Nominations for October 2020 Group Read

[Mariella]

Hi there!
Please share your suggestion(s) for the upcoming group reading.
Thanks!

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

I don't know if I have any suggestion for a specific group read--I'll always join in if it's a book I already have--but I was wondering if there are opinions on how we go about choosing books, and how we organize the discussions of them.

So far, it's mostly been that we've had nominations from the list, and then a poll. That works, and that might be the way that everyone prefers it. But sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to cut the list into smaller chunks, and then pull nominations from the reduced options. That could be done however the moderators wanted to do it. It could even be as simple as "this month we nominate from the group of authors whose last name starts with A"; or something more specific like a genre group.

The reason I'm bringing this up is that if we have ten people (or even 20) nominating from a list of a thousand, there will probably be few shared interests. I'm not saying it doesn't work--we've done it before, but we haven't really had much discussion about the books either. (And really, I understand that the group is still finding its legs also.)

But if we had ten people nominating from a list of 100 or less books, we might find more things in common we were interested in reading in common. 'Might' is the word--could just as well be 'might not', I don't know.

The other thing I was wondering was how the discussions themselves are organized. Is there any interest in a reading schedule? I've been in some groups where that has worked really well, but you have to have people who are willing to do it. If not, then it's not worth attempting.

Just some thoughts on the nominating procedure. If these ideas don't strike a chord with anyone--no problem.

[Sean]

I like the idea of coming up with blocks from which to nominate books. We should do something like that in the future. However we have 8 days before October starts and not sure we have much time at this point. We should get a poll up soon if we are going to have a meaningful vote.

... very aware this doesn't actually help that process... haha.

Sooo.... I used a random number generator and some personal preference to put up three titles. In the absence of anything else, at least we can vote...

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Momento Mori
The 39 Steps

[Mariella]

Bryan--Treasurer, Middlemarch Appreciation Society wrote: "I don't know if I have any suggestion for a specific group read--I'll always join in if it's a book I already have--but I was wondering if there are opinions on how we go about choosing books, and ..."

Hi Bryan, thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I do believe you've made a good point about the choice of books.
I have a couple of suggestions about this and I'd be really glad if who's reading my post will share his/her opinions:
a. We could nominate books whose authors were born in the same month of our reading. For example, for October we may have Graham Greene or Friedrich Nietzsche or Italo Calvino - and many others whose names can be found here;
b. We may choose a theme and find books that are dealing with it. For example, inspired by the global emergency linked to SARS-CoV-2, for our August reading I nominated The Plague by Camus. Or, for our October readings, we may search among those works from the Horror genre - those by Lovecraft of Poe or Mary Shelley, for example.
We may also combine points (a.) and (b.) if necessary.

The other thing I was wondering was how the discussions themselves are organized. Is there any interest in a reading schedule?

Bryan, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Could you be more specific?

Anyway, please let me know what you all think about the ideas expressed above.
Sorry for my bad English - I hope you eventually get what I mean.

[Sean]

Mariella wrote: "I have a couple of suggestions about this and I'd be really glad if who's reading my post will share his/her opinions:..."

I love the idea about the birthdays. It will take some work. Somebody could put the birthdays on the spreadsheet. But any of these ideas will take some time. So maybe for November... or go with your Horror idea and nominate some yourself. I just don't think we have time to organize a theme, nominate, then vote... at least not for October.

[Karen]

Sean wrote: "I like the idea of coming up with blocks from which to nominate books. We should do something like that in the future. However we have 8 days before October starts and not sure we have much time at..."
Memento Mori or The 39 Steps both sound good for October. Or Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James.

For limiting the field of choices you could use the sort feature on the GR group bookshelf -- alphabetize by author and do W through Z or something like that.

Some books are not suitable for one month reads in my opinion. There are several that could take me a year...

[Jennifer]

I would personally love to read something a little spooky right now, it's a great time for it. I'm new to the group and not sure what has been read before as a group, so I'll have to do a little research before nominating.

As for a reading schedule, I am part of another group here that does group reads. The moderators take turns facilitating discussions, and whoever is in charge comes up with a weekly reading schedule. Each week, the discussion revolves around the section of the book that was read that week. However, people can jump in and comment at any time because each week is posted as a separate thread. They usually read a book over 6-8 weeks. It seems to work well. Hope this helps! Excited to jump in and read some of these great books!

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Mariella wrote: "Bryan, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Could you be more specific?..."

Jennifer's post up above gave one example. I'm in another group that does daily readings, but that takes some willingness.

The pros of having some kind of schedule for reading is that everyone is literally on the same page, so no one worries about talking about the book and inadvertently spoiling it for those who haven't read it yet. It also can make the conversation livelier, as people get to comment on things right after they've read them, instead of trying to remember what they wanted to say after they've finished the book.

The cons are...well, being on a schedule.

It might be something we try sometime, and if it doesn't work out, no big deal.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Sean wrote: "However we have 8 days before October starts and not sure we have much time at this point. We should get a poll up soon if we are going to have a meaningful vote. ..."

