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

My initial thought is that this could be done in the current Literary thread.

I don't think that's the best fit. The current thread is more for recommendations. I'd vote for a Book Club thread. We don't have any show threads that will be active for this fall, so I'm pretty sure we can handle the volume.

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 agree that skipping past what doesn't interest is the way to go. I don't think it always works out OK, though. That's why I prefer the dedicated thread idea. I'd still do the Book Club wherever it ends up, assuming it does, except that I wouldn't want to have to white font, as someone above suggested we might have to, if it ended up in Literary. That is, I don't see that the need to white font is a given, but if it is, then ... blech.

re: anti-proliferation.

Is there anything that can be closed?

I have no strenuous arguments to make wrt board load at the moment, because we currently have reduced traffic. I just want to make sure it's not disregarded entirely.

I'm against it until we figure out what is going on with the backend stuff and resolve since our time on a dedicated server is not destined to be forever.

Also, against it because in the myriad fora in which I participate, I haven't really been fortunate to see a really good model of how it works in one thread on a general interest board. That is, outside of TT's folder that had individual threads for individual books, or Readerville's, which I follow and was much like TT with the individual threads for individual books.

I haven't really been fortunate to see a really good model of how it works in one thread on a general interest board.

I think the idea is that one book will be chosen at a time.

Oops, sorry. Not being clear.

The single thread, one-book-at-a-time threads I've been a part of or have seen at various different fora haven't worked because it's hard to wrangle all participants, the time overlaps inevitable (if you say 1 book per month, there's a thing that happens that defies all logic and screws up the time) and then conversation piddles and dies out or overlaps and then dies out.

Eventually people get bored/pissed/aggravated and stop participating, in part because with a large group it's hard to come to a series of books that most people are interested in. The social imperative to read and participate, esp. in books you don't give a shit about, is less in an on line world than a meatspace one because it's easier just to opt out by lurking, where in a meatspace world, I find I'm more willing to read books I don't like (yes, you, Alexander Hamilton Bio) because the social compact I've made is such that if I go for months on end without showing up, they kick me out.

So, the result is that after a time people stop participating, or repurpose the thread into something akin to literary junior.