Jennefer’s Comments (group member since Mar 12, 2010)

Jennefer’s comments from the Bodice Ripper Readers Anonymous group.

Got a funny email in my inbox today at work I thought I would share :)

The IRS decides to audit Grandpa, and summons him to the IRS office.

The IRS auditor was not surprised when Grandpa showed up with his attorney.

The auditor said, 'Well, sir, you have an extravagant lifestyle and no full-time employment, Which you explain by saying that you win money gambling. I'm not sure the IRS finds that believable.'

I'm a great gambler, and I can prove it,' says Grandpa. 'How about a demonstration?'

The auditor thinks for a moment and said, 'Okay. Go ahead.'

Grandpa says, 'I'll bet you a thousand dollars that I can bite my own eye.'

The auditor thinks a moment and says, 'It's a bet.'

Grandpa removes his glass eye and bites it. The auditor's jaw drops.

Grandpa says, 'Now, I'll bet you two thousand dollars that I can bite my other eye.'

Now the auditor can tell Grandpa isn't blind, so he takes the bet.

Grandpa removes his dentures and bites his good eye.

The stunned auditor now realizes he has wagered and lost three grand, with Grandpa's attorney as a witness. He starts to get nervous.

'Want to go double or nothing?' Grandpa asks 'I'll bet you six thousand dollars that I can stand on one side of your desk, and pee into that waste basket on the other side, and never get a drop anywhere in between.'

The auditor, twice burned, is cautious now, but he looks carefully and decides there's no way this old guy could possibly manage that stunt, so he agrees again.

Grandpa stands beside the desk and unzips his pants, but although he strains mightily, he can't make the stream reach the wastebasket on the other side, so he pretty much urinates all over the auditor's desk.

The auditor leaps with joy, realizing that he has just turned a major loss into a huge win.

But Grandpa's own attorney moans and puts his head in his hands.

'Are you okay?' the auditor asks.

'Not really,' says the attorney. 'This morning, when Grandpa told me he'd been summoned for an audit, he bet me twenty-five thousand dollars that he could come in here and pee all over your desk and that you'd be happy about it!'

Elle wrote: "Soooo, are most BR's relics from the 70's and 80's, or are there more current writers who are still churning them out? Given that the elements of BR's are so politically incorrect, I'm wondering i..."

I think readers love for BR elements has transitioned a bit to paranormal. If the hero is a paranormal creature or there is magic or some other weird stuff going on then its OK for him to be a crazy possessive jealous a-hole. PNR is now the PC BR in a lot of ways, but not all... I have yet to read a PNR that had the epic-ness of my favorite BR's.

Another thought I had while reading this thread... I don't think that it needs to be erotic or super graphic sex scenes to be a BR. For me its all in the power play and struggle between the H/h. For example The Sheik does not have a single sex scene on page (it all happens between chapters - the book was written in 1918) but it counts as a BR in my mind for sure!

There are lots of things I think of when I think of BR's - epic plot, rich historical detail, large cast of characters, covers a large portion of heroines lifetime, travel from place to place etc - but the only one I can think of that if it were missing would make the book not a BR in my mind would be the power play between H/h.

Welcome Tonya! The story of the box in a box in a box is so cute! :)

Thanks Evelyn :)

Just an FYI we are doing a bit of simplifying around here. We are combining some folders to bring us from our original 13 folders to a more manageable (and less overwhelming) 7. If you have any questions about where something should go let us know.

Also starting in June we are going to be dropping our second read by genre as well as the pick it for me and swap it with me. Our goal here is just to keep things simple with just one group read a month and a few simple challenges.

Going forward the Mods plan to focus our awesome Mod powers on creating more discussion topics and games for the group instead of so many challenges/events and other things that can start to feel like an obligation.

Hopefully we will have plenty to keep everyone entertained and lots of opportunities to get involved :)

Any thoughts or suggestions? Let us know!

xoxo
Jennefer

I think I mostly have the folders all organized, I think... feel free to move things around if you see something that seems out of place girls :)

Welcome to the group Elle and amen to that! Thanks for the support! :)

Jessica wrote: "I like the rule. Haha. And can I start off my fist comment in this group with a joke? Im sure other people have heard it but I thought it was halarious and I just have to share in case others haven..."


Welcome to the group Jessica! Thanks for the giggle :)

Oh good, I'm glad you girls agree :)

I will get all the folders worked out this weekend and try and come up with some conversation starters. Maybe when I send out the June group announcements I will mention we are trying to cut back on reading obligations but add more conversation starters and hopefully that will get people to stop by and comment a bit... we will see :)

I will play but like Wendy it might take me a while (a lifetime) but I'm up for the challenge! :)

I finally got started on this one, just finished the first chapter. Good start! I'm excited about this one! I think it's unlikely I will finish before the months over because I have been reading so freaking slow lately but I will try and update here with my thoughts and a review when I am done. :)

I think it is pretty easy to get burned out by all the different group reads and challenges (from a bunch of different groups too, not just this one). They can be fun, but very quickly start to feel more like an obligation and limiting instead of fun.

