Unofficial GWJ Book Club - Thanks, All.

NSMike wrote:
Jolly Bill wrote:

How we decide is heavily favored for next selection based on last month's discussion, as I remember.

It is, and I've already started reading it. I just want to entertain other possibilities in case folks... want to? Maintain some façade of democracy, and all.

Only $2.99 on Kindle? GET!

Radical Ans wrote:
NSMike wrote:
Jolly Bill wrote:

How we decide is heavily favored for next selection based on last month's discussion, as I remember.

It is, and I've already started reading it. I just want to entertain other possibilities in case folks... want to? Maintain some façade of democracy, and all.

Only $2.99 on Kindle? GET!

It was on sale for $0.99 a few days ago

NSMike wrote:
Radical Ans wrote:
NSMike wrote:
Jolly Bill wrote:

How we decide is heavily favored for next selection based on last month's discussion, as I remember.

It is, and I've already started reading it. I just want to entertain other possibilities in case folks... want to? Maintain some façade of democracy, and all.

Only $2.99 on Kindle? GET!

It was on sale for $0.99 a few days ago :)

I know. I saw the post on the goodreads board, but I was too late. Still got it for a pretty good price, though.

Funnily enough, I jumped on the $0.99 sale without realizing that I already owned How We Decide on the Kindle.

More questions: (spoiler heavy- resist temptation! Do not look!)

Spoiler:
Do you think the young adult choices in the novel take away from the novel as a whole?
For instance, Katniss is portrayed as extremely reactionary. In the first book especially, she only kills when she is first threatened. Despite two visits to the Hunger Games, she walks out with her hands relatively clean as far as cold-blooded murder goes. One could argue that this is because of the young adult audience needing to be able to see the morality and justification in her actions. Do you think the book loses depth by having Katniss as such a cut-and-dried hero? (despite her unlikability)
Likewise, the books are quite chaste. Stolen kisses with two men are perceived differently than sleeping with two men. Would the book be improved if Katniss was in a more adult world?
There is no religion or other form of persuasive ideology in the books. Do you think it would really be possible to control the masses with tyranny alone?
I feel that the decision between Gale and Peeta is taken away from Katniss at the end of Mockingjay. Had Gale not been inadvertently involved in Prim's death, do you agree with Katniss' assertion that Peeta still would have been her choice all along?

A balanced skewering/praise of the Hunger Games Trilogy from the group overall, I think.

We have decided on How We Decide officially for our next read.

Since we like Thursdays, I'm putting our next discussion at April 3rd. So be done and ready by then.

See you next month!

Was pleasantly surprised on how much time was passed talking about the books

I cannot express to you how much I've wanted to do a book club in the last few years. I'm *in*. How We Decide whispernetting its way to my phone as we speak.

Is there a list of what's already been read and discussed in the group for me to reference?

here is the link to our GoodReads Group Page

"How we decide" is our next book.

Michael Zenke wrote:

Is there a list of what's already been read and discussed in the group for me to reference?

Not as such, but it's been:
Carl Sagan: The Varieties of Scientific Experience
Guy Gavriel Kay: Tigana
Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games (trilogy)

Wish I'd been able to make it, but honestly I only got a chapter or two into the book. Got distracted by too many other things this month (well, two things - really digging into some Unity3d programming at night and got pulled back into Dance with Dragons - need to finish that up).

I lost track of time while playing Battlefield last night so I missed it. I bought How We Decide when it was $0.99 but I doubt I'll read it this month

If you missed Hunger Games, we talked about having another discussion about the movie and the book after the movie comes out (on the 23rd of this month). Maybe we can have an extra mini-meeting after we discuss How We Decide? Or should we wait and give it another night for those who are interested after the movie's been out a few weeks?

Hello everyone! I hope you're having a good time with How We Decide... I've been kinda pokey on it, myself, but I'll get there.

If we're going to do a movie Hunger Games discussion, perhaps second week of April will work. If you're interested, please say so.

We also decided on a method for choosing our books. I will post more details when I'm not rushed to get out the door to work.

I'm late to the party but I'm interested in being involved. I've already read the Hunger Games trilogy so the April discussion would be the perfect time to slide myself into the club.

