I’m starting this thread to gauge the interest in forming a SDMB book club.
The idea is pretty simple: each month the participants choose a book to read, everyone has 10 days or so to acquire and read the book, then we discuss the book at length: delve into the plot, the narrative, the writing, and all the other usual book club discussion elements.
I follow Khadaji’s “Whatcha Reading” thread each month and I’ve often wished we could sidetrack a bit and discuss a particular book in more detail. However, that’s not really doable in that thread. I recently read My Dark Vanessa, a book that literally gave me nightmares, but I have nobody to discuss it with — or any other book I’ve read for that matter. So the idea of this book club was a natural offshoot of those issues.
I personally like to read historical monographs (not really suited for book clubs I suppose, although some like Stephen Ambrose’s works are more accessible to general audiences than others), YA fiction, graphic novels (not manga), travelogues, and mystery/thrillers. I’m not a fan of scyfi/fantasy, romance, anything with graphic sex or violence unless its tangential to the plot, anything mawkish (nothing from Oprah, thankyouverymuch), or “classics” like Ayn Rand. However, my preferences are pretty immaterial: if we do this we can collect some idea for a book to read, throw up a poll, and go from there.
Is anyone interested in doing something like this?
I might be interested, although the last time someone tried something a bit like this it petered out almost immediately. I forget who the initiator was, but it came about when I asked if there were any other Robert Parker fans, so we were all supposed to read his books from the beginning. A more generalized approach to book choices might have a better chance of success, though.
Doesn’t Goodreads do something like this? That might be an option if you are longing to discuss books but not getting a chance. I’ve never looked into it; I’m so busy that I try to avoid taking on new activities. But the chance to discuss books with people I “know” is too good to pass up.
I take it @Sunny_Daze and @BippityBoppityBoo are nixing their participation because they’d want to read science fiction? I’m okay with SF but I don’t mind if it is eliminated from consideration.
I find the possibility of reading YA novels intriguing. My shameful secret is that I am quite fond of them - in a “meta” sort of way, of course, befitting my status as a woman in her 60s. They have the advantage of always being easy on the brain (plot-centric, never too abstruse), a window into the thinking of another generation (assuming the author knows their stuff), and easy to analyze in terms of “what makes this well/poorly written?” In short, it’s lit analysis lite, which is a fun way to pass time.
I might be interested. I think it should be open to pretty much any genre, and one could sit out a month if they feel that strongly against reading a specific offering.
But maybe we should approach it from the perspective of broadening our horizons. I am not into sci-fi at all, for example, but I would happily take one for the team in the interest of potentially discovering something I may never have encountered outside of this arena.
Honestly, though, I don’t really see it being sustained. I’d be happy to be wrong.
I’d be interested, but would probably only participate in some months, depending both on the books selected and on what else was going on in my life during each month.
ETA: I like SF, but also like a lot of other stuff, both fiction and nonfiction.