All About Books discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
General Info
>
Ask the Moderators
message 251:
by
Jenny
(new)
Jun 01, 2014 10:44AM
Have you found it Bette? For Fiction it's here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... for Nonfiction you could make a recommendation in one of the individual threads for 'History' or 'Science' and so on, or just add it to the Non-Fiction, what are you reading thread (all in Non-Fiction Folder)
reply
|
flag
I have become aware that there are quite a few members who are not from the US (I'm a little slow). I would be very interested to know how people from other countries view US literature, especially poetry, as well as US culture more generally. Do you think there would be any interest in a thread which addressed this topic?
Mod
Jenny wrote: "Have you found it Bette? For Fiction it's here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... for Nonfiction ..."Thanks Jenny, but what if you wouldn't necessarily recommend it but would like to post your review, anyway?
Mod
Good idea. What about something similar for British Literature? Or we can make it European Literature?
Mod
European literature seems a bit too... Inclusive.
I remember having a discussion on having a thread for 'World Literature' in which literature from different countries may be discussed. It had resulted in some good discussions. I do not remember where(in which thread) was it held.
Dhanaraj wrote: "I remember having a discussion on having a thread for 'World Literature' in which literature from different countries may be discussed. It had resulted in some good discussions. I do not remember w..."
A 'World Literature' thread does seem like a good idea.
A 'World Literature' thread does seem like a good idea.
Bette BookAddict wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Have you found it Bette? For Fiction it's here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... f..."
Yeah just put it in that thread :) it's open for anyone to recommend or not recommend a book. Would it maybe be helpful to either rename this thread or create a new one titled 'What I have just read and my review'? That sentence makes no sense but my brain can't think of anything better atm haha!
Yeah just put it in that thread :) it's open for anyone to recommend or not recommend a book. Would it maybe be helpful to either rename this thread or create a new one titled 'What I have just read and my review'? That sentence makes no sense but my brain can't think of anything better atm haha!
Mod
Mod
Hmm, guess that is true.
Mod
Have you tried searching for it? If you can remember a certain sentence you posted, you can use the search bar to see how many posts contain that phrase. It might take a while but hope it helps.
Becca wrote: "Bette BookAddict wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Have you found it Bette? For Fiction it's here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/......"I think maybe creating new one is a really good idea, Becca. I love to read other AAB members reviews but if I'm not linked to the person via Friend, I struggle to find them.
We have a world lit thread guys which is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... ;)too many threads possibly? LOL
Bette, 'Would you recommend it?' could also be answered with a 'no, and here's why...' couldn't it? I think many of us quite regularly post their reviews there.
Timothy wrote: "I have become aware that there are quite a few members who are not from the US (I'm a little slow). I would be very interested to know how people from other countries view US literature, especially..."Timothy, I like your idea which I think is different from the World Lit thread. If you like you could still post your question there though, as I think we are bound to have a very loose interpretation of the term seeing that what is different to us culturally varies from member to member in this group quite drastically depending on individual origin. If you prefer to keep it seperate one of us will gladly help you set something up if you have an idea of how you'd like to go about it.
Also : I think the problem in finding threads sometimes maybe due to the fact that only the seven last active in each folder are shown, the world lit one is in the Book Chat folder, but you'd have to press the folder title to see all thirty of them.
Jenny wrote: "We have a world lit thread guys which is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... ;)too many thr..."
I agree, I think we only need one thread for saying what we've read and what we thought of it - either way.
Bette BookAddict wrote: "Becca wrote: "Bette BookAddict wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Have you found it Bette? For Fiction it's here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/......"
I'll try to think of a better name and open it tomorrow ;-) (EDIT: Maybe not, I'll wait to see the general 'consensus')
Jenny - do you think a thread 'clean up' is needed? I am off tomorrow (yay!) so I can look at threads that have not been active for a long time and are unlikely to be active again and delete them.
EDIT:
Shirley & Jenny - would you like me to edit the first page of the what have you just read thread to include that we encourage reviews or something? Rather than a new thread.
