|
Participation levels in the Book of the Month have really dropped off so we need some good suggestions. Please post ideas for good books for people to read, or other ways to rework the BotM to make it more popular. Basic criteria for books is "a good book a lot of people will want to read or have already read and will want to discuss." Available electronically is a plus, free is a plus, short is a plus. Extreme difficulty that will chase people away. (Finnegan's Wake) is a negative. Once I get enough suggestions, I'll post the suggestions in a poll. The door's wide open here for potentially anything -- Battlefield Earth, Piketty's Capital, Warhammer fan fiction, The Cartoon History of the Universe, whatever -- but as always please only suggest books you either have read yourself and want to talk about, or sincerely plan on reading if it gets selected. Alternatively, we don't have to do it at all. But if only two or three people are participating it seems like we're probably doing something wrong or we'd get more folks joining in. Thoughts? Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Jul 19, 2015 |
#
?
Jul 16, 2015 13:52
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 09:17 |
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwkdGr9JYmE
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2015 06:43
|
|
|
By this I mean: Any way we could have a focus on a specific genre? Maybe comedy this month?
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2015 06:45
|
|
|
Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2015 22:53
|
|
|
Don't you dare kill this. I don't actively participate, but I still like the book of the month. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. For a quick suggestion I'll go with Alamut. I'm sure there will be better options by tomorrow though.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2015 23:00
|
|
|
Thermopyle posted:Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. There's tons of fun popular psychology books out there--it seems like there's one or two new ones every month. This one's great, also Joshua Green's Moral Tribes, Robert Kurzban Everyone's A Hypocrite. Sandy Pentland has a good new one out too in paperback, but I can't think of the title just now.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 01:55
|
|
|
Grogsy posted:Don't you dare kill this. I don't actively participate, but I still like the book of the month. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. That's a great suggestion, thanks! Once and if we get some good suggestions, a poll will go up sometime around the 25th. I know it attracts a number of lurkers but without participants and suggestions, there's nothing to lurk! I don't want to be stickying empty threads where the only posts are me shouting into a void.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 05:52
|
|
|
I cast my lot in for my favorite book ever, Winesburg, Ohio. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/416
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 05:57
|
|
|
Thermopyle posted:Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 05:59
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:That's a great suggestion, thanks! Once and if we get some good suggestions, a poll will go up sometime around the 25th. For maximum humor, how about a book with the word Ragnarok in the title? 
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 11:19
|
|
|
I think everyone should read The Life And Opinions Of the Tomcat Murr together with a fragmentary Biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler on Random Sheets of Waste Paper by ETA Hoffman, personally. http://www.amazon.com/Life-Opinions-Tomcat-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140446311/
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 11:33
|
|
|
I would really like to see a push to something very contemporary. Too often the recommendations are books with a comfortable space between their publication and now. Lets challenge ourselves into going into something blind all at the same time http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/67496-pw-picks-books-of-the-week-july-20-2015.html
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 14:15
|
|
|
Seems like that would reduce participation by making people reluctant to cough up for a new book sight unseen. How about we challenge ourselves just to post, first? Maybe it would be an idea to announce the book two months in advance so people could get a copy, post some hype, maybe begin reading if it's a big book. So in July we'd choose the August and September books, in August the October book, etc. But then people might read early and lose interest/forget about the book before the actual book of the month starts.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 15:24
|
|
|
The Nazis Next Door by Eric Lichtblau, pretty revealing and well written book about America's role in giving nazi war criminals a new home after WW2.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 17:03
