Do you participate in Bookclub? I'd love to hear Why? or Why not?

[NoteSpelling]

I love participating in a Book Club and discussing books, sadly however the current books up for reading are not ones that grab me. Trust me - as soon as there are books I want to read I will participate. My main reason for not participating is that all the books at the moment are what I would call quite dark which I don't read.

Just as an aside - is the current zeitgeist so depressingly bleak that it seems that no-one writes books with a positive outlook of the future any more? Do no authors feel that mankind is capable of finding a way forward?

I think that writers watch to much news...

I like would be actively a part of a book club if the books were something I wanted to read but this doesn't happen often so..

[xiagan]

Just as an aside - is the current zeitgeist so depressingly bleak that it seems that no-one writes books with a positive outlook of the future any more? Do no authors feel that mankind is capable of finding a way forward?

I read somewhere that exactly the opposite is true.
If life is hard and bleak, happy sunshine stories are the things people want to read/hear. If life is good and easy, one wants to read about struggle and hardship.

[Essentia-Li]

Just as an aside - is the current zeitgeist so depressingly bleak that it seems that no-one writes books with a positive outlook of the future any more? Do no authors feel that mankind is capable of finding a way forward?

I read somewhere that exactly the opposite is true.
If life is hard and bleak, happy sunshine stories are the things people want to read/hear. If life is good and easy, one wants to read about struggle and hardship.

Whichever way around it is I haven't read many sci-fi books in recent years that haven't been thoroughly depressing in their view of the future. Fantasy isn't as prone to the trend, but is disturbingly prone to being dark - demons and things that go bump in the night aren't my cup of tea at all.

[Nino]

When I join the bookclub of the month it is mainly because it motivates me to read and try out something that I would usualy not even notice or it is something that I wanted to read for a while now. I particularly like it when we read something that was published within the last three years. I like supporting new, fresh authors when I can. Also, I sometimes find it difficult to decide which book to start next and the book club sort of makes that decision easier. I, however, don't like to vote for any of the books any more - too many books to research to be able to make a decision. So what I usualy do is to see which book wins and then I would read the kindle preview and base my decision to join or not on that preview. For quite a while now my favourite way of choosing a new book has been by reading the first chapter or two. (Plus, if I like the cover or title the chance of me reading the preview is bigger.)

I do struggle a bit to analyse the books, I feel as if i need a bit more training in that area.

[Yora]

I've been here only for two months, but so far none of the books really interest me. Might change in the future.

[Ender]

hi arry,

first of all, i'd like to thank you for your efforts in making book club happen as long as you have; giving me an opportunity to join recently.  i've tried to read along with book club in the past, mainly because the books were ones i planned to read anyway.  i didn't however participate in the discussion or even read the posts.  in part because i could never keep to the reading timeline.  for example, i just started this month's book yesterday because i was reading something else that i wanted to finish.  the reason i've decided to make an effort to read along every month now is a pretty simple one: i want to to talk about the books i read and i don't have that out here with the people i know.  i expect i'll stick around as long as i'm enjoying it.

[D_Bates]

I've just started this month and hope to continue as a motivation to read. Unlike others here, I don't read all that often and don't have a TBR pile, so I'm pretty good to try whatever comes up. (Variety is the spice of life, no?) On that note, I'm also not in a position to nominate, and would rather leave the voting up to others.

Something I did notice is how a lot of people seem to be bogged down finishing the previous month's book while the current one is going on. This could be due to the time of the year, but I'm a pretty slow reader myself, and am definitely struggling this first month with keeping up with the schedule, since I only just managed to finish the first weeks part before the week was up.

I was wondering whether the page count was ever taken into account. Reading something that's 300-400 pages is significantly different to something that pushes 600+. This is just a thought from a new guy so feel free to ignore, but might it be better to base the weekly discussions on a set number of pages--say, 100--and then have the next voted in book follow on when the previous one ends--maybe with a 1 week break for a breather--rather than have it as a pressured one a month thing?

