Unofficial GWJ Book Club - Thanks, All.

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I've decided to stop the book club. The response has gotten slow to nonexistent. Thanks to everyone who participated.


This thread started originally as a gripe about slowing down because I've been out of academia for so long, and wanting to do better. It has now evolved into a book club, where a book is chosen, and then discussed in Google+ Hangouts.

Submit your Google+ info here to join the book club circle.

We have a Goodreads group to keep track of things, as well as a Steam Community. Please join up.

If you want to join us, don't hesitate to ask. If we're in the middle of a reading cycle, we will still acknowledge you joining us, and if you think you can finish the book before the end of the cycle, you are free to read and join the discussion, or even just listen in if you really want to. Just be aware that the discussion will remain focused on the book.

[size=20]The New Book Club Details are Below. Please read![/size]

I am eliminating the Mumble server, as it's sparsely used, and I'm not interested in maintaining that cost anymore, so we're switching to Google+ Hangouts for our discussions. You don't need a webcam, as you can still talk in a hangout without one, but you are free to share your (appropriate) webcam feed with us. If you wish to be added to the Google+ GWJ Book Club circle, PM me with your Google+ associated email address or profile link.

At the moment, the book club has a few modes of discussion and suggestion.

First, book suggestions will be conducted approximately a week before our official discussion. I will post a submission form that will allow folks to submit their book choices. After the suggestions are collected, a vote will be posted, so folks can vote for their choice. This process will be anonymous, so I'm relying on you to honor these two rules:
1. Only submit one book.
2. Don't vote for your suggestion.

The only exception to rule #2 will come if the same book is submitted more than once. At that point, when the voting survey for the books goes live, I will notify you that this is the case.

Second, new discussion modes. We will have two discussion modes now. One will be the final discussion, with questions and everything, like our old format. That will happen at the end of the reading cycle (typically 4-5 weeks), when we have the most folks available. As noted above, this will take place in a Google+ Hangout.

The second will be a discussion group on Goodreads where people can post their thoughts on chapter blocks that will be selected after the book is chosen, and will occur in the run-up to the main discussion. Basically, each week you will be expected to complete the reading of specific blocks of chapters, and then discuss those chapters on Goodreads (or a better forum, if this seems insufficient) in text form. I'm hoping this eliminates the problems with folks who will not be able to attend the big discussions, as well as give some incentive to those of us slackers by setting smaller goals, and accommodate those fast readers who are enthusiastic about discussing the story.

We will also have a new way of determining when folks are most easily available to discuss for our live discussions, by placing a range of dates and times into a survey. The date and time on which there is the most convergence of availability will be our final discussion. As we are a diverse group across time zones, this naturally means that we will likely exclude some folks. I'm hoping the online text discussions will also help to accommodate these folks.

Suggestions are welcome, so please, reply to this thread or PM me with your ideas.

Original post follows.


Just for fun, I was browsing through some of the old threads where I posted in the past. Not recent past, either, more like three years ago. As I read, I noticed a few things, chief among them:

1. I was a dick. Especially in P&C.
2. I sounded a lot smarter than I do now. At least, I think so.

This is not a new realization for me. More recently I've become aware that I don't think as quickly as I used to in regards to certain things. Intellectual realizations that would've come to me at the snap of a finger in the past tend to come a few minutes, or even longer, later. The connecting of the dots is starting to take longer. I don't think it's the result of any kind of illness, so much as it is a change of habits and routine.

So, what has changed? My evenings are dull. Even though I've moved, that much hasn't changed at all. I come home, browse the web for a while, then figure out what games I'm going to play, then go to sleep, usually too late. I spend very little time on real intellectual pursuits anymore. Despite having plenty of things to read on the Kindle, I hardly ever sit down with it and just read anymore. I have shelves full of unread books, as well. Some part of me remembers enjoying reading, because I still can't resist a good book store, but more recently I feel like a collector rather than a consumer.

On top of all of this, if I actually want to start dating, I'm going to need something to talk about. Ask me about my life and you'll get short, one-word answers. This does me no good.

