LD4all Book Club: [Ishmael by Daniel Quinn]

Sounds great. How would I go about adding a poll to the origional post though?

Bruno - If we do read Dracula I like the idea of reading Carmilla as well, I’ve never read it (truth be told I’d never heard of it) but the description looks good :cool:

If you cannot add a poll by editing the topic, it might be a good idea to create a new one and as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man - I mean moderator to merge the topics.

Or you could ask one of the Mods if they could add a poll to your topic. :razz:

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I’ve PMed a mod :wave: :bruno: to ask about adding a poll.

Right, suggestion time is over, so we have three suggestions.

White Fang by Jack London - to quote Svenshinhan: "It’s a short novel first published in 1906.

It’s about a wolfdog, named White Fang, born in the wild and later introduced to civilization. It compares the animal and human worlds while also delving into issues of loyalty and morality.

It’s not too difficult to read, relatively short, very cheap to get (can even be read for free online as it no longer falls under copyright law) and in my opinion very entertaining. Some parts of it can even be a little philosophical and/or educational. Other than that, it’s also just a very nice story."

Illusions by Richard Bach - to quote Win Laik Pya: “it’s short and pretty easy to read. It’s massively entertaining, highly philosophical, and downright fun. I believe it’s still under copyright law, so a trip to the local library would be in order.”

Dracula by Bram Stoker- to quote me :tongue: : "The story is relatively well known, and is about a vampire named Dracula who moves from Transylvania to England and starts to bite various people, and so is hunted by Van Helsing and gang.

I think what makes the book really worth reading though, is how it’s written. The story is told through the diary excerpts and letters of the different characters. This means that you get to see each character’s point of view, and really get to know and feel for a deep character behind each of them. It’s exciting and has a lot of nice touches to it." (This would also include the optional extra of reading Carmilla at the same time)

I’ll edit the first post of the thread to put these suggestions in it, and I’ll let you all know about voting when I’ve heard back from the mod :smile:

Alright, let’s do this. I’ve added the poll, with an initial limit of 5 days (this can be changed). I’m honestly torn between Illusions and Dracula, so I haven’t voted yet. While we let the poll populate for a while, here’s a couple other things we can do— * Discuss how exactly this is going to work; if we have a host, if we’re supposed to bring articles; what we’re going to talk about or do about our readings. Just pile up ideas in the spirit of brainstorming, they won’t all get used, but perhaps we can come up with something nice to do about the reading.

  • Promote the book club. I made a badge (which I’m adding to my signature in a second) and the code for it is under the fold there. You can make your own, use mine or adapt it to taste, but do make an effort to spread the word!

[spoiler] LD4all Book Club :read:

[size=11] [url=https://community.ld4all.com/t/ld4all-book-club-ishmael-by-daniel-quinn/33896/1] [color=#8b4513][b]LD4all Book Club :read:[/b][/color][/url][/size] [/spoiler]
By the way, does anyone not know how to use the [spoiler] tags?

Btw, how are people gonna get their hands on the books? o.o

Illusions will likely merit a trip to the local library, but the other two are available on Project Gutenberg.

/me is going for Dracula

Really… not much reasoning behind it, but I’m intrigued by the way it’s written, and I found a website which photocopied the novel and it looks nice (WAY easier to read than the version on Project Gutenberg)

Thanks Bruno for putting up the poll, and I love the badge!

I think that those members who suggested books should also vote in the poll, whether or not they vote for their own suggestion or someone else’s.

With regards to how the discussion will work … It could start by people posting any interesting thoughts or observations they have while reading the book. If people put what chapter they’ve read up to outside of the spoiler tags, then it would help people to know what posts to read. This would hopefully lead to some discussion.

If anyone has any ideas for particular questions to do with the book they could post them, and people could try and answer them. Alternatively the person who suggested the book could act as host and prepare a few questions for people to talk about.

Just a couple of ideas, but I think a big part of it will be seeing how the discussion naturally progresses.

I’m definitely in, guys! And we’ve got some interesting reading suggestions so far. Will we start a new thread for the discussion? Should we agree on a “reading time” before the actual discussion begins? I have no idea how a Book Club works over the Internet. I’ve only attended real life ones (yes, I’m a huge bookworm).

I think we should set a “reading time” and then start the discussion, so we do not have problems with spoilers and stuff. If a member gets into the discussion thread, he/she must know that we’ll take for granted that he/she has already read the book, and thus there’s no risk of introducing spoilers. Last time I attended a literature discussion group, it was very annoying to discuss a book knowing that some people had not yet read it thoroughly.

I think normal book clubs have one week to read the book? The thing is even people who haven’t like signed up or whatever and have read the book before and might just discuss it. Ahh. /me probably won’t officially sign up. maybe we’ll have a sign up list? :razz: And those who are partially signed up? Because some people get busy :sad:

I think one week is too little, I do read alot but I don’t have much time to do so nowadays, anyways let’s see what others think about this.

Well, like Bruno said, the spoiler tags are essential. I think it’s a good idea to let people post their thoughts on a book that they’re only part of the way through, so long as they clearly indicate how far along they are so others can avoid the spoilers in the box. The reason I think this is a good idea is because often the way I think about any one book changes significantly as I get further along.

I’m in favor of general open discussion. If anyone has an interesting question, they can post it to spark a discussion and we can see how we go from there. Although I certainly don’t mind if the host of a given book has any additional ideas.

Once we have a clearer picture of how things go for the first book, we might come up with ways to make it more interesting in the future. I think the key factor is to make sure that it’s fun for all those involved and to not force anyone to do things they might not like.

As for time frame, I’m really not sure. Everyone reads at a different pace, and every book is different.

Whoo, I’ll have something to read for once. I’ve already read most of the good books I can find.

Svenshinhan - I agree, seems like the best way to me.

I think that it’d be fine to have the discussion in this thread. To avoid anyone reading any spoilers that they don’t want to, I would recommend the following format. Say you’ve read up to the end of the third chapter when you write your post. I would do:

Up to end of third chapter Interesting and profound comments about the book so far

I’m not sure about having a reading time, as I think it’d be good to discuss the book while reading it.

:smile:

Go Dracula, go go go!

:peek:

The poll closes at the end of Monday or Tuesday, I’m not sure. So take the opportunity to vote now, if you haven’t.

Let’s just see what happens with our fisrt book. I guess “discussing on the go” can work, you are right, guys :smile:

I think it’s time for the poll to close, and it looks like our first book is … Dracula!

It can be downloaded legally for free at Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345) as it’s out of copyright. But if you prefer reading an actual book I’m sure it’d be available in most libraries.

Happy reading!

When do we reconvine? o.o

I think that for this book we’re going to try talking about it while we’re reading it, so we wont have any specific reading time before we start discussing. So as soon as someone wants to make a comment they should clearly put where they are in the book and then put the comment in spoiler tags. e.g.

Up to end of chapter 2 [spoiler]I think Dracula is actually a rabbit! [/spoiler]

We can see how this goes and if it doesn’t work out we can always have a specific reading time for the next book.