I’ve been trying to add to my list of books to read. More specifically, I’ve been trying to add books outside my normal reading genres (Fantasy/Sci-Fi and historical non-fiction). So I’ve put a number of books that friends have recommended on my list of books to read (thanks for the tip on the tool, Anna!). Some of these have come from recommendations from friends (specifically Lou Ann and Kevin), bits I’ve heard on NPR, and of course some of the classics I “read” (i.e., skimmed) in high school.
Kate just finished reading My Sister’s Keeper, which had been recommended by Lou Ann. I haven’t read it yet, but it seems to me from the subject matter (read Lou Ann’s post about the book for more info) that it is ripe for discussion. Likewise, I have found myself interested in what people think of Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.
So I wanted to gauge interest in an online book-discussion group. It would initially take place here on my blog (probably just in the form of comments). It could be a monthly thing, or an every-two-months thing, or a chapter-a-week thing, or whatever we want it to be. Who would be interested? What kind of format would you like to see it take? If you’re interested, respond here and help me come up with ideas!
Ooh! You could set up a separate blog, where everyone in the group can post. And every week we could discuss a chapter, and comment on it. We could assign people each week, or people could post when the feel like it, depending on the format. And we could have posts about what books to read. Like Anna’s blog… it could have different sections. YOu know, like “this weeks chapter” and “overarching themes” and “books we’d like to read”, etc.
I’m with Kate! I could definitely be persuaded to join up! 😀
i am not even kidding….i was just thinking about doing something similar, so i would definitely be interested!
as for chapter vs. whole book, i’d be afraid if we went by chapter that i would read ahead and then give something away…on the otherhand, when you do the whole book at once you might miss some things…so i guess other people could decide that part (though i am horrible at reading only one chapter…but i can try!)
That sounds really cool… although I tend to read in spurts so I’m not sure how well I would keep up! The ‘library thing’ site looks really cool. I’m going to sign up!!
Maybe a message board format would be better than a blog? Each thread could be a chapter, and we could have forums for each book.
oh, boy. i do love books. and reading.
i would vote for reading a chapter per week, because then i could keep up with this and what my real live book club is reading :).
Great idea! I too would be interested but my non-textbook reading is limited to a few weeks in December, a week in March, and a few weeks in May and June. So…I am not sure that I’d be that productive at times. But I’d definitely be interested!
Okay, it seems there is significant enough interest to at least give a discussion group a try. Participation would of course be voluntary and as frequent as everybody is able. Depending on the book we may do more than a chapter a week. I’ll get to work on a message board system on which to run this. Shouldn’t be too difficult, because there’s lots of free solutions for that sort of thing out there.
Watch this space for an initial list of possible books that we may want to read. I’ll try to put up a poll or something to let the group pick the book. 🙂
Of course you can! No blogs necessary! I’m working on the message board now (well, not right-this-minute now), and hope to have something available this weekend or early next week.
Can you participate even if you don’t have a blog? I love reading and discussions but actually getting together with someone or with a group never happens. Online sounds like the way to go!