I don't know what I'm going for in this thread. Maybe a book club, just as an early concept? I know we have these forums to discuss things, but maybe it would be better to talk about things as well. I remember that once I got used to it, I used to thrive on the environment of a discussion in a college classroom. Writing is rewarding in its own ways, but it's not the same skill set as an oral discussion (no dirty jokes, please), and I have a virtually unused mumble server just sitting there...

Perhaps I'm being a bit specific in identifying the gap by putting it solely on books, but that's just because it's the immediate example of something I used to do with frequency and fervor, and is now something that mainly decorates my living space.

I could probably find something like this where I live, but GWJ has been the source of many new friendships for me. I wouldn't mind finding a few more.

Here's a list of the books we read in 2011-2012:

December - The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
January - Tigana
February - The Hunger Games Trilogy
March - How We Decide

I feel you.
Looking back something are definitely missing. Mental quickness among them.

I recently got my kindle to work again and I'm enjoying falling in love with reading again.
I would devour books in hours or days. I miss that.

A book club could be a way to go about it.
Something akin to Post a news story, entertain me! or Hidden Gems of Netflix's Watch Instantly?

My only concern would be the number of threads that could come out of different book or genre discussionsin a forum dedicated to another hobby (gaming). I'd be annoyed if I didn't care to participate in this reading session and my gaming site was not overtaken by reading threads.

Maybe try to keep it to a low number of threads; four max 5 threads?

Hobbes2099 wrote:

My only concern would be the number of threads that could come out of different book or genre discussionsin a forum dedicated to another hobby (gaming). I'd be annoyed if I didn't care to participate in this reading session and my gaming site was not overtaken by reading threads.

Maybe try to keep it to a low number of threads; four max 5 threads?

I have an idea: Perhaps there should be a book pile thread each month -- Just like Hemidal does for games. Where you can list your pile and what your going to try to read that month and can have a featured book for the month.

I was actually hoping for us to meet on Mumble and talk about the books. I made and maintained a book pile thread a few years ago, but interest died off. It was little more than a checklist.

If making lots of threads becomes an issue, we can always make our own forums from some site that offers that.

I am so in for this.

Would be down for this too.

I had a pretty stimulating conversation with an old friend the other day that I hadn't talked to in years about philosophy which left me feeling a bit dumb and witless. I enjoyed the conversation as it was though, and have often wanted friends to have these kinds of talks with.

I may be interested in participating. I already have a big list of books I plan on reading in the next few months, but depending on the book selections I might be want to plug in on this.

NSMike wrote:

I was actually hoping for us to meet on Mumble and talk about the books. I made and maintained a book pile thread a few years ago, but interest died off. It was little more than a checklist.

If making lots of threads becomes an issue, we can always make our own forums from some site that offers that.

I'm in. I have also rekindled my love/lust for reading only recently. Just read the first two Hunger Games books and looking forward to the third, which are the best light reading I've done in a long time, in a very light sci-fi / dystopian world. Also reading a book on memory and memory techniques (Moonwalking with Einstein), which I am keen to continue. I would be very happy to be able to read and discuss either on here or on vent/mumble.

I'd definitely be interested, although it's a bit difficult to get to a computer on most nights for me. I'd happily make time for a good book discussion, though.

I like the book recommendation thread, but it sometimes seems like it's all "geeky" books like sci-fi and fantasy. I'm not opposed to those books, per se, but I like biographies, histories and literary fiction more.

I really want to talk about Anathem with somebody. It's kind of a small pool, since there's about 400 pages of somewhat arcane reading before you get to the good parts, but just throwing that out there. Apologies for throwing out a "geeky" book, but I'd also be down for some Colston Whitehead as well.

I like this idea.

Ok, well, if we're going to do this, let's do this. I have some questions for you, though.

1. How long do you guys need to read an average book?
2. Do we want a killswitch vote (i.e., "This book sucks, let's do something else")?
3. To keep things interesting, do we want to do a genre rotation?

Here are my answers:
1. It really depends on the book, but if I have a deadline, I'm pretty sure two and a half weeks is a good time frame. I'm open to adjusting to everyone's schedules, though.
2. I personally like this idea, because if a book sucks, I'm not going to find time to pick it up almost on purpose.
3. Since some have already expressed a desire to read other genres besides sci-fi/fantasy, definitely. I also think we should do some release-date changeups. For example:

  • Recently Released Mystery
  • Classic Sci-Fi
  • Recently Released Fantasy
  • Classic Literature
  • Recently Released Horror
  • Classic Suspense
  • And so on...