|
|
|
House Louse posted:Seems like that would reduce participation by making people reluctant to cough up for a new book sight unseen. How about we challenge ourselves just to post, first? Yeah but, on the other hand, I feel that everyone should read the life and opinions of tomcat murr
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 17:10
|
|
|
I always lurk the Book of the Month thread and participate when I can. Shorter books are always better for me. I'm a little on the outs when it comes to TBB, because I'm not the biggest fan of Sci-Fi or Fantasy, besides Discworld and HG2G. I'm trying to get back to reading more (than a book every other month), so I'll try to add more to the discussion. I don't have any recommendations.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 19:58
|
|
|
Not exactly literary, but how about The Library at Mount Char? It got a bit of a buzz in the fantasy and horror threads: basically it's modern fantasy that starts off weirdly nonsensical, becomes a page-turner thrillerthingamajig around the midway point and ends on a pretty crazy note while being very enjoyable all the way through. I'd think it's a good summer read.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 20:56
|
|
|
fantasy novels are bad though
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 21:06
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:The door's wide open here for potentially anything -- Battlefield Earth, Piketty's Capital, Warhammer fan fiction, The Cartoon History of the Universe, whatever -- but as always please only suggest books you either have read yourself and want to talk about, or sincerely plan on reading if it gets selected.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 21:11
|
|
|
I never have, but always wanted to, read Starship Troopers. Should be pretty discussable as well.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2015 21:19
|
|
|
Mel Mudkiper posted:I would really like to see a push to something very contemporary. This is a good idea and so I propose The Wallcreeper. I know it's not super recent so maybe a bit late. But yeah, new release books is a good idea. 'Boo hoo I have to spend money.' Support the goddamn trade. thehomemaster fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Jul 21, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2015 01:10
|
|
|
This is primarily a genre-fiction forum if you go by the active threads. That's what people are reading(or at least, that's what people are talking about). The problem with the Book of the Month is that you seem to have this idea that you can class up the place by picking some book about gay Athenians or something by James Joyce or some Scandinavian guy writing about the banality of life, despite the fact that it's pretty clear that nobody here is into that(or at least nobody here ever talks about it). It doesn't help that you do a fairly bad job of selling the books, too; "if you don't know the difference between a phaeton and a landau and a gig you're too lowbrow for this book and you'll miss all the jokes so you'll need to do your homework" isn't exactly going to sell Pride and Prejudice to the public. This approach isn't working and I don't think it will magically start working if you start moving to more contemporary books in the same spectrum. I think that if you want to get an active discussion thread about the book of the month you're going to have to go with something that appeals to the genre fiction fans; they're the ones who are actually posting about what they are reading.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2015 01:30
|
|
|
I hope you keep doing it , I read the Dubliners because of the thread (and maybe asked a question or had a comment I dont remember now). Maybe a bit more direction in the discussion would help? I'm not really sure. Reading some of the "foundations" of the different genre books might be fun too and be that sweet spot of interaction between the mega threads and the complaint above. I don't really mind reading modern "genre fiction" unless its part of a series , but even so I rather not I guess. Maybe sometimes pairing a book that has an outside adaptation or inspired something else would be fun. Like reading the Maltese falcon and discussion its film adaptation or reading about I dont know sushi somehow and pairing it with a documentary. Or book and album etc, lots of possibilities. Those could be cross posted maybe , but probably still no one would participate haha.
Lumius fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Jul 21, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2015 05:06
|
|
|
Dictionary of the Khazars is pretty good
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2015 09:39
|
|
|
People seem to really love the new Coates book. I've got my copy coming on Wednesday so I'm going to be reading it anyway, but that would be an option (one that was suggested in the d&d book thread as well).
