I think it is an excellent idea. My vote is yes.

My initial thought is that this could be done in the current Literary thread. It's not high-volume most of the time, or at least not regularly, so I don't see why, say, the first week of a month couldn't include a focused discussion on a particular text.

It could be the literary version of a watch and post.

I see the difference mainly in that the current Literary thread would have to be heavily white-fonted in that format, whereas a dedicated thread would allow for open discussion. I would suggest, however, that a Press post be used to designate any time a new book is "assigned" along with the date discussion on it will begin.

Personally, I'd hate to drive away any current Literary posters by co-opting the thread for Book Club once a month. But I may be alone in thinking that'll be an issue.

I love the idea of a Book Club thread. It'd be fun to have (again) some common work/material to discuss on a regular basis. I know the comics thread gets that, and it seems to be thriving.

I, too, would be concerned about co-opting the Literary thread, possibly disturbing its denizens, by doing it in there. I'd prefer to try it with a dedicated thread.

There are often large swathes of conversation that are uninteresting to some of the people who post in that thread, much like every thread. It works out OK.

I'm not totally sold either way, just tossing it around.

I also think the Book Club thread is an excellent idea. I miss having things to actually discuss in a regular way, like JenP said. I've always had issues discussing things in Literary, because a discussion will usually last at most three or four posts before there's another "I read this OTHER book AIWFG!" type thread, whereas forcing discussion to a particular topic would allow much more in-depth discussion.

We're smart people. I like the idea of seeing what we make of various books with discussion value.

As for the co-opting Literature thing, I see problems both in white-fonting issues and driving current posters away. Also, if we make it a "discuss one book at the beginning of the month" thing then, well, we'll get fewer book discussions in, which since I'm doing nothing but reading this summer would be a tragedy. Admittedly not a problem most of you have.

I'm for it.

If we put it in the regular Literary thread, people trying to focus on the book club would have to scroll past other posts, and odds are stuff would be missed. The regular Literary thread has the happy habit of bouncing from idea to idea as the riffs take us.

t insert standard infrastructure-based anti-proliferation argument here