Done and picked! http://brokenforum.com/index.php?threads/book-of-the-month-club-october-take-2.3570/
Yeah, I was leafing through my kindle yesterday, and was struck by the number of things I had on there as a result of last year's that I would not otherwise have read - and that I enjoyed. It would be a shame not to have it going this year. Athryn, are you up for organizing things again this year, or would you like someone else to take a shot? I'm willing, if nobody else wants to.
I'll continue to do it if there's still interest, I had been mainly concerned because, particularly in the past couple of months, it seemed like I was the only one participating with the picked person. :) I'll pick someone later tonight or tomorrow.
Is there any way we could pick two books a month -- one fiction, one nonfiction -- and people can read one or both? Or should that be two separate clubs/threads? Because I absolutely love the idea of getting to talk to you all about books, but you guys know by now I don't really read fiction... :(
I wonder why participation is low, since it's clear a lot of people here read a lot of books. Are people not successfully pitching their picks? Do the books seem 'important' and worthy and thus inadvertently come across more as school assignments? Reading is a hobby for me. I don't read to broaden my perspective, I read because I enjoy a good story. It happens that a good amount of stuff I read does broaden my perspective but in the end I am probably more likely to read about monsters attacking people on a ferry (my 2009 NaNoWriMo novel) than a novel that says important things about the human condition (to be fair, my novel also says important things about the human condition, like how easily limbs can be removed under force, for example). Maybe I just grew up on too much schlock.
Maybe part of the lack of participation is due to the face that a lot of people (like new users and people who mainly stick to the LP subforum) don't know that this book of the month thing exists in the first place? Or perhaps the books being discussed don't grab the interest/attention of many of Broken Forum's book-readers? As for me, I've always loved books but... I, uh... I read too slowly and it embarrasses me greatly.
... I like books. I mean, I've only read like, three in my whole life, but I liked those three a lot. I thought about getting into reading more often but I when I go into a library or a bookstore, the hundreds of spines always make me go "Oh boy, uuuuh, maybe I can try looking some other time'. I plan on actually picking something up at least before the month ends though.
IMO, the recent book choices have not been compelling plus I don't feel the thread has been promoted to the BF audience very vigorously. I read a lot of books and am willing to try new things but the book has to interest me at least a little for me to spend the time on it. And that means both that the book choice need to be interesting and also that the thread creator has to pump up some interest in the book. None of the above is to be interpreted as a criticism of the recent book thread creators. My own tastes may simply be too narrow to appreciate their selections.
I don't think it's that. Last year's selections were pretty wide-ranging. We had nonfiction, SF, steampunk, hard boiled crime, and a couple of more writerly books, so I think there was something for everyone. As Sharpe says, not everything is going to interest everyone, and people will sit out months. And sometimes people will not post even when they could; for example, I silently abandoned The Testament of Jessie Lamb and Tosher, and I feel bad about it in retrospect. I should at least have said that I'd given them a try. I don't know how much the thread starter can or should do; Mortality Bridge generated a lot of interest and discussion, but the OP was more or less "This is really good, so we'll read it!". So, I don't know. Maybe merge book club discussion with the monthly book thread? That would get more eyeballs on it, and I don't think the monthly book thread is high-volume enough that the discussion would be lost. Alternatively, concurrent LP threads for each month's book! I miss the hell out of Gus. He was a good participant.
I know that for my part I've been a silent partner in a few book club threads. If I start a book and don't like it, I usually don't say anything because I don't want to bring a bunch of negativity into the club. And of course other times I'm just too busy to try that month's selection (meaning don't read this as me hating every book that anybody picks). I do like that it exists though, and I at least check in with it every month to see what the book is and what people think about it.
All right, since we're more or less halfway through the month already, I am going to skip this month's selection, but I will pick a new person for February, and we'll keep going. I would implore people to post even if they don't like a particular book that they've read, it helps with the participation (see: October, where many people didn't like the book but we still had a good discussion anyhow.) As for extra book picks and genres and stuff, I have to say that although I have pondered your request, SwitchKnitter, I think that it's not a good idea. The whole original purpose of the book club was to get people to try things outside of their comfort zone, and although I know you have that particular love of nonfiction, this is a general-purpose genre kind of book club, so whomever picks the books gets to pick whatever kind of book they want. I will probably reset the picked list, unless someone who hasn't been picked has an issue with that, if you do, please say so.
I deliberately picked a light, breezy read for just that reason and participation was still very low, so who knows?
I never really noticed this until late in the year and only really participated with the Independent People pick (which was good). That said I don't really read all that much fiction so a split to include a fiction and non-fiction book each month would really appeal to me. Plus it would give more people the chance to choose a book.
RE: Participation - for my part, I think it's less a problem with BF Book Club and more a problem with me and my own habits. I spend time reading almost every day, but what I found WRT the BF book club was that I wasn't quite as open to reading the picks as I'd assumed I would be. :) I want to broaden my horizons and read new stuff, but typically I'm already reading something of my own choosing, and buying a new book I've never heard of and putting my own choices on the back burner to read something new on a schedule just wasn't happening. The one month I did officially participate - bought the book and read it on schedule, got involved with the discussion, etc - was when extarbags suggested The Hunter, because it was (A) a well-known author I'd always intended to read, (B) available easily on Kindle, and (C) so short that I finished the book in two days. It also just happened to fall between other books that I was reading, so the timing worked by sheer coincidence.
My unofficial response: Aiieee. My official response, in the form of a book selection, will come later today.
And me feeling guilty for being remiss about getting to multiple multiple last selections. I'll get a pick thread up later today!
What, really? Hmmmm. Let me think about what to pick. Kind of sucks that everything I'm reading now is math stuff, because I doubt everyone else wants to join me in that. :D
