News New Group Created - Litopia Book Club

[Jason L.]

Jason L. has created a new group called Litopia Book Club.

Welcome to the Litopia Book Club, hosted by Jason. We'll be hosting a book club on the first Sunday of every month. Please register here for a Zoom invitation and to vote for next month's book!

 

[Vagabond Heart]

I'm gonna bypass this for a month or so, because I'm off dog-sitting and my time is going to be a bit unpredictable, as will getting to a library. But I'll be along soon xxx

 

[Dorm Ant]

Sounds a laff. Count me in.

 

[CageSage]

Time?

 

[Brayati]

Might not be possible for me to confirm attendance. Weekends are both my busiest time (I do at-home palliative care for three patients Fri-Sun) and the most variable, so I won't know if I can make a specific time, nor if I'll have access to a computer. But it would be lovely to see 'results' of discussion in some form. Is that possible?

 

[Dorm Ant]

as will getting to a library.

Old skool.

 

[Dorm Ant]

Might not be possible for me to confirm attendance. Weekends are both my busiest time (I do at-home palliative care for three patients Fri-Sun) and the most variable, so I won't know if I can make a specific time, nor if I'll have access to a computer. But it would be lovely to see 'results' of discussion in some form. Is that possible?

We all wanna know what you look like...

 

[Hannah F]

I'm potentially interested. Depends on the time and like @Brayati, I can't guarantee to make it every time. Weekends are busy for me. Saturdays and Sunday mornings are generally full.

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

Interesting, but like several other Litopians, a regular commitment might be tricky.

 

[Jason L.]

Hi there! I wanted to place it on Sundays before, or after, the pop-ups, depending upon the consensus riding upon that. As far as people drifting in and out--it's totally up to you. Be in for one month, out for the next. We're here to build a communty.

I have not fixed the date, but I was thinking either the second Sunday of the month, starting in October.

For those of you who want to have a vote, here is the link: It is live now. Top vote getter is next month's submission, lowest four scores get taken out of play.

Book Club Proposals.pptx

PROPOSALS Please indicate what interests you. Want to add more? Shoot me a message at Jason L.! I will be happy to credit you with the suggestion.

docs.google.com

 

[Brayati]

We all wanna know what you look like...

Nothing like a guinea-pig, except for a few whiskers around the face.

 

[Hannah F]

I've put my choices down. I'm not sure if they automatically save? Let me know if you can see them.

My preference is after Pop-Ups, but that's because it's evening here. It won't suit everyone I'm sure, and I won't make them all.

 

[Jason L.]

Not a problem to be after the Popups. I was concerned that they might run over over over. I'd like one or two more members to join as well--I am in a four-person group and it's wonderful.

Full disclosure: Almost all of these I have read and considered them either four or five-star books, which is why I have recommended them. In fact, only a few of them I have not already read--I didn't vote for those ones because I didn't want to be a dictator, filling the stands with my own recommendations and then weighing the scales for them.

But War Brides is excellent as a portrait of the wartime Home Front in Britain. Night Over Water captures the tensions of that last few moments of peace in 1939, when anything could happen. The Guest List is a fantastic mystery with an excellent set of twists that I didn't see coming. The Passion of Artemisia I read when it was new and it stuck with me ever since as one of those really great books about women artists carving their way in the world. A Man Called Ove is an amazing book about the value of one human life that still kind of breaks my heart a bit. The Night Library is all about choices and their consequences. Girl on the Train unfolds slowly, so that at some times you think that the narrator is a horror show, but that makes the conclusion so extremely satisfying. Every one of these I would read again, but I am not the boss, and so I tried to limit myself to not do that. But if you were thinking about book recommendations, all of those work from me.

 

[Nikky Lee]

Oo great idea! I'm keen but like others have said, it will depend on day and time - otherwise, I'm happy enough just to be part of a forum chat?

 

[Jason L.]

Oo great idea! I'm keen but like others have said, it will depend on day and time - otherwise, I'm happy enough just to be part of a forum chat?

Please make sure to vote on which book we're to read, then!

 

[Jason L.]

We all wanna know what you look like...

RG - if you are interested, please get your vote in.

 

[Jason L.]

Might not be possible for me to confirm attendance. Weekends are both my busiest time (I do at-home palliative care for three patients Fri-Sun) and the most variable, so I won't know if I can make a specific time, nor if I'll have access to a computer. But it would be lovely to see 'results' of discussion in some form. Is that possible?

