Saturday, April 4, 2009

Books in Common

So, i've noticed going through all the lists that there is some overlap between both books and writers. MoonRat in one of the comments on her blog highlighted this

"i hope we can figure something out for common titles, so that maybe we can do co-reading clubs. "

I think this is a great idea! I was thinking we could set up maybe a common book per month that we could all read, discuss and review. So we are all pushed to finish at least one book off our list a month?

Leave a comment and let me know what do you think and if your interested when/what would you like to start with.

Or if you have any ideas about what you'd like on this blog or re: common books

24 comments:

Amanda said...

I think this is a good idea. Kerri at Bookends does something similar to this. They choose a book, read it, and discuss it in comments form.

Jennie said...

In theory, this is a great idea, but I don't know how often I'd be able to participate. I'm so bad at things like that! But I'd try!

Merry Monteleone said...

This could be a lot of fun!!! And there will be some crossover, bloggers who don't have the same book on their list may have already read it and want to participate.

We should schedule it a bit in advance though, so everyone can get on the same page and pick up the book if they need to.

Jen A said...

I agree with Jennie...it's a good idea in theory, but I tend to go off on my own. Doesn't mean we can't try, though! I was personally planning to start The Awakening tonight, so that would be my choice for the first one...

Briony said...

I think it's a great idea, I've already started Moby Dick though.

Is there some way we can have a list of all the books we have most in common?

iasa said...

I'll try to play along. Can we do Fahrenheit 451 soon. I feel like a freak since I seem to be one of the few people to have read it.

moonrat said...

Briony--maybe a quiz/widget to see which books people would most like to read en masse?

i propose a summer reading title--a beast several people have in common--which we read over the course of a set number of weeks--but perhaps longer than a month if the book is really long. then we can have weekly markers and discussions, and since the page load would be relatively manageable, we could all carry on with our other reading meanwhile.

what do you guys think?

the widget is another thing. i've read so many lists now i've kind of lost perspective, but i KNOW there are books a lot of people have in common. i know MOBY DICK is one, and THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK, ULYSSES, WAR & PEACE, MIDDLEMARCH, and ANNA KARENINA all fit the bill as lengthy, daunting classics that might benefit from group commentary.

Emily Cross said...

MoonRat i think this is a great idea. I was going to manually go through everyones list and see what was common.

Can i ask what would you like as a widget, like a poll or something else?

Amanda said...

Emily - my husband is a computer tech and has all these tips and techniques to make such a manual going through much easier, and to allow sorting with it. If you'd like, I can do that. I can get together two lists for you - one of the most common books and one of the most common authors.

Emily Cross said...

Amanda, you are glorious! sweetness personified! Hehe

Thanks so much, if its not too much trouble that would be brilliant!!!

Amanda said...

I'm happy to oblige! I love all this organizational stuff. Give me a couple days to get it together.

Emily Cross said...

Brilliant. thanks amanda!! :)

J.C. Montgomery said...

I LOVE the idea. Even if I cannot participate, I would still like to see what choices are made and the comments. I am always open to gleaning new ideas, thoughts from others.

Widens my horizons to be brought out of my comfort zone, so I look forward to seeing this put into place somehow.

Moonrat...you rock!!

And Emily and Amanda as they are one's to willingly put themselves out there to help.

Big hugs to you both!

PurpleClover said...

I will strive to read around the same time as you guys...but I'm going to have to be one of those "unreliable" members of the book club. Between exams, term papers, and school reading material it takes me a long time to read books (I really think I'm a slow reader too...lol).

moonrat said...

don't worry, Purple. I think we're all like that.

some weeks i have so many manuscripts to read i don't get to do any fun reading at all, and sometimes when i'm doing heavy editing my eyes hurt too much. but i think the more people are involved in general, the less it matters that each person hit every single "deadline."

Andromeda Romano-Lax said...

I'm grateful Amanda is going to do some organizational sleuthing. There are already so many sites and I'm curious which books/authors have been named most, but I couldn't figure out how to sort it. I'm also somewhat interested in a book club (I like the one big summer book idea) though I sometimes fall behind. I'm also interested in reading people's occasional posts on common books --even posts that aren't exactly reviews (because that is what the bookbook is for); perhaps we'll find some common themes, like "if you can just get past page x" about when certain hard books pick up, or how to get more out of them, or about an author's oeuvre and which of their books one should read first. Just brainstorming.

And by the way, I already told Emily that my name does not need to be (should not be?) on the banner! As we're all seeing, this is a completely collaborative effort which got a huge jumpstart from Moonrat and Emily. Ultimately, so many people will be adding their words and talents. Thanks everyone!

Amanda said...

Okay guys, just to let everyone know, I've got the first 5 (of currently 17) lists entered into the master list. I'm going to try to do 5 a day, so hopefully I'll have a list of the most common authors and most common titles by the end of the week, depending on how many more people join our group. I'm also sorting them by person on the master list, so that if we add someone or if someone wants to drop later, I can update the common-lists.

moonrat said...

amanda, you rock so hard.

Mya Barrett said...

Amanda deserves a chocolate cupcake with sprinkles on top!

I love the idea of a summer reading group. With going through the lists, it looks as if almost all of us have at least one book in common. It would be great to share thoughts about the same story, and maybe even help some of us (pointing the finger at myself) decipher some of what's being said and what it means. I'd do the best I could to keep up with some of you speed demon readers. ;)

Amanda said...

You guys are SO SWEET!!!

My recommendation, having looked over quite a lot of the lists, is that our reading group be flexible on book, but concentrate on author. We have a lot more authors in common than books, but especially when it comes to classics, you can discuss an author's work in general when it comes to some authors. Hemingway and Nabokov, for instance, we have different people reading different books by those, and yet you could discuss Nabokov or Hemingway in general while everyone read their own book. I'll know more when I'm done, but that's what the list looks like so far.

Anonymous said...

I second everyone else - Amanda, you're amazing!!

I think that going by author is a good idea, and maybe we could even divide up for the really tough books (I'm only saying this because I know I'm going to need one for Ulysses).

By the way, I've read 100 pages of Moby Dick, and all I can say is MEEP.

moonrat said...

briony--Ulysses (and Moby Dick!) i definitely want to read with other people. i dont think i'd have the stamina to do it alone.

Amanda said...

You guys are better than me. I won't even touch Ulysses or Moby Dick!

Becky said...

I'm definitely interested--whether we go by book or author. Depending on the book or author in question, I might even participate even if it wasn't on my original list. :)