Book Club in 2015?

[Nighteyes]

I m selfish and will only read the book if it's one I voted for.  I am too lazy to dig up books I read years back if they come up. So sorry. I am a poor book club member. 

Having said that in my defence I will actively join in if a book I voted for wins.  It is frustrating when you vote for book along with say 7 other people and it comes in second by say 1 vote; meaning there should be 9 people at least actively posting on the winner. But a month or two later there are barely any posts on the winner.

[Doctor_Chill]

^ That's why I've stopped voting altogether. I felt really bad when I couldn't make it to the Promise of Blood read when I nominated it, so I just jump in if I ever get the chance to read the book. Whether or not that's months later is beside the point.

I'm a worse book club member.

[Arry]

I m selfish and will only read the book if it's one I voted for.  I am too lazy to dig up books I read years back if they come up. So sorry. I am a poor book club member. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Not sure why you think it makes you a poor book club member.

Having said that in my defence I will actively join in if a book I voted for wins.  It is frustrating when you vote for book along with say 7 other people and it comes in second by say 1 vote; meaning there should be 9 people at least actively posting on the winner. But a month or two later there are barely any posts on the winner.

Yeah, but even if your book won, do you think turn out would be much different?

I don't want people interested in book club to feel guilt for not participating, or to feel like a "poor book club member" for only participating in the ones they are interested in. And I apologize if I've ever done anything to make people feel otherwise.

I think the low participation is more an indication that we are not pulling in enough interest, that to really run well there should be more people seeing it and thinking about joining in. Every month would see a different subset of the members participate. I think it is only natural that members only join in sometimes, so the real key here is not to make those who participate feel bad for not participating more, but to find a way to generate more interest.

[doclivingston]

I know I never see anything pop up about this book club on my goodreads account so maybe we are missing out on a lot of potential readers.  Do we have some sort of goal for what we want this book club to be?

[Arry]

I know I never see anything pop up about this book club on my goodreads account so maybe we are missing out on a lot of potential readers.  Do we have some sort of goal for what we want this book club to be?

Hmmm.... OK, I gave this a bit more thought and poked around Goodreads a bit. I do get email notifications for every book we are reading about 5 days before the month starts. These are auto generated by Goodreads and only go to your personal email, not your inbox within Goodreads. Turns out that is a preference that you need to set in order to receive them. I don't remember turning it on, but I don't doubt I did. So, that message is likely not going to as many people as I had assumed. Thanks for pointing this out. You are definitely right that we could reach more people than we currently are.

I can start sending out broadcast messages to the Goodreads members with the book selection. Those will show up in their Goodreads inbox regardless of what their settings are set to. I will try to do this about a 5 - 7 days before the next month starts. Another group I am in, we send out messages for nominations, voting and book selection, but I'm not certain if I want to send out that much or not. For some reason I am leery of users feeling like I am spamming them since this group really does the discussions here, not on Goodreads. But I guess they can always leave the group if they're not interested.

As an aside, one problem I have had with Goodreads is some users seem to get confused with the fact that the discussions happen here. Most of the Goodreads groups like that have their club nominations/voting/discussions on Goodreads, where as all of ours happen here, requiring a forum account. Still, I have felt like I should find a way to use that group more than how it is currently being used, which generally just shows what books we're reading to anyone who actually goes and visits it.

As for what we want the book club to be, I am open to opinions. I just mainly want a place for friendly exchange of ideas/thoughts/reactions to a book as we read it.

[simonster]

I'm a slow reader (I'm doing well if I get through two books in a month) so I tend to only join in with the book club if the book is something I was already planning to read, or if it's something I've heard a lot of good things about.

One of the things that can win me over is if there's someone (a forum regular) who's genuinely enthusiastic for the book, like with King Rat's army of supporters earlier this year.  (Well, it felt like an army; I wasn't counting )

I wonder if that sense of particular people championing a book could be a more formal part of the book club.  For instance, maybe the nominators and seconders of a book could be the book's Champions, committed to running the month's discussion if that book is chosen, and with their names proudly listed alongside the book's in the poll.

There might not be as many books nominated each month if nominating and seconding are seen as a commitment - but those books that are nominated (and seconded, and ideally thirded) would be guaranteed some good discussion from their Champions at least.

Anyway, just a thought.

Arry - really appreciate all you have done for the book club, it is really well managed.

This can't be repeated enough.

[xiagan]

I like the champions-idea.

[Pheonecia]

I have never participated in the book club before, but i think it is something that i would like to do in the future. The main problem that I have with the book club is financial timing. I have a very tight budget at the moment so sometimes need longer than the given time to be able to purchase the book, especially if it is not one that i would have bought anyway. Also, I don't have an E-Reader, so any Kindle only books i would not be able to participate in.

I must also admit that I am very lazy in checking the forums, so don't always see any book club threads. I tend to check the main site for new stories, browse the side links to see what new forum topics have been posted, then leave to browse something else. I realise that this is my own fault for missing book club topics, but perhaps other visitors to the site only read the main page, and not the forums? Do you post in advance to the main page? (I really can't recall). Perhaps just making it a more noticeable item of interest on the site would garner new participants?

[doclivingston]

I have an interesting idea, lets take the top three books in a poll and have them be the next three months reads.  Then read them in order from oldest publication date to newest because that way if its a newer book its easier to get it from the library :-)

[Arry]

OK, I am resurrecting this thread. I feel like each month, the discussions are getting slower and slower for book club, and honestly I fully consider myself part of the problem. I don't post as regularly as I used to, and I have taken months off (which I didn't used to do). With a current poll going with a total of 4 votes (in all fairness, it was 6 before the run off), I just wonder what the future of this group is and if there are changes that could be made to help revive it.