I'll try to think of a better name and open it tomorrow ;-) (EDIT: Maybe not, I'll wait to see the general 'consensus')
Jenny - do you think a thread 'clean up' is needed? I am off tomorrow (yay!) so I can look at threads that have not been active for a long time and are unlikely to be active again and delete them.
EDIT:
Shirley & Jenny - would you like me to edit the first page of the what have you just read thread to include that we encourage reviews or something? Rather than a new thread.
Timothy wrote: "I have become aware that there are quite a few members who are not from the US (I'm a little slow). I would be very interested to know how people from other countries view US literature, especially..."Yes, I think there would be some interest in that subject. I've read a few American books recently, so I'd contribute.
Becca wrote: "Bette BookAddict wrote: "Becca wrote: "Bette BookAddict wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Have you found it Bette? For Fiction it's here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/......"Becca, yes, I actually think links to reviews are better than actually posting the whole review, personally. Then you get the choice whether to read it or not (some people don't like to read reviews beforehand).
Becca, can we not just archive the threads in past posts?
I guess hardly anyone reads the first page anymore since most people probably jump to the newest entry. I think 'What have you read - give us your reviews' (or something along the lines) makes those people shy off potentially that only wanted to say: I really liked or I would recommend it to....but didn't intend a review.Alternatively we could go for 'What have you read - opinions, recommendations & reviews?
Yes, I think we should clean up our threads at some point. Maybe around the time of our birthday we can see about possible dead bodies? I think some might come to life again (like World Lit potentially that has been untouched for a long time now) but some threads could even be combined and some really may be dead for good.
Jenny, I like your alternative title. I think that's also what I was thinking, some people may not comment if they think they have to write a lengthy review, and we want everyone to feel they can contribute, even if its just a few words.
Ah sorry Shirley, it took me forever to post so I missed yours!! Past post for now is a good idea I think for the obvious dead threads.
Shirley wrote: "Jenny, I like your alternative title. I think that's also what I was thinking, some people may not comment if they think they have to write a lengthy review, and we want everyone to feel they can c..."and crossposting again LOL
Jenny wrote: "Timothy wrote: "I have become aware that there are quite a few members who are not from the US (I'm a little slow). I would be very interested to know how people from other countries view US litera..."I would prefer to keep it separate, but I really don’t have any idea about how to proceed. I would not be commenting very much since the whole idea would be to get opinions from non-Americans (I’m American). I take your point about people from different cultures having different perspectives, but I would want to hear them all.
It just occurred to me that the question(s) might be quite controversial (possibly involving politics) and some people may be reluctant to voice their opinion; This makes me question the whole idea. Everyone would have to feel very free to say what they think.
Still, the question is one I am very interested in and if you could give me any advice as to how (or whether) to proceed, I would appreciate it very much.
Thank you Jenny.
Alannah wrote: "Timothy wrote: "I have become aware that there are quite a few members who are not from the US (I'm a little slow). I would be very interested to know how people from other countries view US litera..."I would like something similar for British literature very much. I would like to comment and see comments from elsewhere, but I'm very ignorant about continental literature (at least since Dante).
Timothy wrote: "It just occurred to me that the question(s) might be quite controversial (possibly involving politics) and some people may be reluctant to voice their opinion; This makes me question the whole idea. Everyone would have to feel very free to say what they think."I think it is extremely risky. I don't think people would be honest because they could hurt the feelings of our other American members or they could be offended.
Only my two cents, of course. If mods will say you can open the discussion, I wish you good luck. Why are you curious to know what non-Americans think about your homeland?
I see your point Timothy. I wonder could this be avoided by making it about American literature first and foremost? I think through discussing influences and background, social and political issues will inevitably come up anyhow, but they wouldn't be in the lime light as much if you know what I mean. Do you have an idea what those questions may be? If you are afraid they may be too controversial then maybe you could send me or any other of the mods a private message and we'd have a look at them and let you know what we think?
Jenny said, "I guess hardly anyone reads the first page anymore"... I'm not sure of the implications of this. So may I put in a request not to delete an earlier part of a thread, please? I don't know if this is what you were thinking of, but personally I often read a thread right from the beginning! This is especially true if I'm a "late starter" with a particular read, or theme; a seasonal poet would be a case in point.