Haven't even started. I have a couple plane flights coming up, it will be a good time to begin.

Looking forward to this.

Ok, so there's been some dispute over who suggested what books. I obviously picked the first two, so if those who remember doing so can tell me, who first suggested How We Decide, and The Hunger Games trilogy?

As for the movie discussion of Hunger Games. All for it. Would like to see how it translated from the books to the big screen

Alright, well, since no one seems interested in stepping forward and saying they suggested those two, I'll just remove everyone but myself from the pool of names, so get in on the ground floor while you can, people, because I'm keeping track from the next meeting onward.

Some details on how we will, from now on, choose our next book (this will go in the OP as well):

First, you should come to our discussions with your suggestions. Amazon links are appreciated (Mumble has a chat portion where you can share these). There is no hard limit on the number of suggestions you have, but I'd say it would be a good idea to keep it to three or less.

Second, we are now officially on a rotation of Fiction <-> Nonfiction. If this month's book is nonfiction, next month will be fiction, and so on.

If you have suggested a book and it was selected, you cannot make a suggestion again. This will reset when the group of regulars has all had an opportunity to make a suggestion that has been selected. As the group is continuing to grow, and we do have some established regulars, you must have attended at least two discussions total before your suggestions can be considered. This is to allow the rotation an opportunity to reset naturally (to clarify, the rotation "resets" when all of our regulars have had the opportunity to make suggestions, and no one is left to make a suggestion). If the rotation has not naturally reset by the beginning of September 2012, everyone will be given a clean slate, and a chance to make suggestions. A hard rotation reset like September will include new attendees.

Here's a list of the books we read in 2011-2012 (keep in mind, these selections were made before these new rules were in effect):

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

Mike could you edit the OP a bit at the top to make the 'current book' and 'next scheduled meeting' more obvious for folks? I keep having to read through the thread to remind myself when we're going to get together?

Thankyousir!

We're using the Goodreads group for that, actually.

Aha! Thank you for the excellent point.

I definitely suggested Hunger Games, both on Goodreads and on Mumble.

Also, I'm not a big fan of only 'regulars' being allowed to select a book. The regulars will likely be there and be voting on the new book anyway, so they'll have their say. I don't see any reason why someone new can't select a book themselves for the group to vote on. If they are the only one that hasn't selected it's still up for a vote, so it can be vetoed by the group, but I don't like the exclusivity of enshrining 'regulars' into the rules of the group.

I'm interested in getting involved in the book club/discussion. I've never been involved in anything like this before, either through the wonders of the internet or at the library or local book store. Do you approach the books with a general framework of what you'll be talking about or just read it and then see what comes up when the discussion is held?

We informally ask for discussion questions from folks, and we'll follow those to some degree. Our discussions tend to branch out into minor tangents, but overall, we talk about the book and what interested us.

Jolly Bill wrote:

I definitely suggested Hunger Games, both on Goodreads and on Mumble.

Also, I'm not a big fan of only 'regulars' being allowed to select a book. The regulars will likely be there and be voting on the new book anyway, so they'll have their say. I don't see any reason why someone new can't select a book themselves for the group to vote on. If they are the only one that hasn't selected it's still up for a vote, so it can be vetoed by the group, but I don't like the exclusivity of enshrining 'regulars' into the rules of the group.

Ok, well, we're still going with the overall reset for suggestions this coming discussion. So, new or old to the group, come with your suggestions in-hand! And remember, since How We Decide is nonfiction, next month's selection will be fiction.

The idea of having a pool of "regulars" was to have a benchmark for when to reset that pool, so it doesn't grow too large too quickly, and as such, unfairly keep people out of the suggestion rotation for too long. Thus, if you suggested a book and it was selected as our next read, your name would be out of the pool. Unless we just want to go full democracy, have a vote, and forget about keeping track of who suggested what. We could keep it on the honor system, and rely on folks to police themselves on how many suggestions they're making. Does that sound good to folks?

I'm happy to just read along without making suggestions. My goal of doing this, apart from stimulating discussion, is to be exposed to reading I might not normally seek out myself since I have a tendency to keep revisiting the same 4 or 5 genres.