Let's start a book club.

[WHAM]

Sounds fun, but I'm neck deep in reading the Game of Thrones books and I've still got a ton of Black Library stuff to cover, so I'll have to give this fine idea a pass.

[kconan]

White Tiger is pretty amazing, and my favorite of the Man Booker prize winners.

I've been meaning to read that one. When you say favorite, are you saying you've read them all?

No, I should clarify that it is my favorite that I've read of the winners, and amongst all of the longlisted titles.  I've read maybe 25 in total, and The White Tiger blew me away.  Don't bother with the author's followups unless you are specifically interesting in India.  Previously my favorite of all the Man Booker Winners and lists (that I've read) was Vernon God Little, which is very good though I can understand some people not liking that one.



 

[Vince Twelve]

Hmmm... my to-read pile has volumes 3-4 in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, as well as his Fifth Head of Cerberus, Jack Handey's The Stench of Honolulu, Home by Marilynne Robinson and the graphic novel Habibi by Craig Thompson. Maybe The Fifth Head of Cerberus or Habibi might be suitable?

Habibi is incredible.  One of my favorite reads from last year!

I don't have time to join the book club right now (These days I fall asleep the moment my head hits a pillow. Consequently, it takes me way too long to finish a book.), just wanted to inject that endorsement.

[Stupot]

I've picked up my copy of Gone Girl.  I couldn't resist a sneaky peek at the first few pages. I'm looking forward to this one.  Also, this copy of the book has some 'reading group notes' which could prove useful :-)

[Darth Mandarb]

I picked up the book as well.

I can't guarantee my participation (working full time, working on a game (shhh!), planning a wedding, you know... the usual stuff) but I loved the idea enough to at least hope I can read along!

[Myinah]

Downloaded to my kindle last night. Excited to start

[Andail]

I picked up the book as well.

I can't guarantee my participation (working full time, working on a game (shhh!), planning a wedding, you know... the usual stuff) but I loved the idea enough to at least hope I can read along!

Your wedding? Your game? Excitement

[Snarky]

I was nearly going to start another 'What are you reading now?' thread, but wouldn't it be much tidier if we were all reading the same thing.

I was thinking we could have it monthly (I'm a slow reader) and maybe set weekly targets to make sure everyone is kind of reading at roughly the same pace to keep up with the discussions.  And the last week can be mainly set aside for discussing the book after reading it.

So for example, Say the book is 30 chapters long the timescale for the month could be something along these lines:
Aug 1 - Everybody starts reading.
Aug 8 - Everybody tries to be on chapter 10
Aug 15 - Everybody tries to be on chapter 20
Aug 22 - Everbody tries to be on Chapter 30
Aug 23-31 - Discussion of book as a whole

This doesn't have to be an exact science, and of course if a discussion gets heated it can always spill over into the next month while the next book club is beginning.

So this thread is really just for discussing how it could work and also, ideas of books you want to read.  I want to read a diverse range of stuff from all genres, it doesn't have to be something particularly 'literary' every month.  And if we get a list going, we could be thinking 3 or 4 months in advance and that gives people plenty of chance to get hold of the books cheaply or freely.

Here's what I'm thinking in terms of organizing the Gone Girl reading.

Sounds like those who're able to take part are eager to get going, so let's start on 1. September, eh?

The book has a number of mysteries/twists, so I think it's important to try to keep people from being spoiled about stuff they haven't got to yet. Since it's divided into three major parts that match some of the big story developments, I propose that we break it up into three separate threads. But because they're so different in length, instead of doing one week per part, I suggest something like 10 days for Part 1 (~250 pp), 7 days for Part 2 (~150 pp), and 4 days for Part 3 (~50 pp). The threads for Part 2 and Part 3 would only be opened once the period for the previous section is finished, in order to try to keep people roughly in sync, but the earlier threads would stay open so people can catch up later.

Within each part a lot of stuff also happens, so in order that people can safely read the thread without having completed the whole part, I suggest splitting it into chunks that each go behind a spoiler warning (except for the first chunk). So for Part 1 I was thinking the first chunk could be the first five chapters (up to p. 42 in my copy), which set the scene, the second chunk could be up to and including the chapter "Four Days Gone" (to p. 156), and the third chunk would be the rest of Part 1 (to p. 243). So in each post, anything that talks about stuff from the second chunk would go behind a spoiler tag (properly labeled), and anything that talks about stuff from the third chunk would go behind another spoiler tag:

I really like the first five chapters they are good and I enjoy them lol!

Second Chunk:

Spoiler

In these chapters there is lots of excitements and things that happen and it gets a little scary oh no!

[close]

Third Chunk:

Spoiler

I am confuse and don't know what's happening and also I didn't read this part yet sorry.

[close]

Does that sound OK? I don't think it's as complicated in practice as it maybe sounds. Any different suggestions?