101 Books to Read Before You Die discussion

Do we want to do a theme, or count down the books with the most number of pages, or check off all the Ws? What ideas do you have for projects or a different manner of attacking our list in the upcoming year?

I have no ideas or suggestions. I am comfortable going in any order: nominations, alphabetically, whatever. Going by page count might put us in a reading bind since it would cluster all the long books together. It would not give any grace period for catch up unless the next month was a book the member had already read. We could allocate 2 months for longer books, but longer periods seem to further delude an already thin conversation.

I am suspecting that there may be some books that members are less enthusiastic about on this list. If we go through alphabetically or in another systematic fashion, the less popular titles will be intersperced among the others. If we continue with nominations, odds are that the less popular ones will be clustered at the end and participation may really fall off.

Good point about the less popular titles. This list was already started when I joined the group and I'm not sure any currently active members were involved in selecting the titles, so I'm not opposed to striking a few off the list that no one in the group intends to read, if there is a consensus. But I do agree that if we do them in a more organized order (alphabetically, or alternating between a long book one month and a short one the next, etc) we may better intersperse some of the ones that maybe some members are less interested in. We still have quite a number of titles left, so I'm not sure we're ready to strike anything off the list at this point, but I'm certainly open to that in the future, if it means we develop a further list that members are more interested in.

How are we on progress on the list? We could add a few titles to the list as well. I am on my 93rd of the 101. My opinion is there are some books on the list which needn't be read before you die & could easily be replaced. We could put a poll up... Nominate a book you don't want to read.

Not a bad idea. I kind of figured we would create a new list once this one was done, but if we have a bunch we're not excited about, we could always have them as side reads or challenges for the few who are interested, and have a different list to pick from for the main group.

So any concensus as we head into 2018?

Well, I'm going to do a random number generator for the vote for the first month, just to shake it up a bit. I like the idea of adding a couple of other titles though. So maybe we'll do an open nomination in February and go back to the list for nominations in March? How does that sound?

We could take some prize winners. Giller vs Booker vs Pulitzer

Not a bad idea! I have several prize winners I've been wanting to try to knock out. Anybody else game for that?

Sure, I already read a good number of prize winners, so I may have already read what is selected. If that happens, I won't re-read probably.

What would be the list you would most like to work from, if we go that route? Or do we want to just pick a list in a given month and have people nominate from that? Or just those that are currently active make suggestions of five titles from various lists? How structured would we like to make it?

I am open to anything.

We could pick a year and make a poll for the nominees for that year. For example, 2015 Giller or the 2016 Booker...

What lists do you all tend to work from, or find the most interesting? I, for example, have had an interest in reading Pulitzer and Booker winners (or nominees, sometimes those are even better) but are there other lists that I'm not aware of or ones that you've found to consistently have really good books, not just ones that the critics love but readers hate? What are your favorites (lists and books alike)?

Don't have any particular list.

I'd be interested to know. I promised a friend a list of good reads. I don't follow a list myself.

I don't follow one in particular, but I'm ocassionally curious to know when I've read books that are on various lists, kind of like "Hm, I wonder why this one is one X list for this year? What was it compared with? Did I like it as much as the critics raved about it?"

One suggestion I have is to drop the children's list and read. We don't seem to be getting any interest in that folder. I see there was only one vote cast for the children's book for January.

Do we have a book for January?

I see the children's books as more of a side read anyway. No need to drop them per se, but not looking to add any new suggestions either.

Jill, we are reading Things Fall Apart for January. I went ahead and posted the thread today, so you can start reading it any time if you're ready :)

I subscribe and read the New Yorker magazine. Most of my extraneous reading suggestions will come from there. As well, the New Yorker has a fiction podcast wherein a contempory author will read and discuss something from the magazine's archives. Another fertile source...

Do you all tend to enjoy more recent books (like last 50 years) or prefer older, or classics? Or just kind of everything?

I tend to enjoy more contemporary fiction. I find much fiction written in the 19th century or earlier to be too wordy for my taste. I also appreciate more contemporary character development.

I would tend to agree with Irene on the preference of modern versus classics.

Sounds like some Booker choices would be in order, then :)

How about we all nominate the top three books off our current list that we just have no interest in reading (or re-reading)? For example, mine would be:

A Confederacy of Dunces
Rabbit, Run

The others I haven't read, so I don't know, but these two are books I read and hated and would never recommend to anyone. Doesn't mean they aren't worth reading, I suppose, to the right person, but I personally did not see any value to them.

We could see if there's a consensus on a few and do them as more of a side read for those who do wish to read every book on the list? Or did we talk about that before and rule it out?

Well, since I generally don't re read when we have a book I have already read, I don't think it makes sense for me to nominate anything off the list. The rest of you might want to read it. There are some that I have not read that do not look remotely interesting such as I Nastratimus.

I like reading a mix. I try to do a classic, a new author, a foreign writer, a short story, a long read, something historical, a biography or memoir, etc.

What will our March title be? We are less than a week from the beginning of the next month.

I know, I've been trying to set up a nomination thread, was out of town. I'll work on that this evening, I promise! Thanks for bearing with me! :)

Actually, scratch that. Since February is a short month, I'm going to do a random number generator for March's nominations from our list, and just post a poll, so we'll have a bit of a random selection. I'll try to get the April nominations up pretty early in March though. Remind me if I haven't posted a thread by the end of the first week!

Any thoughts on changes in 2019? Have we enjoyed doing some different list challenges instead of just our original 101 list? Still good with finishing it off? Thoughts on other challenges?

I have a bit of OCD (not really), but I hate quitting a project unfinished. So, although many books on the list don't excite me, I am willing to see it to the end.

I'm the same way, Irene! Although there are a few I wouldn't nominate because I've read them already and have no desire to re-read.