The person who is in charge of this bookclub should contact their local library. The library should agree to interlibraryloan as many copies as your club needs. They need a few weeks notice to do so. I don’t remember where you live (MN, right?) but most American communities have some sort of library system–even rural areas do. When I started a bookclub, we made it a rule that no one should HAVE to buy the book. Some always do, but for the most part, 10 copies are available for the July 20th meeting by July1, that sort of thing. I quit (well, quit is debatable, but that’s another thread) that club about 5 years ago, but it’s still going strong. Of course, now it’s less of an intellectual exercise and more of a mutual admiration society/gossip source, but if they’re happy, what the hell.
I agree with Meeks-the whole purpose is to NOT read within your comfort zone. We also had a rule (at first) that you had to say 3 things you liked and disliked about the book. This was to prevent people from saying, “it was really good; I liked it a lot.” or “It was terrible.” I wanted people to think critically about what they had read. I have no idea if that bit is still done–I doubt it. It was stilted and artificial at first, but we quickly learned to look for theme and character development–book discussions do best with character driven novels/bios, IMO. We also made sure that personal remarks were verboten–no dissing someone for their opinion, however moronic it may sound. Heh.
YMMV.
Dunno what was in my head, Soapie–I have positive feelings(?) for Vundie-he’s really nice. My dreams seem to just have random people in them; I rarely dream about people I’m mad at or have been hurt by. I’m sure that means I’m a sociopath or something, but there it is.
I worked 1.5 hours overtime today - well, actually, credit time, not extra $$ but that’s cool. I earned brownie points, too, staying to essentially fix another guy’s mistakes. Go me.
I made a fake crab dish for supper from a recipe I found on line. It was extremely meh, so I won’t bother sharing it. It wasn’t bad, just boring. So I won’t be making it again.
SIL is getting lots of hours - he should normally get 25-30 hours per week, which ain’t bad for a part-time job. And he seems to be really excited about it, so that’s good.
**FCD ** is still waiting to hear about the job he wants. The hiring guy last week told him to hang in there - I assume if he was out of the running, the guy would have said so. So we shall see…
I asked it before and I ask it again - is it Firday yet???
Unfortunately they live eight hours away, so when we see them they’re houseguests. Oy, indeed. Sigh. In the middle of the Epic Struggle to get my child to sleep. He’s fallen asleep twice, and I’ve been nursing for an hour. Mr. Lissar’s got him now, and I’m going back in in five minutes.
I would really like to be able to make and eat dinner. Since Mr. Lissar cannot cook at all, dinner has to wait until thew kid is asleep, and be cooked and eaten in the thirty minutes before he wakes up again and wants me. A little frustrated here. :rolleyes:
And yes, I remember M. Someday she’ll go vegan and you’ll declare war.
Hey…Meeks…we don’t have anyone yet to start us off next week. Wanna give it a whirl? It might remind you why you secretly want to re-up.
My bookgroup had this problem too and we went from group consensus to taking turns. Whoever’s hosting picks the book. There’s always someone who doesn’t get around to the book or starts it and can’t finish, but no one takes it personally. This greatly improved the variety in our reading list. There’s always more to talk about than just the book (whatever else people have read, important stuff going on in our lives, work drama, etc.).
Because most of the members are (or used to be) librarians, I used to have a really hard time finding original stuff. It’s been a lot easier since I joined Goodreads. There’s an SDMB group (good for finding people you already know) and also one called Constant Reader which has a lot of interesting, literate members with interesting reading lists. There are a bunch of different ways to look at books on that site. There are also several people who consistently write interesting reviews.
Wow…SO and tarra…dramatic stories.
I’d like to join the VLOOKUP-haters club, please. I keep meaning to ask my friend who’s really good at them to show me what the heck I’m doing wrong. I can make them work about once in five or six times and still haven’t figured out exactly what I’ve done differently. And yes, this is one area where Excel is distinctly unhelpful.
I just heard quite loud thunder out of practically nowhere. Looks like there’s a small storm wandering through a few miles north of me. The weather is clear everywhere else. Very odd to see on the weather map.
