the problems. If we do get a huge list, though, some discussion would be a good thing.

I am possibly too wimpy to be posting at this stage of the game, as any method of book selection of any of the books suggested so far sounds absolutely fine to me (though billytea's suggested book sounds extra-intriguing).

Would it be possible at some point -- though maybe not right at the start -- to wander a bit afield with our selections as long as they're still books? (I'm thinking, vaguely of some of the TPB's of Gaiman's Sandman, which is rich and mythic and has plenty to chew on, or children's books like The Enchanted Castle or some of the Oz books -- Patchwork Girl, mmmmmm.)

Count me in as a willing participant, but shy in selecting books. I don't usually have much to say in the way of discussion, but like to read and see what everyone else has to say.