Of course there will be some "dead threads" about voting and such, and we can trust you all to use your discretion about this, I know :)
Like Shirley, I prefer to have a link to a review from a general thread, rather than being confronted with it all. There's another group I'm in, where one person posts his reviews in a "What have you just read?" thread almost daily, and all that happens is that readers get wise to it, and some of us avoid that thread if he's been the most recent contributor! And this comes from someone (me) who appreciates in-depth reviews, from both sides, but feels that there is a time and a place. If you want an in-depth review, then clicking somewhere is no big deal, but having full reviews of something you may not be interested in in your face all the time, just puts you off.
I love Timothy's idea, and have very similar feelings - but from the English perspective. It's certainly a fascinating area, and one which in a group such as this, there's an ideal opportunity to explore. Yes, there are potential areas of conflict, but nearly all of us would want to do this sensitively, I think. So I do look forward to seeing how you all move forward on this.
Hope you don't mind me commenting. I know this is an "Ask the Mods thread, but there was a question at the beginning and the rest just seemed to follow on... :D
Shirley - Yes we could archive them :) I'm walking my dawwwwwwwg in a min so I'll look into it when I get back.
Jenny - I like that new title!
Jenny - I like that new title!
Jean wrote: "Jenny said, "I guess hardly anyone reads the first page anymore"... I'm not sure of the implications of this. So may I put in a request not to delete an earlier part of a thread, please? I don't ..."
Jean - I think Jenny was referring to Becca saying that she would put a note on the first page of the thread ("what have you read, would you recommend it?") about encouraging reviews etc - don't worry, we won't delete the first part of threads, as you say, some people like to read from the beginning...
I'm very happy with the idea of threads relating to the literature of any country, but not keen on the idea of threads relating to a country's culture or to a country in general. I think there is a lot of scope for people being offended etc by posts on the latter.
Gill wrote: "I'm very happy with the idea of threads relating to the literature of any country, but not keen on the idea of threads relating to a country's culture or to a country in general. I think there is a..."Yes, I would agree with that. The discussion would have to be about literature - after all, that's what this group is all about!
Jean wrote: "Jenny said, "I guess hardly anyone reads the first page anymore"... I'm not sure of the implications of this. So may I put in a request not to delete an earlier part of a thread, please? I don't ..."
Oh no, that's not what I meant Jean! Like Shirley said, I merely wondered whether adjusting our introductory post to the thread would really be picked up by many.
I've adjusted the title, so it's now 'What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations & reviews'
Thanks for the clarification, Jenny :)
Mod
Jenny wrote: "Have you found it Bette? For Fiction it's here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... for Nonfiction ..."Thank you. I have been reading my emails for this thread but actually never noticed the heading. Silly me.
Correction: I have now read this entire discussion re my question and realize you have amended the title. Great idea, thanks.
Mod
I'm not sure of the implications of this. So may I put in a request not to delete an earlier part of a thread, ple..."
Good change.
Alannah wrote: "Can we have a thread which tracks new book releases? And members can put books they're looking forward to on it. I'd be happy to work it if you mods are too busy to handle it."Alannah, I was thinking that yesterday! In other group that I'm in, members just enter the books themselves including publication date as they find them. This saves it being a Mod job.
Mod
Ala..."
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Or a schedule in the first post.
Alannah wrote: "Can we have a thread which tracks new book releases? And members can put books they're looking forward to on it. I'd be happy to work it if you mods are too busy to handle it."That sounds like a great idea, Alannah!
Oooo mods please do set this up! I really want to talk to Timothy about those US writers! LOL
Timothy, I think there's some great stuff in your last post to chat about. I look forward to the discussion when it starts.
As far as I am concerned, Timothy can set up a thread under "General Discussion" or "Book Chat" for this.
Mod
Mod
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
All About Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Sodom and Gomorrah (other topics)Sodom and Gomorrah (other topics)
Around the World in Eighty Days (other topics)
The Apology (other topics)
The Imaginary Invalid (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Theodore Roethke (other topics)August Wilson (other topics)
Lillian Hellman (other topics)
August Wilson (other topics)
Lillian Hellman (other topics)
More...
