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.

a time people stop participating, or repurpose the thread into something akin to literary junior.

At which point we close the thread. I would rather give it a shot than say "It's never worked anywhere else."

I think it's worth a try. If the discussions don't work for whatever reason, we can close the thread.

A couple of questions, then.

Do we want to open the thread on a trial basis? Say, six months or a year?

Also, how would books be chosen? Calli had some great ideas in the Literary thread on this point.

Also, ita -- how are we doing on board resources? Are we close enough to the limit that we really shouldn't even be having this conversation?