Greek Chat Book club
 

The discussion about Pledged brought me the idea that we might have a Greek Chat book club. It would only be for true Greek Chat Addicts of course :p

But we would figure out which book to read, read it and then chat about it.

Anyone interested? Anyone have any ideas how we would pick the book or whatever?

are we going to help books become best sellers like oprah?

James I was just thinking of this earlier today.
It would definitely need to be a guy and girl friendly book.

Fast Food Nation is an awesome book. But it's non fiction. What kind of guidelines would we set up?

I was thinking about this last night...I would love to participate.

I really have no suggestions as to how to pick the books...I'm currently reading 4ish so I could suggest one of those!

I'm up for it depending on the book. I'm a very avid reader.

any suggestions for books

The Samurai's Garden

Depends on the book..I, too, am an avid reader. How about Founding Mothers? Non-fiction and sort of a follow-up to John Adams...

Silver

Count me in.

Swissmiss, I've been wanting to read Fast Food Nation, this would give me an excuse ;) Other than that I am really more into fiction :)

This would be fun - of course I am a fiction-only junkie, so I probably would have to have the fiction book club going ;)

I did this once at my former job -- the first (and last) book we read was the Poisonwood Bible -- one of the Oprah deals. GOOD LORD what a horrible book!! It reminded me of Legends of the Falls (movie) where everyone either died - or wished they would die!

I think that in honor of Troy we should all re-read (or read, if you haven't done so) The Iliad.

I want to play! As far as choosing books go, I could just send you all my required summer reading lists for American Southern Lit and The Short Story, and then you can forward me your reactions, along with a detailed plot summary and character analysis. Brilliant idea!

I would definitely be game for a book club. It's great to have someone to discuss a book with after you read it.

I would definitely be interested.

Currently reading Stephen King's Gunslinger series. It is my new favorite book.

I have been getting away from reading as much as I used to, and hate that I have. I would definitely be up for it.

This is not a good idea. We would all have to learn to read, and then we might understand what other members are trying to say.

So much for Greek harmony.

I'd love to participate...currently in the middle of about 3 books, but none of them are really blowing me away. Does it have to be something newer, or can we throw some classics in there (I think I am the only reader in the world who has never read "The Catcher in the Rye" or "On the Road")?

Fiction is my bag, but I'm up for anything.

I am reading "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" right now. I highly recommend it for punctuation and grammar nuts.

"On the Road" is one of my favorite books. i've been meaning to re-read it.

I'm in. I like a mix of fiction and non-fiction. :)

And Catcher in the Rye is my favorite book ever.

I'm in. Fiction, nonfiction, classics, whatever. Who decides which book to read, and who decides who that person will be?

Count me in! :) I'm up for reading pretty much anything! (And dzandiloo, I've never read On the Road, either.)

Oh, and would we have a time limit on how long we would take to read the book? I'm a quick reader but I'm also working full-time and taking grad school classes part-time, so I'm not sure how much time I'd have to do this.

Count me in...if this lasts after the summer. I'm not going to have Internet access for 3 months while I'm at work.

OK, I don't want to be little ms. bossy pants, but I looked at some book club type rules on the internet...alot are totally inappropriate for us (like who will bring snacks!) but some may help...here's some rough ones to consider (not saying these are the rules...just some ideas):

1. Time limit? Shall we discuss one book a month? Two?
2. What's the criteria for book selection...should we come up with a list of ideas & then have everyone vote, and then put them in a rotation of some sort? There isn't a polling option on here, is there? Maybe a Yahoo group should be set up for that? (Am I being a micro-manager?)
3. Everybody is entitled to their opinions, but flaming will not be tolerated.
4. Write to the group at least once every other week. Your participation is the key to benefiting from the club (obviously some people won't be able to...I don't think we will have a problem w/participation).
5. While it's not actually a rule, you are highly encouraged to send in your book suggestions. We would appreciate at least one suggestion from you at least once. (gotta figure out how to track suggestions, I guess)
6. No matter what book is brought to the table, we each have to give it at least 50 pages before we cast it aside.
7. How do we handle revealing the end? Do we assume by the last week of the month that everyone has completed it & discussing it w/o worrying about spoiling for others is fair game?
8. If situations arise, more rules can be added.