I have more, but I need to get out into the garden…
A co-worker went to visit family in PA, and she brought back everyone some Maple Glazed Walnuts to share. I was thinking that they would be meh, but they are delish! Too bad I’ve been off so I only got two little pieces that was left, but I want more. She said that they are from Burke’s Maple Syrup and are made with pure maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla, and butter. I found a recipe online, and if they are as good as the originals I will post them. SO GOOD.
I made a vegetarian chili tonight. It was okay. Didn’t really click with me. The cornbread (you can’t have chili without cornbread. It’s Not Allowed.) was my favorite: Jiffy mix. This was the first time ever I’ve had it with the required one egg. (My dad’s allergic to eggs. I learned substitutions quick.)
swampy, don’t feel bad about your tea preferences. I make my weekly gallon of iced tea with 2/3 cup of sugar. For a gallon. Old Southern Grandmas gasp at my restraint.
rigs when you get the link, put it in your favorites. I did cause sometimes I need me some snark and well, Spaz does it oh so well!
I’ve made N.O.T. sallit, went to the visitation and then hit four local stores to buy bottled water. They have it buy one get one free (limit two, that’s two you pay for and two you get free) today only. I got the limit at all four stores. Yep, I have sixteen cases of bottled water in my garage. Ok, twenty cause I had four already. What? We drink a lot of water. Matter of fact I just chugged down a bottle of cold water. Hmmmm… ok, I have two cases chillin’ so that’s twenty-two cases minus one cause I drank one. I may have an obsession…
Thanks, but those are the ones I have bookmarked–I think she has more recent ones that aren’t showing up? or maybe I’m crazy. Definite possibility there.
GT, if no one wants to, I’ll sure start next week. I can even think of something to write! Thank you very kindly for the invitation…
Taxi, I am appalled, frankly. :eek:
As for the book club. Taxi’s kind of got me wanting to join one now, provided they have rules like the ones rigs outlined. Maybe I’ll look around.
I have been stuck playing Viva Pinata and am thoroughly hooked. What a cute, cute game!
I have Friday off. We are going to see the NYC Ballet at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. It will be my first live ballet. Sounds like fun.
Over the weekend we are going to his parents’ house, which I am not entirely looking forward to. There is a lot of tension in the house. His brother and sister-in-law have moved back home with the baby (don’t ask. technically they never moved out, they just moved to her mother’s house.) and on top of the stress of four adults and one baby living together, they are having serious marital problems. We are a calming influence it seems, so I try to go often, but of course it means we take some of the stress on ourselves. Gah!
Gotta be at work at 8 AM tomorrow morning…board meeting!
ETA: I do like posting at home…formatting is so much easier because the buttons work.
It is so cute! I just started my first garden, and there’s crap all over the place. That’s what I always do in a new game, though, start it, jump into it, and then restart it once I understand it.
Enjoy it Meeks! I had so much fun there. If you need help with any variations or anything, I think I have a list somewhere of them on my computer at home. The mating dances that they do are hilarous.
I’m so busy at work I can barely pop in or scan anything. Basically I am keeping on top of my new duties, what my trainee is doing (and I think he’ll be leaving soon so I get to try and run things again until they find another trainee) and stepping in sometimes for my manager who is on vacation this week. I’m tired enough that I went to a meeting today and I started seeing double I was so tired (something about the boardroom, I step into it and I’m almost immediately three times as tired as I was before I walked in… and it was boring or anything, it has to do with some stuff that might streamline our shipping a bit which would be a big help and will be implemented Nov 1).
Was going to sleep early but friends are popping by for a short visit (they’re in the neighbourhood this evening) so it’ll be early bed just not as early as I’d planned…
I’m kinda excited though. Got my forms in for passports and will be getting them by the end of the month, and basically it’s just a matter of saving cash (should I start buying US dollars now or wait till closer to my trip??) and I won a copy of a book! I entered a contest on a blog I read and I got an email from her saying I won! So I should be getting a copy of Sex: How To Do Everything (amazon link). I saw some of the pictures on the blog I was reading (Red Sneaker Diaries) and it looks really, well, sexy. I can’t wait until my copy arrives, though it might raise my Mom’s eyebrow when she sees what book I got…
My dreams seem to just have random people in them; I rarely dream about people I’m mad at or have been hurt by. I’m sure that means I’m a sociopath or something, but there it is.
or maybe I’m crazy. Definite possibility there.