Book Club Interest?

Brainstorming a bit here. Would anyone be interested in a "book club" of some kind? Could be novels or comics. Basically, a reading schedule (1-2 chapters a week or whatever) would be established, and those participating would come on the forums to talk about that week's reading and compare thoughts.

The idea would be to enjoy each others perspectives on the material, including any observations about the spiritual or moral content that shows up. A chance to both geek out and exercise discernment.

Just looking for a way to engage people here a little more and that idea came to mind. Any thoughts?

I've been trying to think of a way to do something like this.

If you were to do this, I'd bring Strangers and Aliens into the mix -- we'd promote it for sure.

There are a couple books I thought would be interesting to read in a "book club" type of setting, especially a faith-based group of people

~ Ben

Some suggestions:

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis -- a short book, written in response to the sci-fi of H.G. Wells. It's a book worth reading, but because it is old sci-fi it is often overlooked. It's length, though, makes it an easy read.

Carl Sagan's Contact -- explores the relationship of religion and science, written by an agnostic (I believe).

Dune -- I've been meaning to reread this for a while now. And would as part of a book club.

Ever since watching Argo, I've been wanting to read Lord of Light by Roger Zelany -- it was going to be made into a post-Star Wars big budget motion picture, but everything I've heard about it makes it sound completely UN-Hollywood. It was the screenplay used to trick the Iranian government into allowing the CIA to get into the Canadian embassy to help the Americans who were hiding there escape the country. It's is supposed to be based on Hindu mythology.

Also, now that Star Trek Into Darkness has revealed its plot, I want to go back and read Heart of Darkness. Not sci-fi, but if Trek is borrowing from it, I'd like to have the original fresh in my mind.

These are just off the top of my head -- I've never been involved in a book club, on or off line -- so I don't know how it works. Just read the book and then discuss it in a thread? How would it work?

BenAvery wrote:I've never been involved in a book club, on or off line -- so I don't know how it works. Just read the book and then discuss it in a thread? How would it work?

Me either. So I'd be interested in hearing from someone with experience with the animal if there is further interest.

Maybe we could assign 1-2 chapters a week, and then anytime that week, after reading, readers could chime in with their thoughts on a thread specifically for the book club's reading of that book.

Meantime, anyone else interested or have other books/comics to suggest? We could even branch out to online comics, if there are any that would be a good fit. (That route would also be FREE, which is always nice.)

[quote="Paeter"]

BenAvery wrote:(That route would also be FREE, which is always nice.)

Well, there ARE libraries . . .

~ Ben

[quote="BenAvery"]

Paeter wrote:

BenAvery wrote:(That route would also be FREE, which is always nice.)

Well, there ARE libraries . . .

~ Ben

Oh yeah. Keep forgetting about those. I'm a collector kind of geek with novels and feel strongly compelled to OWN any books that I read.

My problem is that I forget to return them or don't get around to reading them in time . . . so I might as well just buy the book.

BenAvery wrote:Some suggestions:

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis -- a short book, written in response to the sci-fi of H.G. Wells. It's a book worth reading, but because it is old sci-fi it is often overlooked. It's length, though, makes it an easy read.

That Trilogy is on my reading list My dad has been trying to get me to read Perelandra for years

Some books I'm hoping to read next year are
The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker
This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkenss by Frank Peretti
the Narnia series
the Left Behind Prequel books

While the idea of discussing themes and such of books does interest me, truth is I hardly read any books other than comic books. If we were to do comics I would be all over that. I'm considering getting an account to Audible.com or some such place, because I do enjoy audiobooks, so then I could follow along pretty easily. As far as comics, Batman: Under the Red Hood, the Pistolfist comics, and some of Marvel's Civil War comics (and Watchmen, but I've never read it so I don't know for sure) would have a lot to talk about. Then there's just plain old great stories like Spiderman: Blue, Spiderman: The Night Gwen Stacy Died, and Black Panther: Who is The Black Panther.

Here are some people doing a book group:
http://www.speculativefaith.com/features/sf-reading-group-the-hobbit-chapter-3/

I wouldn't be against doing a comic book or graphic novel for the book club . . . it would definitely be shorter than reading something like, say, Dune!

I've never seen people do short story book clubs, but I thought I would throw that idea out there. There's some old 1930's pulp fiction that is in public domain; so there you would have a cache of reading material that's short and free. If anything, since discussion here sounds inclusive of short novels and comic books, short stories could be thrown into the mix here and there.

Some authors include Dunsany (a very early author who I've seen debated as a founding father of sword and sorcery fiction), Robert E. Howard, Rudyard Kipling (I've seen a collection of Macabre short stories he's written), Fritz Leiber, H.P. Lovecraft (kind of dry, perhaps, but considered influential). Maybe Edgar Allan Poe (I haven't read a lot of his stuff, always meant to delve into it a bit). I don't know if Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote short fiction and if that's in public domain, but maybe it's worth a look; I know some of his writing is in public domain. We could round it all off with collections of Philip K.Dick's short fiction (not in public domain, but it might be fun to explore the stories that have inspired many film; Paycheck, Screamers, Total Recall, Next, Minority Report, ect).

Desert Kris wrote:
I don't know if Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote short fiction and if that's in public domain, but maybe it's worth a look; I know some of his writing is in public domain.

We could round it all off with collections of Philip K.Dick's short fiction (not in public domain, but it might be fun to explore the stories that have inspired many film; Paycheck, Screamers, Total Recall, Next, Minority Report, ect).

I like the idea of reading stories that movies are based off of. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote A Princess of Mars which the movie John Carter was based on. It is in the public domain and I found it fairly enjoyable, though not nessasarily great nor deep, though it would be interesting to disscuss the elements of the story that found their way into popular Sci-Fi/fantasy stories thereafter.

I used to read lots and lots of books, mostly scifi and fantasy (incl. sword & sorcery). Read Dune, Asimov, Tanith Lee, Heinlein, Vance, well, etc. etc.

I don't find the time - or maybe peace of mind - to sit down and read whole novels anymore though, so a book club with an obligatory reading schedule would not be my cup of tea at the moment.

However, should there be a comics club, I might be game. Especially when it's about the fairly recent ones (since I haven't been into comics for much longer than a year now). We could do some New 52 titles by DC, or Marvel's AvX (which I haven't read yet). And branch out to other publishers. Like Grimm Fairy Tales by Zenescope, which would be more of a fantasy/horror genre and which I have yet to read as well so we could start with nr. 1.

Just some thoughts.

ComiKate wrote: Marvel's AvX (which I haven't read yet).

That would be great, it is one I am planning on reading in the near future and from everything I've heard, it sounds like there might be some good discussions that could be started from it.

Im in for anything. Books. Comics. Webcomics. Whatever. I just finished reading Cold Days: A Dresden Files book by Jim Butcher. I read a good bit. I could probably check my Amazon Wishlist for books to read.

I'd be down. I've never been to into graphic novels/comic books, but I wouldn't be opposed to readin' them in that kind of format.

Over at Strangers and Aliens, we are doing a C.S. Lewis "book club" -- reading through his fiction in 2013. (And for the more ambitious, also reading nonfiction that has thematic ties to that month's fiction selection).

More info about what we're doing:

http://strangersandaliens.com/2012/12/2013-strangers-and-aliens-year-of-c-s-lewis/

In January, we're reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We'd love for you to join the conversation!