[EN World Book Club] Suggestions & Selectors

[JoeBlank]

Okay, as threatened, I'm moving the ball forward here. I've heard from Sam, and he has real world things going on that are taking up his time.

First a question: Who is still interested in the Book Club? Discussion seems to have dropped off on the past few selections, but I hope there are enough of us still participating to make this work.

Here is what I am going to do for this round. The following are up for consideration for the next selector:

Editorial Members:

• JoeGKushner
• FraserRonald
• Dacileva
• reddist
• Tsyr
• LightPhoenix

The first of you to post to this thread and claim the right will be responsible for picking the next selection by June 15. The reading period for that selection will officially begin July 1, with discussion to start Aug 1. It would be best that the selector be prepared to start the discussion thread on that date.

If none of you guys claim the right within a couple of days we'll go with some new blood. So if others are interested in picking the next selection please go ahead and post here with your suggestions and expressed desire. The Book Club is open to any and all who wish to participate.

I'll also start a thread for discussion on Swordspoint, and will add a link to that shortly.

Please also let me know what you think about the idea of a rotating selection process, where the current selector picks the next selector, and so on. This way the person responsible for keeping things going is likely to be someone active on the boards, as they will have been involved enough to nominate a book and start discussion only a month or so before.

 

[JoeBlank]

The discussion of Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner has begun.


http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1584575#post1584575

Well, it can't truly be called a discussion until someone responds. Until then, I am just talking to myself.

 

[Duncan Haldane]

First a question: Who is still interested in the Book Club? Discussion seems to have dropped off on the past few selections, but I hope there are enough of us still participating to make this work.

I'm still interested in the Book Club, but I haven't read the last few books. That's because here in Australia I've had difficulty finding some of them, and the lag time and cost of ordering from Amazon are prohibitive. But I do look for the books when they are announced, and if I can find them I will read them.

The other problem is that I've been relying on the subscription emails to give me an update on this thread. Since they are no longer being sent, I have to remember to check the thread out (I know I should look at my Subscribed Threads page) more often.

Duncan

 

[JoeBlank]

Duncan, you just made my day. I thought this thing was going to die on us. Let's give it another shot.

Would you be interested in selecting the next book? That way, you could pick something you know you will be able to find.

 

[Duncan Haldane]

Would you be interested in selecting the next book? That way, you could pick something you know you will be able to find.

Ok, I'll try to go through the bookstores near work tomorrow lunch time. After that we have a long weekend and I will be DMing at a game convention for the weekend, so I won't have the time. I'm not reading anything that has really grabbed my attention right at the moment anyway.

Duncan

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I'm still around, but I wasn't able to read the last book. Next one, I'll probably be on board for.

 

[JoeBlank]

Glad to see you back, CL. How was the honeymoon?

Duncan, you bring up a good point. The downward spiral of the Book Club seems to coincide with the subscription emails being turned off. I wonder how many posters rely on that function? Maybe things will pick back up when the new server is on board.

Until then, we will just keep things going and see what happens. Maybe by continuing to keep this thread on the first page we will raise awareness.

Another possibility is the natural reluctance to jump into long threads. Perhaps in Hivemind style we should start a new thread, linking back to this one. I'll probably do that one Duncan makes his selection.

 

[Duncan Haldane]

Duncan, you bring up a good point. The downward spiral of the Book Club seems to coincide with the subscription emails being turned off. I wonder how many posters rely on that function? Maybe things will pick back up when the new server is on board.

It definately left me feeling cut off. I had all my threads marked as daily emails, and I would then peruse the recent posts - and log on if I wanted to add somethings. On top of that I would look for new topics that caught my interest, but didn't need to search out replies to my posts because of the emails.

Anyway, I looked in a bookstore at lunch time, and made a choice.

It wasn't easy, because of trying to find somethign that wasn't part of a series, and I mostly read series. I also mostly read Fantasy, and it seems they are nearly all series these days.

But, finally something caught my eye. And that was a comment by Neil Gaiman. He's one of my favourite authors, so I thought that if he liked it was worth checking out.

The book I have chosen is...

Idlewild
by Nick Sagan

Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...104-4329598-1499159?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I was able to pick this up in Paperback. Apparently it was available here earlier than in the US. But, currently Amazon has the hardback in 60% off, and the paperback is due out in early July.

I checked in the store that it was available in the US, but didn't realise it wasn't out in paperback yet, sorry. But the good news is that Amazon's price for the hardback version is *cheaper* than the paperback.

Check out http://www.nicksagan.com/ for more details.

I hope it fills our requirements

Duncan

 

[JoeBlank]

Thanks for participating, Duncan.

From the author's website link you provided, the paperback comes out July 6, 2004 (a very important day, the fourth anniversary of the birth of my second son, Jacob).

Perhaps in light of this, and the low activity, and the hopes that the new server will come online soon and email will be reactivated, we should have an extended reading period for this selection. I'm thinking something like discussion begins August 15, but maybe even August 31. Anyone else have any thoughts or opinions.

Once this thread sinks again I'll start an new one, linking the this one and having this one closed. Maybe that will interest some new participants.

 

[Elodan]

Glad to see you back, CL. How was the honeymoon?

Duncan, you bring up a good point. The downward spiral of the Book Club seems to coincide with the subscription emails being turned off. I wonder how many posters rely on that function? Maybe things will pick back up when the new server is on board.

Until then, we will just keep things going and see what happens. Maybe by continuing to keep this thread on the first page we will raise awareness.

Another possibility is the natural reluctance to jump into long threads. Perhaps in Hivemind style we should start a new thread, linking back to this one. I'll probably do that one Duncan makes his selection.

I never used subscription e-mails so it was not my reason for non-participation. It's the length of the original thread; it feels like you are missing something important but there's too much to go through. I only looked at in because I hadn't seen this thread on the first page in a long time.

I think starting new threads with some sort of summary of what's gone before it a really good idea.

Tom