I agree. I wanted to raise the idea of how we do things--maybe this wasn't the thread I should have used. I might have derailed us.


Even though we haven't agreed on themes, I'll still stick with the horror idea and nominate Carrie by Stephen King

[Sean]

Bryan--Treasurer, Middlemarch Appreciation Society wrote: "Even though we haven't agreed on themes, I'll still stick with the horror idea and nominate Carrie by Stephen Kingt..."

I like this idea too. And if you want to disregard my random nominations I'm ok with that and I will nominate:

Interview with the Vampire

[Karen]

I would like to nominate: Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Sean wrote: "And if you want to disregard my random nominations I'm ok with that and I will nominate: ..."

Sorry, Sean--I didn't mean for it to look like I was disregarding your nominations. I was just adding one of my own. Since we're still in the planning stages for tweaking the system (if we do at all), your first noms are perfectly fine.

[Sean]

Bryan--Treasurer, Middlemarch Appreciation Society wrote:

Sorry, Sean--I didn't mean for it to look like I was disregarding your nominations. I was..."

No no, I wasn't worried about that. This thread took off, but before this, I was beginning to worry we would not have any nominations. I am seriously OK with disregarding them. We have three spooky ones to choose from. No need to put my random ones in. But we can if we want. I'm fine either way.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Mariella wrote: "I have a couple of suggestions about this and I'd be really glad if who's reading my post will share his/her opinions:..."

I'm in for either of your suggestions. I would probably be less in favor of holiday type themes, but general themes would be okay with me.

[Mariella]

Jennifer, Bryan, thank you for your explaination. I really love the idea of a reading schedule! We may start with our next reading.

And thank you all for approvong my suggestions. In the next weeks I'm going to compile a spreadsheet "author/month-of-birth" to guide pur choices, if no particular theme comes up.

For our October reading, I'd like to nominate The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by Lovecraft.
As for the poll, what do you think if we wait 24hrs before we start it?

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

I'm okay with starting whenever you would like.

I'll keep my nomination of Carrie, but I'll probably end up voting for The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. It's one of the few of Lovecraft's stories that I haven't read, and I actually found a collection with that in it not long ago.

[Mariella]

Hello everyone!
Our poll has been created! We have 5 more days, till September 28th 11:59pm PDT, to make our choice. Please, cast you vote!

A technical note: for reasons that I still ignore, I no longer have Moderator proviledges, so I cannot create a Goodreads poll. This is the reason why I've used an external tool for our survey. I've already reached out both Rachel and Marlise, the other Mods, as well as the support team to fix the problem, but I'm still waiting for a reply. Sorry for the inconvenience!

...and an update: I'm working on the above-mentioned spreadsheet (author/month of birth) and I'm currently on letter E. I think I'll be able to share it in less than a week.

[Jane]

I would like to nominate Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

[Mariella]

Jane wrote: "I would like to nominate Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein"

Jane, I've just added it to the survey options!

[Mariella]

Nuntio vobis gaudium magnum:
Habemus spreadsheet!
It is hosted on my Google Drive. I'll update it as we proceed with the readings.

(For those of you who are wondering what I'm talking about, you are invited to read messages #2 and #4 on this thread.)


Some technical notes:
a. Authors who share the same surname are listed with the first letter of their name or, where needed, with their full name: Surname, N. or Surname, Name;
b. Authors of multiple works are listed just once (see, for example, Shakespeare);
c. The last column, called "X - Y", hosts those authors whose biographical information are somehow missing, together with their work, (i. e. : Tacitus or Lucretius or modern ones such as Elena Ferrante) or those works which, for various reasons, cannot be attributed to anyone (i. e. : Beowulf or The Bible);
c'. "..." here marks multiple works (e. g. : "Homer - ...").

If you have any questions or special requests, feel free to ask. Any suggestions or comments are welcome!

[Marlise]

Hello all! Sorry I'm late to the party. I've been in the process of trying to go back to work AND become a caretaker for my mom AND trying to buy a house AND homeschool my teenage son. Arghhhh. Lol

Thank you Mariella for jumping in. Gonna add you as moderator now. And anyone else who would like to help us please message me!

[Mariella]

Hi there!
About 3 hrs left to vote! If you haven't done it yet, I kindly ask you to do it as soon as possible.
As for now, we may have a winner!


--
Marlise,

Hello all! Sorry I'm late to the party. I've been in the process of trying to go back to work AND become a caretaker for my mom AND trying to buy a house AND homeschool my teenage son. Arghhhh. Lol

Thank you Mariella for jumping in. Gonna add you as moderator now. And anyone else who would like to help us please message me!

glad to have you back! I'm sorry to know what you've gone through... I can't do much to support you, but I'm an Italian Physicist and if I could be of any help with your son for Math/Physics homework (or for Italian, se vuole imparare 😉), I'd like to. And thank you for adding me back! I replied to your message via PM.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

What won the poll?

[Mariella]

Bryan--Treasurer, Middlemarch Appreciation Society wrote: "What won the poll?"

The winner is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft.