Forums / Discussion / General

Hey guys! All my librarian friends have been talking about their awesome summer reading programs and TBH I'm totally jealous.

I found two old book club threads but they seemed more like talk about books you love than an actual reading group. I wanted to see if there was any interest in a more guided book club for the summer: we could pick a book this month and start reading it in June, reading like x # of pages or chapters per week and holding discussions over the weekends.

What do you guys think? It doesn't have to be internet-related books or anything, just something fun and discuss-able.

I think this is a lovely idea

I love it… but I may need to find the books first… I'm all for it though!

that's what libraries are for mark :P

What books would you guys be interested in reading? I really want to read something Cory Doctorow has written. He does a lot of sci-fi internetty stuff that I think is really interesting. I also have Mindy Kaling's book on my to-read list but I feel like it's a 20-something girl book which might not be interesting to everyone.

Here's some internet fiction

Amazon's best-selling Graphic novels

amanda b. wrote:

that's what libraries are for mark :P

That hurt me… in here…

That sounds like an awesome idea! There are loads of books that I really want to read this summer. I had already planned on reading Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed after discovering a review of it in a Library magazine (I can't remember which one, though. I don't think it was American Libraries).

From what I found out about it, Throne of the Crescent Moon is a fantasy novel based in a Medieval Middle Eastern setting instead of a Medieval European setting. With the flooding of the Fantasy genre with romanticized Medieval European settings, I'm certainly curious about this book and it doesn't appear to be overly long either.

THAT sounds really cool! Totally a contender.

If we get enough interest / suggestions, I can set up a poll Thursday for the first book, have voting over the weekend, and announce the winner Monday?

That sounds good. I'd really like to have something like this to keep me reading over summer.

I like this idea, but you might want to set up how it works/a few rules for it. Just things like staying on the subject of a book and not delving too deep into specific definitions of themes or anything.

Things like:
Questions on specific current plot points must go into spoiler boxes. If we've already discussed that part for the week, though, then it's fair game.
(The pony thread had problems with this when Season 3 was coming to a close.)
Can new people read an older book before joining in, and still comment on it when others have moved on?
Upper/lower page limits on books?
What sort of reading level should we shoot for?
If a book seems to be disappointing a large majority, should we continue to the end, or move on?

I'm game, but I can't really think of any books to recommend outside of what I've already read.

I'm betting the things I read are considered bad.

These are some great and important topics! We can use this week to set up these rules.

• Spoiler boxes are going to be mandatory because we're all gonna be on different pages. Once the book is picked out we can figure out how to divvy up the pages/chapters and that week's section will have to be spoilered. Since people read at a different pace, I want to set up a specific time/date for a meeting discussion on that week's section, after which the details can be considered completed and unspoilered?

• Discussion should be limited to whatever book is that month, we can start a different thread for each book so if new people have opinions on an old book, the conversations can have their own space and won't get confused

• Page limits I haven't thought about yet, how do you guys feel? I can read pretty fast but I might have some days where I'll only get 2 hours a day to read (on my commute) so I want to keep it something doable in a month for everyone. Maybe somewhere between 200-500 pages max?

• I want to keep it as accessible for everyone as possible. I wouldn't mind sticking with Young Adult lit even (i am a huge fan). I don't expect anyone to be reading college textbooks, but also not something written specifically for 13 year olds either, we should have some challenge

• If everyone hates it, I am down with throwing it out and starting over. I would like to get enough suggestions that we have a list to work with (ie: say we get 10 suggestions, and 5 of them get voted on by people. The highest voted book will be first, followed by second ranked, etc. so if something isn't great, we can make a decision to move on)

• We could also do Skype/Google Hangout discussions!

Those sound great! Only one question now: should we just use this thread for discussing the next month’s book (and keep specific book topics clean), or use the book topic threads?

I'm gonna change the title to "Summer Reading General" and we can keep this one for picking books / general administration of the project.

I've been wanting to read this for some time now. Looks pretty interesting.

OKOKOKOK Today is the last day to post suggestions for books we should read! I will make the poll either today or tomorrow morning!!!

anyone else?!

Sounds fun. I'll read.

But what happens if someone's library doesn't seem to have the chosen book or simply can't seem to get it.

Sorry. I was slacking a bit.

It's Sci-Fi, a classic, and one of the lesser-read books by Arthur C. Clarke:
Childhood's End

This Neil Gaiman book has had some pop-culture build up on it, but it hasn't become the monument that American Gods has. From what I understand, you need to walk into it with a sense of humor.
Good Omens

I'd recommend anything by Flannery O'Connor, on a serious note, or by David Sedaris for humor. Arguably, David Sedaris' audiobooks are even better than the text versions, since he reads them himself, which makes them infinitely more hilarious.

I'll recommend anything by Vonnegut.

I've heard that A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is one of the most (intentionally) hysterical novels ever written so I've been meaning to read that this summer as well.

…who…downvoted everyone? Why? Did someone get mad because they can only read at a 3rd grade level?

VOTING COMPLETED

Yeah, this is really confusing to me…What gives?

Anyway to answer your previous question, if everyone hates it we can vote it off and move on. Also if someone doesn't have it, we can try to find an online copy of some sort!!

Maybe they should just stick to See Spot Run or something similar.

Who indeed?

Might as well not let that slip by then!

Ugh, there are just so many good stories to choose from.

The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway would be a great read, I think.

Yessss!!!! We can put it up to vote next round?

When I get home tonight ill tally up the votes!!! Vote now if you haven't yet!!!

Might I suggest that, if you don't have the book, you go to the physical library and get a copy? It's probably easier than finding it online.

vote over

and the winner is…?

Sorry this took forever, my cat was sick last week and everything was bad (she spent a couple days in the hospital but she is home and happy now!)

THE WINNER IS LITTLE BROTHER!
Tonight after work i'll set up a timeline for when what chapters should be read by, is that cool with everyone?

I need to read some of my books in skyrim

Hey now. I see those downvotes.

Skyrim – the entire Elder Scrolls series, in fact – has a massive amount of lore, and loads of it is quality stuff, even if it is a bunch of fantasy pulp stories. Don't knock it till you try it.

Yeah, my favorite so far is olaf and the dragon, great book.