Yes. I was planning to have a zoom and a short summary maybe of our answers to five questions about the book on the forum, with an invitation for others to flesh out what we thought as well. Sorry I didn't respond to this earlier!

 

[Dorm Ant]

RG - if you are interested, please get your vote in.

Can't work out how.

Am happy with any except for the last three.

My preference would be for the library one or the girl on the train one, though this is only a slight preference.

 

[MattScho]

Count me in!

 

[Nikky Lee]

When I click on the link in your original post I get this. Are you able to relink it?

 

[Jason L.]

When I click on the link in your original post I get this. Are you able to relink it?

View attachment 13520

That's @AgentPete faffing about with it. Once It's opened, I will streamline the voting though.

 

[AgentPete]

Yes, beaucoup de faffing happening at the moment, stand by...

 

[Jason L.]

So @everybody - I need your input. I want to be a fair dude, so I am going to open this up for you to give your opinions on. There are two methods by which we can select our books.

• Classic style. Everybody gets a month, and they get to suggest something.
  • Pros: Everybody feels included equally. Because people are bringing something to the table, they feel a little more personal responsibility and investment in it. We can get exposed to great books that we would never have considered as a group.
  • Cons: If you select a book that's not that good, the spotlight is more directly on you, and some people are not really here for the extra pressure of choosing ONLY ONE BOOK out of the hundreds of wonderful books we've read or want to read.
• Democratic style.We get a selection of books and vote among them (method of voting is being revised, but it would be on the Litopia forum). New book suggestions get sent to the system and added to the list for our next vote. Voting would be quarterly or biannually, so we can prepare in advance.
  • Pros: Nobody gets to be the dictator. If the book doesn't land, well, we've all selected it together, and it wasn't imposed on us. If you are a shyer soul, you don't feel pressured about it.
  • Cons: If you know that "your book" is never going to be on the roster (or was voted out decisively even though you know it was really good) can be a little disenfranchising.
• Hybrid style. Everybody gets a month, and they can suggest a selection of several books, and we vote which one.
  • Pros: Inclusion of everybody, no dictatorship, and the plausible deniability that if we didn't like it, we were the ones who selected it at the end of the day.
  • Cons: We would likely be evaluating and voting monthly rather than quarterly, and cannot really plan in advance if we wanted to read ahead. Second-place books would be discarded, often not to be heard from again. In addition, as someone's library is very personal, our suggestor might feel as if we are evaluating their taste/book choices and making judgments upon it rather than having the more anonymized version of the democratic style.

So, what do you think we should do?

@AgentPete @Nikky Lee @Izuku Midoriya @MattScho @RG Worsey @Hannah F @Peyton Stafford @Brayati @Vagabond Heart

 

[AgentPete]

Tough call...! Can see both sides. Happy to abide by everyone's wishes.

 

[izi 出久]

So, what do you think we should do?

I would prefer the democratic style for this one

 

[Hannah F]

My vote (ha ha) is for the democratic style.

 

[Jason L.]

@Hannah F and @Izuku Midoriya - When it was only Iz voting, I was like, "And if it passes, it is because ONLY YOU VOTED. Ah, the irony.

 

[Vagabond Heart]

J, in the book club I was in we did a mix of the two.
Person whose 'week it was next time' would choose a selection of books for us to look at and vote on which one we wanted. Then that same person hosted the evening where we discussed that book. At the end of that, a new person would show their selection of books, and we'd vote....

Would that have the best of both worlds and be simpler, or not?

 

[Jason L.]

That was my initial thought. The only problem with that is that we might have to be voting every week/month and that might be impossible to plan ahead for. For instance, I tend to read ahead just in case I get overwhelmed and can't read a word - but if we vote for hybrid, that's fine. I'll add it to the decision list - @Hannah F @Izuku Midoriya do you prefer a straight democratic in which we have a mix from a lot of people at once to vote for, or something in which our next volunteer presents some books and we vote among JUST those books?

In my initial idea, the mid-list books would eventually be replaced after two cycles, whereas the lowest ones would be swapped out after one cycle, by the way.

 

[MattScho]

I was hoping for an autocratic club, Read this. You'll like it and it's good for you!
But I'm good with voting.
I would only note that with a group containing both US and UK voters, the results probably are gonna be questionable.