Any suggestions or ideas? Should we move to just read along discussions? Keep going as is? Alternate Discussion Leaders? (personally I like this idea so that its not always me )

[JMack]

OK, I am resurrecting this thread. I feel like each month, the discussions are getting slower and slower for book club, and honestly I fully consider myself part of the problem. I don't post as regularly as I used to, and I have taken months off (which I didn't used to do). With a current poll going with a total of 4 votes (in all fairness, it was 6 before the run off), I just wonder what the future of this group is and if there are changes that could be made to help revive it.

Any suggestions or ideas? Should we move to just read along discussions? Keep going as is? Alternate Discussion Leaders? (personally I like this idea so that its not always me )

I think read-alongs might be really good. Someone who is excited by a book can get it started and can see if there are enough folks that it won;t just be talking to herself.

Personally, I like the monthly club because it gives me a target to aim for. But I agree; not a lot of participation. And, hey, I read the book this month but have been so busy with RPG and Writers' Group that I haven;t posted much (or anything?) about it. I'd enjoy continuing, but it's work for you.

[Doctor_Chill]

OK, I am resurrecting this thread. I feel like each month, the discussions are getting slower and slower for book club, and honestly I fully consider myself part of the problem. I don't post as regularly as I used to, and I have taken months off (which I didn't used to do). With a current poll going with a total of 4 votes (in all fairness, it was 6 before the run off), I just wonder what the future of this group is and if there are changes that could be made to help revive it.

Any suggestions or ideas? Should we move to just read along discussions? Keep going as is? Alternate Discussion Leaders? (personally I like this idea so that its not always me )

I think read-alongs might be really good. Someone who is excited by a book can get it started and can see if there are enough folks that it won;t just be talking to herself.

Personally, I like the monthly club because it gives me a target to aim for. But I agree; not a lot of participation. And, hey, I read the book this month but have been so busy with RPG and Writers' Group that I haven;t posted much (or anything?) about it. I'd enjoy continuing, but it's work for you.

Read alongs might be an interesting idea. I know we had a few strong ones going in 2014, and perhaps something like the Dinosaur Lords, Francis's new books, or something with a lot of hype surrounding it, we could get a few like-minded people around it to get reading.

[Nighteyes]

Can't really see how Read Alongs are any different to the Book Club.

For me I guess the issues are:

1) I have what we call here affectionately a TBR pile. Books I have bought intending to read plus as the year goes on favourite writers will bring out new books or new entries in favourite series will come out. Its hard to take a break from those books for another book unless it sounds especially incredible. I generally only join in if a book that is already on my tbr pile wins.

2) Sorry this will sound awful but it feels too much like work sometimes. You just want to enjoy a book sometimes and it is hard often to find the motivation to post some intelligent thoughts on a weekly basis on a certain amount of a book.

3) Its an odd concept as well having to read a book over a month. I really vary on the speed I read. Sometimes a boom will take a month. Other times I ll read a book in an afternoon. It really varies on the book. I know in past book clubs I have sometimes read the book by the 2nd of the month. Week 4 thread opens up 3 weeks later and I have moved on and read 3 or 4 new books since.

[ScarletBea]

The reasons I've never really participated are exactly what Wolfie just said.

And you know, I think the main difference between a Read Along and a Book Club is the speed. Everyone just posts what they want when they want, and wait for replies.
A bit like when we do reviews or comments about finished books.

I only did one, Xiagan asked me to start it, and I ended up talking to myself because he got busy and never really posted properly, so I fully agree with Jmack that for a Read Along to work (as opposed to the reviews), there has to be a minimum number of people. A bit like the Malazan threads are.

[Arry]

Can't really see how Read Alongs are any different to the Book Club.

I don't have to organize them (this is my selfish reason) People don't have to come vote. And they can work on whatever schedule they want. One discussion thread, three, eight, post whenever they are ready without a schedule.

For me I guess the issues are:

1) I have what we call here affectionately a TBR pile. Books I have bought intending to read plus as the year goes on favourite writers will bring out new books or new entries in favourite series will come out. Its hard to take a break from those books for another book unless it sounds especially incredible. I generally only join in if a book that is already on my tbr pile wins.

I have a disturbing number of books I already own that I've yet to read. I know I'm not alone in this and completely understand this reason, as I am starting to lean towards it myself.

2) Sorry this will sound awful but it feels too much like work sometimes. You just want to enjoy a book sometimes and it is hard often to find the motivation to post some intelligent thoughts on a weekly basis on a certain amount of a book.

Understand this as well. And its demotivating if you do do the work and then don't get discussion in return.

3) Its an odd concept as well having to read a book over a month. I really vary on the speed I read. Sometimes a boom will take a month. Other times I ll read a book in an afternoon. It really varies on the book. I know in past book clubs I have sometimes read the book by the 2nd of the month. Week 4 thread opens up 3 weeks later and I have moved on and read 3 or 4 new books since.

It never takes me a month to read the book, so the later weeks I often can't remember details as well for discussion (especially if there are potential spoilers for future weeks discussions). I run into this almost every single month because to get the first discussion started by the 3rd of the month, I would typically start the book before the month even started. And often finish before the first discussion opens. When I try to break it up into weeks, I never like the book as well because I lose that connection with it.

So yeah, this post actually highlights a number of things I've been feeling lately. I feel bad because I used to do so much better with it, but I think the slower discussions have really had a demotivating effect on me so that it mainly just feels like work now.