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2015 17:36
|
|
|
Paper With Lines posted:People seem to really love the new Coates book. I've got my copy coming on Wednesday so I'm going to be reading it anyway, but that would be an option (one that was suggested in the d&d book thread as well). It's so goddamn good
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2015 17:39
|
|
|
Khizan posted:This is primarily a genre-fiction forum if you go by the active threads. That's what people are reading(or at least, that's what people are talking about). These are good points, but just to clarify, most of the more "class up the place" suggestions were chosen because there were vocal posters who wanted those books. And some of them did get good participation. The problem is more that those types of book threads take a *lot* more work and I don't always have time; for example, the Austen thread got a lot of great participation but it took me about an hour per day to do the let's read and I ran out of steam. Conversely, genre books can be good picks too but it can be hard to find popular titles that haven't been already discussed to death or aren't part of huge ongoing series; we can't and shouldn't make the Dresden Files the BotM. I have picked some genre titles too (Night in the Lonesome October) and I'm not against doing more. It may be that there is an inherent mission conflict between reading books that will be popular, and books that everyone hasn't already read and discussed to death.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2015 17:41
|
|
|
Apathy and other small victories by Paul Neilan would be my pick. It's a comedy book about dude who goes through his life completely without directions or empathy, one of the funniest books I have ever read. Edit: amazon link http://www.amazon.com/Apathy-Other-Small-Victories-Neilan/dp/0312352190 sajobi fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Jul 21, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2015 18:17
|
|
|
The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, by Robertson Davies. Or any of his other books.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2015 20:40
|
|
|
So any novel past or present that we really liked reading? Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels. Really brought the American Civil War to life through all the many character's perspectives, union and confederate, and spanned only the three day long conflict that was the Battle of Gettsyburg. A+ historical fiction
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2015 20:43
|
|
|
I was planning to read Foucault's Pendulum so I'll suggest that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2015 22:31
|
|
|
corn in the bible posted:Dictionary of the Khazars is pretty good I'll second this. Never heard of it until now but it sounds fascinatingly bizarre.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2015 00:33
|
|
|
I don't think classy literature and genre fiction is as divisive a binary as people think. There is a lot of literary minded fiction that also has tropes that could appeal to a more casual reader. Blindness I am radar The echo maker A land more kind than home Never let me go Etc.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2015 00:55
|
|
|
Speaking of which, this is a new book that covers that base. http://www.npr.org/2015/07/04/419246275/if-robots-speak-will-we-listen-novel-imagines-a-future-changed-by-ai quote:Her new novel, Speak, explores what happens to humanity when machines have no trouble at all acting human. The book cuts back and forth between five characters, in five different time periods, who all contribute — some unwittingly — to the creation of an artificial intelligence. I genuinely think that using Book of the Month for good would be best. You can look ahead two months, see what's coming out, get suggestions and vote. This way any participants are helping the book industry by buying new books, generating interest. Screw the classics, we've had plenty of time to read those. thehomemaster fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Jul 22, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2015 01:28
|
|
|
thehomemaster posted:I genuinely think that using Book of the Month for good would be best. You can look ahead two months, see what's coming out, get suggestions and vote. This way any participants are helping the book industry by buying new books, generating interest. Screw the classics, we've had plenty of time to read those. Really backing this up. Too much of reading here is backwards looking. Taking a risk on new stuff can be really rewarding and very few people on this subforum do it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2015 01:49
|
|
|
Mel Mudkiper posted:Really backing this up. Too much of reading here is backwards looking. Taking a risk on new stuff can be really rewarding and very few people on this subforum do it. Yeah, but then you're also looking at convincing a worthwhile amount of people that they should drop 10+ bucks on a new relatively largely unreviewed book for a thread that, historically, gets about 0% participation.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2015 03:31
|
|
|
thehomemaster posted:I genuinely think that using Book of the Month for good would be best. You can look ahead two months, see what's coming out, get suggestions and vote. This way any participants are helping the book industry by buying new books, generating interest. Screw the classics, we've had plenty of time to read those. Most of the people on this forum have not read 'the classics' and are not interested in reading them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2015 04:16
|
|
|
OK I take it back, just nuke Book of the Month, everyone's a sadsack.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2015 04:58
|
|
|
A human heart posted:Most of the people on this forum have not read 'the classics' and are not interested in reading them. Isn't the point to go outside your comfort zone though? Read something you wouldn't normally read, expand your horizons n all that?
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2015 09:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 09:17 |
|
|
Ianiniho posted:Isn't the point to go outside your comfort zone though? Read something you wouldn't normally read, expand your horizons n all that? Well obviously it should be but trying telling that to the swampy denizens of the game of thrones thread.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2015 10:54
|
|