I don't even know if any of this is necessary...guess book selection criteria should be first. I'm in, no matter what, so someone tell me what the plan is & let's get going!

ETA: If I'm getting waaaay to formal on this, that's cool-James brought it up, so I'll go with the flow. We've had great conversations on here about other books (HP, The DaVinci Code, etc.) w/o rules, and there's no reason we can't keep doing that too....just waiting for someone to tell me what book to get started so I can "play"...

Yes. If it has words and punctuation, I'll read it.

I think we should aim for one book/month, but obviously that can be adjusted as needed. If we pick a book that's only 300 pages or so, I think that could be covered in two weeks. On the other hand, if we pick a book that's 3,000 pages plus, we should allow more time!

I would also suggest that since some people have voiced that they prefer fiction and/or non-fiction, that we have a mix of both on our list.

Once a month, and I've never read "On the Road" either, so I'm suggesting that.

Being selfish, but I'll second that. It's only about 307 pages.

Did I kill the book club conversation? Dude, I kill every thread I participate in!!!

I mean I guess we could read and sicuss the King James Bible on its literary merits . . . . ;)

Author: Brad Meltzer.

Title: The First Consel or The Tenth Justice. Legal thrillers. Way better than Grisham.

Holy cow -- those were totally AWESOME books and most definitely better than what Grisham has put out lately!!

Although one of my top 3 all-time fav's is still A Time to Kill - even the movie did a great job of staying true to the book.

That's because A Time to Kill was a movie first, then a book. He originally wrote it as a screenplay which the movie was based on.

Those of you in book clubs, what do you usually discuss? I can't imagine it would be that interestint to start discussing imagery and literary devices.

Maybe we should pick something on politics? history? Current Events? Human nature? Philosophy? The new science? Something to spark discussion and debate?

The problem with that is that no one would be able to debate peacefully -- I really can see things going downhill fast on any topic that would cause passionate emotions to emerge.

When we read the book for my book club, we discussed lots of things. We discussed parts of the book (such as "I was really surprised that he married Jane - I thought that he would marry Ann") as well as settings ("wow - I really thought the descriptions of the Amazon were vivid and moving") and how well written the book was overall - whether it was credible or not, emotional dialogue, etc.

It was really neat to see how others captured the book in their minds - what the main characters looked like (as in we thought about who we would cast for certain roles), how much feeling came through for each of us, etc. I really enjoyed the group discussion, even if the book suck-ked.

Andi, you killed the whole idea! ;)

Ok this is what we should do. From now till tuesday, post a book you would like to suggest as well as a description of it. We'll put it together in poll form Tuesday night, and vote on it. We'll take the top three and vote again. So wel will know which book to get by this coming weekend.

Is that ok with everyone?

Queen Bees and Wannabes-the title is self-explanatory. :p

I wanna play too. I think we need like a facilitator or something.

:( Thanks for confirming my suspicions! *sniff* But, I will not take my books and go home...the plan above sounds good to me.

I've already said it, but I'll nominate "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac...description below from Barnes & Noble.com:
...One of the most influential and important novels of the 20th century, this is the book that launched the Beat Generation and remains the bible of that literary movement. On the Road's publication in 1957 was a wake-up call to the American public that not all its youth were modeled after characters on Ozzie and Harriet: it portrayed Ivy League-educated white kids who smoked dope, hitchhiked, and frequented black jazz joints and Mexican whorehouses. It was the harbinger of the radical changes that would soon sweep society in the 1960s.

I'll go with the wishes of the masses, though, if there are only 2 of us on this list who haven't already read this....

Killing GC, one thread at a time....

Family Trust
High powered business woman and born-rich philantropist inherit guardianship of child.
This books is hysterical....

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe, Douglas Adams
I haven't read this in forever...
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