"Austin, you're a reader!!"Heart-warming words to any parent, teacher, or lover of the written word, no doubt.
But since many of us already proclaim to be readers (except for the occasional subject line of favorite spot posts), and some of us even purport to be writers (except for the occasional botch-job when attempting to spell "apocryphal"), I propose the founding of The Realm Book Club (hereafter referred to as RBC).
However, for a club to be official, we must have a standing body of members, a stated goal, five or thirty groundrules, and potentially some shameless initiation ritual.
As the proposer of the RBC, let me be the first to add my name to the enrollment list. I know that this has the potential to hinder future enrollment endeavors, but so be it.
I would also like to suggest that our stated goal be: to read one book per month as a group and then discuss its merits, shortcomings, subtextual blah, blah, blah, etc in the comments section of an RBC post here at the Realm.
As far as groundrules, I'll start the ball rolling with: 1) the selection of the book to be read will be rotated through membership each month, 2) book genre must NOT repeat the previous month's genre, 3) book length must be less than 500 pages, 4) book should be something that no one in the group has read in the last fifteen years, 5) no Oprah books.
Let me know, if you would like to be added to the RBC rolls, and then I'd like to hear your thoughts on our goal, groundrules, hazing, and so on.
A verbis ad verbera
12 comments:
This sounds very interesting. I'll put my name in the pot. But books we haven't read before? How can I suggest a book if I've never read it? And no worries on the Oprah thing. I don't do Oprah.
WandaV
I'll go with it at least for the first few months and see if I can get the books read in time.
Wanda,
There may be authors that you've thought about reading and wanted to but never have, books you've heard good things about from someone else but you haven't read yourself, or there might be a fad novel or series going and why not have the club check it out. It could even be one in a series that you're reading but haven't gotten to a certain book yet. Or Classics that none of us have read. You know, like Jaws. Err, I mean... Catch 22?
For instance, some I might think about suggesting:
-- Gregory McGuire books
-- I've read most of Spinelli, but I 've never read Eggs, so why not suggest
-- I missed out on the whole Dune phase and the Thomas Covenant books... who knows, maybe they're good
-- there's always the new stuff that comes out
-- etc. :)
If you have some other/different groundrules suggest them.
We'll use whatever the club feels good about.
We could lower the page limit, lengthen the time, limit to fiction only.
I just thought if you suggest a book you love, then you have nothing to read that month, and you might have hurt feelings if everyone else hates it. If it's new to everybody there's less emotion invested.
But I'd like feedback/past experience/potholes to avoid.
I'd like to suggest Elizabeth Mayne's Lord of the Hissy Fit. That looked intriguing.
5) no Oprah books.
I'm in just on this rule alone.
ummmm hazing like in a frat house?
Good call, Rich.
And you're in luck. According to amazon.com it comes in at a svelt 347 pages, and it's only 2,300,000 behind Dorkman on their rankings, so you know it's gotta be good.
Also, Oprah hasn't touched it, but Maury Povich has... a lot.
Milly,
I've never been in a frat house, but I'd imagine that what we'd come up with would be relatively sophisticated in comparison.
Rich,
Might I suggest something like The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews?
It is a good quick read and it has quite a point. He has a few other books which I will start reading next.
God Bless
Doug
I've been in a frat house but that was a long time ago and no hazing was going on.
Rich,
Might I suggest something like The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews?
It is a good quick read and it has quite a point. He has a few other books which I will start reading next.
Of course, you may suggest, Doug, only you should suggest to Ken, who is sailing this ship. And you may start by addressing him:
"O Captain, My Captain"
I'd like to suggest Scott Westerfeld's "Leviathan" which comes out in October. Looks good.
You can see a book trailer for it on ScottWesterfeld.com
WandaV
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