THe Grex Book Club

Dec 5 03:26 UTC 1994

Item 26 was about book discussion groups -- book clubs, if you will.

I thought it was time that Grex itself have a book club, and the books
conference also seems like the right place to put the "club." It would
as I envision it, be similar to any other book discussion group, in that
members of the group would all read the same book, and then have an open
discussion about it.  Rather than all meeting the same day, though, we
will use Grex.  We miss out on the cookies, coffee, and sitting around
someone's living room, of course; but on the positive side, the discussions
can go on for more than one evening each month; and simultaneous meetings
on different books area easy to manage.

I thought that we could use these last few weeks of the year to get
organized: picking out books, setting up basic discussion schedules,
and the like.  

It would be nice to get started in January, wouldn't it?

response 2 of 86:

Dec 5 14:56 UTC 1994

How do the Grex walkers choose restaurants?

response 4 of 86:

Dec 6 00:23 UTC 1994

Re: 1-3.  Well, that question, if I read it correctly, is asking
how book groups choose what they read.  I'd guess that most either
have a demogogue leadership, or choose via nominations and voting.
I suppose it's a question better asked in item 26.  

Now, on Grex, though, I was hoping for an organized anarchy.  :-)
 
Seriously, I'd envisioned loose nominations and voting.  I thought we
might try 4 books in '95, figuring one per quarter or so.  I was also
hoping for distinctly different genres, sticking with fiction, since
it's easier to discuss as literature than non-fiction.
 

response 6 of 86:

Dec 7 04:20 UTC 1994

        This sounds like a great idea, in fact it might be cool if it
evolved into occasional ftf meetings at some cafe in Ann Arbor.

response 8 of 86:

Dec 7 06:13 UTC 1994

Throw out a few suggestions and see what Josh says :)

response 10 of 86:

Dec 7 16:22 UTC 1994

I've been very leery of book discussion groups ever since I joined
one, and the book was The Birds (Aristophanese). The "discussion"
went into the relevance of the book to current affairs (a Russian
immigrant had strong opinions on its relevance to communism), and

response 12 of 86:

Dec 7 23:00 UTC 1994

Shit happens.

response 14 of 86:

Dec 8 07:20 UTC 1994

Well, to continue #10 after the crash....in brief, everyone wanted to talk
about the relevance of The Birds to their particular passion, but no one
wanted to talk about its relevance to 400 BC. It was both comical and
frustrating because no one was listening to anyone else, and they were all
trying to get the conversation back to what *they* thought. Blahhh. How
about, The Birds?  8-o.

response 16 of 86:

Dec 8 19:25 UTC 1994

I'd read anything just to get back into reading again.
I haven't read a book in over three months.

response 18 of 86:

Dec 9 21:55 UTC 1994

Rightnow I'm in themiddle of Insomnia, which, with my negligible amount
of free time, will take awhile..  BUt I'd love to participate.  How
about some Mark Twain.  Have started several some years back but never
finished many.

response 20 of 86:

Dec 11 04:15 UTC 1994

re 15: How about selecting four different genres, first, and then selecting
representative samples, second?  This way, we can move forward without
committing ourselves to any individual authors.

Here's my four genre suggestions, and why:

1.      Science Fiction.  Some may say "cool."  Others may say "ewww."  
However, this type of fiction is wildly popular among the computer literate
population here on Grex.  I'd even go so far as to recommend the subgenre
commonly described as "cyberpunk" for its close-to-home feel.

2.      Romance.  No, not the fantasy sex books my wife buys by the
caseload from Harlequin and other bodice-ripper factories.  I was thinking
more in the lines of well respected literature.  I'm hesitant to 
give examples, since I don't want to influence a choice yet, but I'm 
looking for something generally recognized for quality: National Book
Award, Nobel Prize, etc.  Subcategory I'd recommend would be published
in this century and written in English, both to avoid anything like Rane's 
experience with "The Birds" and to avoid any possible translation
interpretation problems.

3.      Mystery.  I don't read this much, but a well paced, tense, gritty
whodunit might be a lot of fun to discuss, since in few other types of
fiction is it as easy to see the nuts and bolts it took to put the
story together.

4.      Adventure.  I don't read this much either, but there's so much
of it clogging the best seller lists, we ought to be able to find one
or two good ones published in the last few years.

Comments?  

response 22 of 86:

Dec 11 15:15 UTC 1994

Re 20: Can you give a definition of what you *do* mean by "romance"?
There was a time when practically any novel was considered a romance,
including things like _Ivanhoe_ and _Robinson Crusoe_.  (Note: the
German word for "novel" is "Roman".)

I'd suggest replacing "romance" with "quality mainstream fiction" as
category 2.

response 24 of 86:

Dec 16 10:34 UTC 1994

No comments since Sunday - do I take this as acceptance or as rejection?