Chapter check-ins?

[Robert of Dale]

Has anyone attempted to start book discussion threads that implicitly state "We're discussing up to and including chapter X, but NO FURTHER", so that people can speculate on as-yet unread portions of the book, give their impressions up to that point, explain why that chapter was the point where they decided to Lem the book, etc...?

I don't know how effective it would be but by prefacing a discussion topic title with "Ch 9: What the hell just happened!?" people could freely discuss the book up to that point, knowing that those who didn't want spoilers could wait until they've read that far.

Is this mostly pointless? Would it just mean that a bunch of people would make a comment and then never come back for fear of spoiling the rest of the book for others as they read further? Would a more targeted set-up work, where someone who has read the book already could start discussion threads titled like "Chapters 1-13 check-in: What do you think so far?". Is this just too regimented of an idea to work in a community of free-thinkers?

[Kate]

I personally don't like book groups that do this. I think it leads to unfocused threads and less engagement than threads which are more topically driven with spoilers marked in the body of individual posts.

[Micah]

it has been discussed before. I say go ahead and try it. S&L is all about experimentation. Maybe it will work out for some people. I just wouldn't be to upset if some people ignored the Chapter discussion rule.

[Leesa]

We did this for Hyperion, and I liked it a whole lot. I read that book slower than most so I felt safe going to the threads marked for the tale I was currently on.

Over at Sci Fi and Fantasy book club, they did this for Wool, as well.

If we have a discussion leader for a book (always a volunteer position), I like it when they guide discussion based in chunks so we can participate right from the beginning without worrying about spoilers.

Of course, people should post the topics they like, so anyone is free to do this.

[AndrewP]

Leesa wrote: "We did this for Hyperion, and I liked it a whole lot. I read that book slower than most so I felt safe going to the threads marked for the tale I was currently on."

I think it only worked well for Hyperion due to the structure of the book. 6 short stories slapped together rather than one long one.

[[deleted user]]

I wouldn't mind this because like Alex i'm scared to look at threads till im done with the book, this would give me an in so I don't miss discussions and don't get spoilers either.

[JRush]

This is the format the Malazan Book of the Fallen Group is using and I think it works perfect for a book discussion.

This would make it easier for people who take the whole month to finish the pick.

And there is no reason to stop the topical threads to do it this way.

[Rob, Roberator]

JRush wrote: "This is the format the Malazan Book of the Fallen Group is using and I think it works perfect for a book discussion.

This would make it easier for people who take the whole month to finish the pi..."

I like that format, and the discussion is great, but I think a large part of it is the slow pace we're using.

[Nathan]

I think this would be a good idea. It would foster discussion at every stage of the book.

[Shaline]

I think it's a good idea. I'm always scared to read the discussions before I finish the book, but by the time I'm done with the book I no longer feel like discussing.

[Rob, Roberator]

So if we wanted to try it for Downbelow Station, there are a couple of ways we could try it: By chapter, by book, or some other method.

The novel is broken up into 5 "books". It has 38 chapters. Each of the books are about 100 pages long in the MMPB copy I have, which totals 526 pages.

Book Breakdown
Book 1: 11 chapters, 116 pages (22%)
Book 2: 5 chapters, 104 pages (20%)
Book 3: 10 chapters, 94 pages (18%)
Book 4: 6 chapters, 98 pages (18%)
Book 5: 6 chapters, 114 pages (22%)

The actual page count is less important than the proportion to the whole, as people will have varying copies.

Since everyone reads at their own pace, and there are so many people in the club it's really not practical to set a reading schedule.

It's probably easier to just post all the threads on day 1 and people can jump in them when they get there.

I think the number of people and the number of chapters makes chapter discussion impractical.

Personally I'd suggest something like:

Book 1, Chapters 1-5: 56 pages (11%)
Book 1, Chapters 6-11: 60 pages (11%)
Book 2, Chapters 1,2: 48 pages (9%)
Book 2, Chapters 3-5: 56 pages (11%)
Book 3, Chapters 1-5: 50 pages (10%)
Book 3, Chapters 6-10: 44 pages (8%)
Book 4, Chapters 1,2: 54 pages (10%)
Book 4, Chapters 3-6: 44 pages (8%)
Book 5, Chapters 1,2: 40 pages (8%)
Book 5, Chapters 3-6: 74 pages (14%)

That way there are a few extra stopping points to allow people to jump in on.

This is a purely mathematical solution from someone who hasn't read the book before. I have no idea how the chapter splits will work from a discussion point of view.

I'll be happy to create all the threads, with posting rules about spoilers (ie a friendly reminder in the OP that you can only discuss stuff up to the stopping point of that section)

Thoughts?

[Tina]

Shaline wrote: "I think it's a good idea. I'm always scared to read the discussions before I finish the book, but by the time I'm done with the book I no longer feel like discussing."


Me, too. One of the reasons I don't participate in the discussions more is because I've been spoiled in the past, so I've been waiting till I'm done or nearly done before joining in.

I think even dividing the book into quarters would work for me, since I read e-books it would work at about 25%, 50%, 75% rather than strict page numbers.

[Robert of Dale]

Rob wrote: "So if we wanted to try it for Downbelow Station, there are a couple of ways we could try it: By chapter, by book, or some other method.

The novel is broken up into 5 "books". It has 38 chapters. [...]

It's probably easier to just post all the threads on day 1 and people can jump in them when they get there.

I think the number of people and the number of chapters makes chapter discussion impractical."

Agreed. I hadn't articulated this, but I had imagined threads like "If you've read up to chapter 10, come talk about it here!" but your ideas are much better, in my opinion.

I actually like your first break-down better; it's pretty obvious when a book broken down into parts like this ends one of those parts, so that can be a good reminder for people to put the book down and discuss what they've read so-far, if they prefer not to have any fore-knowledge of the story up to that point. It's also more manageable, and easier to find the right thread if there aren't a bunch of them.

[Michelle]

Totally agree with everyone in favor of the breakdown. I find with one massive discussion thread, sometimes a good idea/question that posed in the beginning gets lost by the end because of the amount of things everyone is trying to touch on.

I'd vote for the first suggested breakdown by the different books. It would be easy to distinguish for people using different copies/formats and will limit the number of discussions to a more managable and friendly number.

[Leesa]

Rob, I'm good with dividing it into the five sections or splitting each section into two subsections.

Thanks for doing the leg work on this. :)

[Rob, Roberator]

I went ahead and made threads for each of the Books since that seems to be the popular consensus (of the like 4 people who responded. lol).

We'll see how this works out participation-wise, and evaluate near the end of March once we know the April pick to figure out what to do next month.