[JMack]

I've just started this month and hope to continue as a motivation to read. Unlike others here, I don't read all that often and don't have a TBR pile, so I'm pretty good to try whatever comes up. (Variety is the spice of life, no?) On that note, I'm also not in a position to nominate, and would rather leave the voting up to others.

Something I did notice is how a lot of people seem to be bogged down finishing the previous month's book while the current one is going on. This could be due to the time of the year, but I'm a pretty slow reader myself, and am definitely struggling this first month with keeping up with the schedule, since I only just managed to finish the first weeks part before the week was up.

I was wondering whether the page count was ever taken into account. Reading something that's 300-400 pages is significantly different to something that pushes 600+. This is just a thought from a new guy so feel free to ignore, but might it be better to base the weekly discussions on a set number of pages--say, 100--and then have the next voted in book follow on when the previous one ends--maybe with a 1 week break for a breather--rather than have it as a pressured one a month thing?

Hi, David. I hear you. I just completed The Magcians, almost two weeks into June. But I'm not sure slowing things down will work for most folks? I think it's generally okay to be on your own schedule. I read quickly, but these days I'm prioritizing writing over reading (and work and wife over both). So, I'm always behind. But I really enjoy having a mark out there to try to hit. But that's just me. Anyway, I hope you do give it a shot, in whatever time frame Arry goes with and whatever timeline works for you.

[D_Bates]

I wasn't really thinking of slowing it down as much as making it consistent. Obviously real life will jump in the way and always takes priority, and being new maybe I don't quite have the full picture how it works up to now, but it feels a shame to lose out on discussions simply because people are falling behind.

For example, looking at the page counts for this year alone:

Last Call - 561
The Magicians - 496
The Wee Free Men - 360
Dreamer's Pool - 448
Traitor's Blade - 384
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - 448

I guess that doesn't take into account the size of the font inside, but there's a 200 page difference between this month's and the one in April, which when you think about it is over 50% of the book more. Perhaps it might be worth rotating it so that every other month it switches between one under 400 pages, one over, one under, one over.

These are just thoughts by the way. I tend to be doing a lot of late night rambling as of late...

[NightWrite]

I keep telling myself to participate more in book club, I read Magicians but never commented, yet I've found myself either not liking the book enough, or being unable to get the book. Often it seems a blend of the two, there's not enough of an attraction towards the book to risk spending the money and not liking it. Oh well, I'm sure the stars will align eventually.

[WilliamRay]

I've never done one, although the idea of having people to chat about something I've just read seems appealing... I don't think I've done that since high school, if not before.  I'm never sure how much time or focus I'll have to read though, usually I read in bursts - a chapter, four chapters, nothing for a week, eight chapters, two chapters - which makes on-time participation awkward.

That said, I'm really intrigued by the one forum setup I saw here that has people discussing the book in chapter chunks.  That setup seem like a good idea that could remove a lot of the time-dependent hold-ups.  Obviously there would be more interaction for those keeping pace with the herd, but that's still an intriguing approach that does make me more likely to participate sometime.

[eclipse]

Hi @WilliamRay , unfortunately the book club is sadly no longer with us. Sometimes we might get a read along of a  book it's basicaly the same as book club but it's not frequent you could go as fast or as slow as you wanted. I liked to break the book up into five sections. I used to love reading everybody else comments on a book I've read and guess where the story is going.

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I know there is a Bookclub on Goodreads organised by @Arry that some of the members from this forum go too

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/107259-r-fantasy-discussion-group

[WilliamRay]

How odd! I could swear saw comments dated from earlier this month... I must've misread the year. 

[ScarletBea]

Eclipse, I think William is talking about the revival of the book club that tebakutis wanted to do, but is now waiting for more people to be interested.

In this topic:
http://fantasy-faction.com/forum/index.php?topic=9358.0

[eclipse]

That’s dead too @ScarletBea , I doubt we will see it again, not enough members interested enough to start up again maybe the odd one here and there