Book of the Month?

[Michy]

[quote=""Ludmilla""] I also frequently feel conflicted about discussing books. It's almost a catch-22, discussing the books but trying to preserve and maintain one's own objective opinions without outside influences. [/quote] Maybe everyone else here will disagree with me , but I don't feel that it's really necessary to be objective when discussing books. First of all, I don't know if it's even possible to be objective about books, or any other form of art, because our reactions are all based on our life experiences, our values, etc. etc. And really, discussing and reviewing books is all about opinions (you could even say that whether an author's style is technically strong or not is a matter of opinion), and there's nothing objective about opinions.

[Ludmilla]

You are right. Opinions are not objective. I should have used another word, but not sure what word to use to express what I mean. Clearly, another piece of evidence that I’m not good at communicating what I mean. But enough about my feeble excuses for inconsistent participation.

I think the book club itself can continue as is. I’ve yet to find an online book club where regulars participate on a consistent basis despite their resolve, interest or good intentions.

[Michy]

You express yourself well; I think you are being too hard on yourself.

But to the BOTM question -- my reason for not participating is the same as many others' I suspect; it's all about time. I have limited reading time and a large TBR stack (although not as large as most others' here). If a BOTM happened to be something on my want-to-read radar -- such as Mary Sutter was -- then I would participate. But since it's generally not, I don't.

[Misfit]

[quote=""Michy""]But to the BOTM question -- my reason for not participating is the same as many others' I suspect; it's all about time. I have limited reading time and a large TBR stack (although not as large as most others' here). If a BOTM happened to be something on my want-to-read radar -- such as Mary Sutter was -- then I would participate. But since it's generally not, I don't.[/quote]

Same here. If it happens it happens, if not. Oh well.

You express yourself well; I think you are being too hard on yourself.

Absolutely agree with that.

[Carla]

[quote=""Vanessa""]I wonder if it would be easier if the book of the month was selected a little earlier than the month before, say two months instead - this would give more time for people to obtain and read the book. Just a thought![/quote]

Good idea. I'd have much more chance if there was a longer period to find and read the book, especially when my reading time is short (as it too often is). Having a longer period might take some of the pressure off the moderators too, maybe? If the book was selected two months in advance, the setting up could maybe be done over the first few days of first month instead of needing to be done on the first of the month.

Someone suggested (I can't find the post, or even the thread, but I'm sure I read it here somewhere) that the person nominating a book could say why they want to read it, or why they like it if they've already read it. That sounds like a good idea to me. A personal recommendation is often way more informative to me than a publisher's blurb, some of which can be rather bland. It doesn't have to be long, a couple of sentences or a paragraph.

Apologies if this is a dumb question, but is there a policy on spoilers? Several times I've wanted to post about something that's puzzled or intrigued me (Why did X do that, it looks out of character? Y has just happened and it's obviously very important but I don't get the significance, what have I missed?), but then haven't said anything in case someone else hasn't got there yet and I wouldn't want to spoil it for them. I personally don't mind spoilers, but I know some people HATE them and I wouldn't want to ruin somebody else's enjoyment. Maybe a few guidelines in a sticky post saying what is and isn't acceptable would be helpful for people who are new to the board or who only have time to join in now and then? Doesn't have to be complicated - if it's a free-for-all, a sticky simply saying "May contain spoilers, enter at your own risk" would be enough to make it clear.

[Ash]

[quote=""Carla""]Apologies if this is a dumb question, but is there a policy on spoilers? Several times I've wanted to post about something that's puzzled or intrigued me but then haven't said anything in case someone else hasn't got there yet and I wouldn't want to spoil it for them. .[/quote]

My understanding is that when you go to a discussion, expect spoilers. So you either decide as a group to discuss only a part of the book at a time, or the poster has to decide to finish the book first or expect spoilers. I agree that it should be stated upfront what ever the policy is.

[Misfit]

[quote=""Ash""]My understanding is that when you go to a discussion, expect spoilers. So you either decide as a group to discuss only a part of the book at a time, or the poster has to decide to finish the book first or expect spoilers. I agree that it should be stated upfront what ever the policy is.[/quote]

Not a bad idea. From what I've seen here and elsewhere most posters do take caution to make a big point of noting spoilers and then adding some spaces so one can scroll past it.

I love the new feature Goodreads just added. They have an HTML code for spoilers and any comments are hidden unless someone clicks on the view spoilers. That goes for comments on reviews as well as the reviews themselves.

[Michy]

Hee hee, I like that.

I just had this happen to me yesterday -- I was struggling with one part of the book I'm reading, so I went to Amazon to look at a few reviews to see what others thought of it. The very first review went into a lot of detail and basically spilled the entire plot. I wish, wish I hadn't read it, because I didn't have any idea what was going to happen. Now I do, and I feel the fun of reading the book has largely been spoiled. (But I am going to finish it, anyway). It would have been considerate of the reviewer to put SPOILER ALERT at the beginning of her review......

[Margaret]

In reviews and mentions of books on most pages of this site, I would agree that we should avoid spoilers - and people here are very good about that. But I do think the BOM discussion pages need to be an exception to this general policy. How can one possibly have a lively, interesting discussion about a book if one has to avoid spoilers? The BOM section is for people who have read the book - people who have not should enter at their own risk! We've discussed this before, I think, and everyone agreed that the BOM section was an exception to the spoilers policy.

BTW has anyone read Clara and Mr Tiffany? Its by Susan Vreeland, author of Girl in Hycinth Blue. I've been eyeing it for a while - I love Tiffany glass, and apparently Clara was the one who actually invented the lamps but never got credit.

Coincidentally, I just put a hold on this at my local library. It sounds quite interesting, and I loved Girl in Hyacinth Blue.

If we select BOMs two months ahead of time, that doesn't mean we need to go to an every-other-month schedule, does it?

[Carla]

[quote=""Margaret""]In reviews and mentions of books on most pages of this site, I would agree that we should avoid spoilers - and people here are very good about that. But I do think the BOM discussion pages need to be an exception to this general policy. How can one possibly have a lively, interesting discussion about a book if one has to avoid spoilers? The BOM section is for people who have read the book - people who have not should enter at their own risk! We've discussed this before, I think, and everyone agreed that the BOM section was an exception to the spoilers policy.
[/quote]

Would it be possible to put this policy in a sticky on the top of the Book of the Month forum, or perhaps add it to the text of the "Please discuss XXXX here" post that starts off each thread? I may have missed the earlier discussion, or forgotten about it, or been away for a while and thought it might have changed in the interim (I can't always get here as often as I would like, alas), so having the policy right there on the forum would help me.

I'd be in favour of staying with a book each month, even if it is chosen two months in advance. Not everyone can, or wants to, join every discussion, and having a book each month gives everyone 12 chances a year of joining in instead of only 6.