Group First Reads

[Dan, Hardboiled]

For the first three months as the word gets out and we gain members I would like to go ahead and set the group reads of the month. We have three founding fathers of our genre: Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and John M. Cain. We have three months remaining in 2020. Therefore, we will read each author's most important novel for each month.

October: The Maltese Falcon, the first Sam Spade story.
November: The Big Sleep, the first Philip Marlowe novel.
December: The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Starting in January, I see us doing the nominations and polls procedure used by most discussion groups. Unless a better idea arises.

In addition to the monthly novel reads, I would like to have buddy reads of short stories mostly, based on discussions that arise from time to time. These (I refer both to buddy reads and to creating discussion topics) can be member or moderator suggested, started, and driven. When I suggest a read, I'll provide a way to get the work inexpensively (usually free) and start the ball rolling on a discussion of the story.

Because our genre is tied into film noir so heavily, I see some film discussions in our future. It's my personal preference to read the work first and then see the film, but I imagine others might feel differently, or (God forbid!) have no preference.

I think we can have a lot of fun discussing these works together. Because so many of them are very much plot driven, use of spoiler tags will be essential. Just in case anyone does not know, placing these brackets <> around the word spoiler, no spaces, begins the hiding of text. Placing the same brackets around the term /spoiler - written just like that - ends the hidden text section.

I will never close a topic that has to do with discussing a work or an author. These remain permanently open. So, if, for example, you read The Maltese Falcon in October of 2021 for the first time, and no one has written on it since October 31, 2020, don't let that stop you! Post your comment, thereby reopening the topic. If it's an interesting comment, I'm sure someone will engage.

[Dan, Hardboiled]

Would there be any objection to doing one book per month, a hardboiled one in Feb-Apr-Jun-Aug-Oct-Dec and a noir book in Jan-Mar-May-Jul-Sep-Nov? I'm not sure the interest level in our group for group reads really is sufficient to sustain more than one novel read per month. That's my thinking process anyway.