I have been thinking the last couple of days; maybe we should try and simplify things around here. I'm almost thinking maybe even cut out the second group read and just do our main monthly one, a quarterly challenge and the annual one we have (the around the world) and maybe just leave it at that? -I like the scavenger hunt too, but no one seems to be jumping on board with that one yet, maybe we can try and rework it a bit, I don't know...

Maybe we should focus our awesome mod powers on starting conversation threads and games instead of more challenges/events????

For example we could try and come up with a "question of the week" type of feature (could be anything from "what's your favorite BR cliche?" to "Do you feel like others judge your for your choice of reading material" etc.) to start at least one new conversation thread a week minimum. And maybe we could try and start one new game every month (they seem to fizzle after about that long) instead of challenges and picks and swaps.

I love this little group and I want to make it the best group we can! I'm starting to think that maybe focusing more energy on trying to engage members in conversations and games instead of events might be a better way to do that.



I've also been thinking maybe we should get rid of some folders. I'm thinking maybe we could combine group reads and challenges and make that one folder- kind of the main "to read" folder (also any buddy reads anyone would like to start could go here). Then combine book chit chat/Help looking for/off topic and make that all one main discussion folder for questions of the week as well (mabye we could move this thread there as well and make sure group members feel welcome to add ideas as well and get rid of the admin folder). Maybe we could combine member reivews and member reading lists into "member stuff"? Leave promotion and archive (I just can't bring myself to delete a single thread1) and maybe have one folder for just games?

I'm thinking something like this:

welcome/news
group reads and challenges
group discussions and questions
games
member stuff
promotion
archive

That takes us from our current 13 folder down to 7. I think that would make more sense and be a little less overwhelming to look at... what do you two think? I'll do all the work to move things around but I want your input/ideas so let me know.

Sounds good! I'll take care of 3rd!

On another note, just so you two don't think I completely forgot... the weekend got away from me but I am going to put up the group poll for June tonight when I get home from work! It just came to me this morning in the shower that it's time to take care of that! haha :)

Sounds good to me! Maybe start the thread now for sign ups and have an official start date for June 1st?

What do you think Karla? Should we do 4 books for second and 2 for third (2 each and then 1 each)? More/less? Or a few books for 2nd and a collection of bookmarks for 3rd?

I think one book per item as well. Then it becomes a strategic sort of thing, you don't want to waist a book that has something hard to come by for one of the easier categories.

It would be more work for us to moderate everyone and make sure no one breaks any rule, but I like the 'can't use the same book as anyone else' rule, at least not for the same category. Otherwise one person would find a book with a difficult thing to find and then everyone else in the challenge would just read the same one, whats the challenge in that? Then it's also kind of a race too, the first one to read it and post that they did with 'proof' gets to use that book for the challenge.

As far as time frame maybe we should just leave it open. Make it a race. Have a set start date for everyone that wants to play and then the first person to complete all categories gets 1st place and so on.

I would be more than willing to offer books off my shelf for prizes and pay a bit for shipping if you two want to go that way, but honestly I'm not sure I'm willing to put up much more than that (money wise).

Another prize idea... I could make some cute bookmarks that look like little state fair ribbons, you know a blue, red and yellow ribbon for first second and third. Or maybe we could just create an image (Photoshop or whatever) of a certificate or trophy to email the person to use as their avatar if they like for bragging rights.

I think prizes could be fun but we can keep it super simple and even free.

We should just go through some of your reviews Jeanine to come up with our list :)

Creeker wrote: "I found these at this little book store on 99 cent table when we went to flea market last weekedend.
The Black Swan
Moss Rose
My Lord Monleigh
My Love My Enemy
The Wind and The Sea
The Barga..."


Wow! There is nothing like finding a good haul of books in real life like that! E-shopping is fun to, just not the same :)

I have Rainbows End so I might try and get that one in this month. I have been reading super slow lately, just busy with other things, so I might not get past our group read but I will try :)

I sympathize as well!

I'm about to head to my used bookstore and hope they have this, if not I will go ahead and order from Amazon. I haven't read a group read in a couple months so I am doing this one for sure I promise!!!

Sharon replied to the group announcement with an idea for the group but I'm not sure if that goes to all the mods or just me because I'm the one that sent it so here is what she said...

"Ok, I have an idea for a game. How about....

A Bodice Ripper reading game. First, we have a list of all the PC Incorrect ingredients, like...Rape (naturally), Hero hitting heroine, hero getting caught boinking another female by/in the presence of heroine...all those topics are probably on everyone's shelves.

Anyway, you 3 brilliant moderators come up with a list, those of us who want to play...swear in, figure a time frame to complete the topics (new reading only beginning at start of game), everyone leaves a comment when a book is finished...

That's as far as my thinking goes on this.

Whatcha think ladies?"

Kinda like a BR scavenger hunt! :) We could make it a monthly game, or maybe a long term challenge?