We should all agree on an edition to some degree, but I don't think this is going to be too much of an issue, especially with more recent titles. The only time we should really press this issue is with translations.

Suggestions? Ideas? Questions? Problems? Points of concern?

I'll have to do some thinking about ideas, but for now I'm tagging this thread: Count me in, I'm interested!

I'm interested. I need to get back to reading more, and being less netflix lazy (curse you phone app!).

Is there any interest in working through something like this? Covers classic lit, some philosophy, and a bunch of other things., and would be a good jumping-off point for discussions and some analysis of bias (like the Great Books, this one has that Eurocentric tilt).

If the motivation for this is that we're all feeling a bit dull, it seems like that (or something similar) would be good mental exercise.

I can finally talk about New Moon with someone

mooosicle wrote:

I can finally talk about New Moon with someone

You are the worst type of person.

mooosicle wrote:

I can finally talk about New Moon with someone

I bet you can.

This sounds interesting, but I just want to say, Mike, that this process of "feeling slower" happens as you age. However, the mind is like a muscle and it needs exercise. I'll probably never be as sharp as I was when I was working on my (undergrad) thesis in Philosophy. However, my brain is also filled with a lot more sh*t than it was then. Good and bad.

I too am interested in this possibility.

Count me in. My interests in genre go all over the place so I'd be down for pretty much anything.

I like books. Also, new Kindle touch, so Booyah.

I will try to read just about anything.

I miss the NSMike who was a big jerk.

KingGorilla wrote:

I like books. Also, new Kindle touch, so Booyah.

I will try to read just about anything.

I miss the NSMike who was a big jerk.

I don't...

I am definitely interested in this.
1. How long do you guys need to read an average book? 3-4 days. I read really fast.
2. Do we want a killswitch vote (i.e., "This book sucks, let's do something else")? I am either way.
3. To keep things interesting, do we want to do a genre rotation? Yes.

I am interested.
1. How long do you guys need to read an average book? A couple of weeks. I am old and read slow. Also, I have a lot of other stuff to do that's not easily convert-able to reading time.
2. Do we want a killswitch vote (i.e., "This book sucks, let's do something else")? Either way, but I usually finish a book that I start.
3. To keep things interesting, do we want to do a genre rotation? Yes.

~4 days.

Yes to the killswitch, just in case.

Rotation: definitely, I'm just mostly interested in things that will exercise my brain and make me think again. If we're going to be regular old fiction/housewives book club I probably won't be able to keep my head in it.

Define average? I can plow through most normal sized novels in a day or two. Philosophy/history, I like to take more time to digest.. a week or so.

Tanglebones wrote:

Define average? I can plow through most normal sized novels in a day or two. Philosophy/history, I like to take more time to digest.. a week or so.

Average ≈600 pages. No idea how that converts to Kindle "locations."

I feel slow. I used to be able to knock over books in a day or two, but it takes me a couple of weeks these days, I guess I just don't have the time to read like I used to.

I am interested however! I'll keep an eye on this thread to see what comes of it, I honestly want to get back into reading, and proper reading, not just lazily working my way through easy to digest fantasy novels.

Ok, I think we can give this a trial run, at the very least. Check out below the edit in the OP to see my idea.

I'm interested but I'm out on Cat's Cradle. I've read a dozen of Vonnegut's books and it was one of my least favorite even though it's one of his most popular.

In the future I suggest we try Ready Player One. It's a new book that has received generally good reviews and covers a subject matter that should be of interest to those on a gaming website.

http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-O...

I'd love to share with you guys Lucio Costa: Brasilia's Superquadra. The book is part of The Harvard Design School's also-excellent CASE series. Composed of ten essays about Lucio Costa's design for Brasilia, and how the resulting city has evolved since the majority of it was built. The essays, starting with an excellent interview with Costa himself, focuses on the specific, unique character of Brasilia.

Great for designers, architects, city planners and those who want some international stuff.

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