The purpose of this post is to ascertain who among us is interested in participating in a Wordcraft Book Group. The subject arose in Saturday’s chat. If I’m misrepresenting anyone’s position, feel free to correct me here, but following are some considerations posed:
1) I am a person who enjoys rereading a book now and then, but some people don’t, so we should seek out something newly published that is fairly unfamiliar to everyone involved.
2) Our choice should be somewhat appealing regardless of age, nationality, gender, religious persuasion and anything else you can think of.
3) Consideration 2, above, also brings to mind the matter of availability; we want to ensure that the choice will be found in most bookstores and libraries, here (wherever that is) and there (wherever that is).
4) I, personally, hope the choice will be a work of fiction rather than non-fiction, as I believe a novel will afford more freedom of discussion.
5) A game plan needs to be worked out. I once participated in a Barnes & Noble online book club, and discussion was limited from chapter to chapter. We will want to take care to avoid "spoilers." A mutual agreement not to read ahead of the group would -- you should forgive the pun -- keep us on the same page. With the B&N group, a moderator posed questions to generate discussion. I tend to think that will not be necessary here, but I could be wrong.

If you think you might like to participate, please add to the above list of considerations with your posts. And, if there is a book you would like to recommend, please do so here. Kalleh, Shu, and Arnie would seem ideal folks to work out a format. Caterwauller, you, as a librarian, will no doubt have excellent input regarding book choices. If everyone participating has a title to suggest, a vote would probably be an ineffective method for determining a choice. So I’m suggesting that the final selection be Caterwauller’s, if she has no objection to accepting that responsibility. What I’m thinking right now is that if one of us reads someone’s suggestion and has already read that book or has some other objection to it, send a private message to CW explaining your position. She will have no need to respond, but will, rather, take your point into consideration when making the final choice.

Responses?

I'd join in. I gave my suggestion on Saturday but how much enthusiasm the rest of you would have for Flashman and the Angel of the Lord is debatable.

I can come up with other suggestions though when we see how much interest there is.

A couple of suggestions - I've read them already but I'd be happy to read them again and promise not to discuss ahead of the group.

As I said first suggestion would be Flashman and the Angel of the Lord by George MacDonald Fraser. (or any other but that one has an American historical setting.) I'm pretty sure that they're freely available in the USA.

Second suggestion is Greg Maguire's "Wicked" - an anarcho-feminist retelling of the Wizard of Oz (or so it said in the review that made me buy it.) There is anew sequel "Son of A Witch" but it probably won't make much sense without reading Wicked first. Plenty of other books are available by the same author that I haven't read but would like to.

Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold also imporesssed me (I'd have to borrow or buy another copy though as I borrowed the original.)

I'd be interested to get other people's opinions on any work by Jonathan Carroll - say (looks at bookshelf) The Wooden Sea or After Silence or even an earllier work like Voice of Our Shadow.

Any, just a few thoughts, must go do some work now.

Me too. Bob, Shu and I went out and bought the first in the Flashman series so that we'd see what they were like. I am certainly game to start with your recommendation. Ideas on how Wobogro should operate?

I'd say let's go ahead and read Flashman and the Angel of the Lord. Sounds great!

What about if we all try to get the book this week and see what it holds in terms of chapters, etc. I like the idea of going with just a few chapters at a time.

I do think we might want to post another thread alerting folks to this one, though, since the "Wobogro" title is not easily deciferable. I mean, to get folks started.

Fun!

I wonder if it might be an idea to start a "Wordcraft Book Group" forum as a separate section. Perhaps it could only be made visible to members. What say you, Wordcrafter?

One thing...

if you do decide to go ahead with Flashman etc. make sure the edition that you buy has the very extensive footnotes section in the back. They're half the fun and the place where GMF cites all his sources so that you can go and check oput his historical accuracy for yourself.

All the British editions have them and I imagine the US ones will too but it's probably worth checking.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

quote:

Originally posted by arnie:
I wonder if it might be an idea to start a "Wordcraft Book Group" forum as a separate section. Perhaps it could only be made visible to members. What say you, Wordcrafter?

I agree this would be a good idea. Make this a Wordcraft members only section. Our general discussions are of interest to the public and attract in newcomers but we could discuss this more freely if only people who are involved can see it - it would also stop anyone not part of the group jumping in with spoilers about bits we haven't yet reached.

I'd be interesting in participating IF the sections to be read weren't too close together. I'm a painfully slow reader.

Many years ago I ws trained as a Junior Great Books discussion leader, and also participated in adult Great Books discussions, but that was before the accident, when I could read a good bit faster and remember much more.

I will alert Wordcrafter to starting a new forum. That's a marvelous idea, Arnie. Is it possible to make it visible to members only?

As far as the "extensive" footnotes in the back, in the bookstore book that we bought (first in the series) there are only 3 pages of footnotes in the back. I imagine the rest are that way, too. I think we'll have to take what we can get. Our bookstore didn't have "Angel of the Lord," but perhaps another would. It also may be available in the library.

Asa, I don't think we'll whip through these too fast, if for no other reason than we're doing this with multiple people across time zones and on a forum.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

Kalleh,

Yes, it's easy to create the forum and make it visible only to logged-in members.

Yay! This sounds great! Everyone give progress reports on finding the book!

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:

As far as the "extensive" footnotes in the back, in the bookstore book that we bought (first in the series) there are only 3 pages of footnotes in the back. I imagine the rest are that way, too.

The first book, before GMF quite gets into the swing of things does have fewer footnotes. As the series progresses they get longer and more detailed. That one should have thirty numbered footnotes in three pages.
The current one has 62 numbered footnotes in 21 pages.

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord is readily available to each of us through Amazon. So availability should be no problem.

Do we really want to keep the discussions closed? Thoughts:

• Personally, I'd prefer them to be open to all. It would be very interesting reading for potential new members.
• If we really want to restrict it to our regulars, "members only" won't do it; we'd need a private thread.
• Arnie, would "moderated discussion" be a good way to go? I know it exists, but I'm not sure what it means.

I think I'd prefer to keep it private, for members only. Restricting it only to regulars is not really an option, I'd say; we don't want to create any divisiveness between "regular" and "ordinary" members. It would be fairly easy to do that, though; just create a new group of members and add those who wanted to join.

I think "moderated discussion" refers to chats, not forum discussions.

EDIT: BTW, I like this new forum's colour scheme!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

I don't even have the time to keep up with these postings, let alone read books to post about:-(

It's one of the few things that saddens me about not commuting by train any more.

quote:

Restricting it only to regulars is not really an option, I'd say; we don't want to create any divisiveness between "regular" and "ordinary" members.

I really agree about not restricting to regulars. Who are the regulars anyway? We all, from time to time, get busy and post less. I'd really hate to see a tier system develop here, which I have seen on other forums. I actually don't see the reason for keeping it private because who cares if someone lurks and reads what we say? However, I could go either way on that.

Richard, are you telling us that you never read now? I don't believe that for a moment. You can squeeze one book in every so often, right?

None of our local bookstores have the book, but Shu found it at one of our local libraries.

I just bought Flashman and the Angel of the Lord. No changing your minds about reading it now!

Oh the weight of responsibility.
All these people reading a book that I recommended. I just hope at least a few of you like it.

I got my requested copy at the library today. You're stuck now, Bob!

CW and Bob,

I am buying my copy tomorrow... the used bookstore in town has a copy... it sounds fun! Will keep you posted.