Fantasy Book Club discussion

I've been a member of the FBC for several years now. When I first joined it was a thriving group with many great and wonderful conversation, interesting members and just general fun. Over the years I've watch it dwindle to just a general comment ever now and then. Except for a handful of members who put some great stuff out their it's really quiet most of the time. So, I recently joined some other groups to see what they were doing different. I have discovered that these groups are member driven. So, what can we do to get this cranked up again. All suggestions are good. Let's getting rocking again.

Great idea! Thank you for starting the discussion Tnkw01 :)
I've been a member for a little more than a year and I noticed the number of comments decreases as well.

When I joined this group, I took great pleasure in reading the conversations in the 'general fantasy discussions' and 'general chit-chat' folders: things about reading habits, trends in fantasy books (grimdark VS 'hopeful'), etc. Those kinds of threads are easy to join as they don't require reading a certain book. Maybe we could think of a few topics and launch one once in a while if enough members are interested?

EDIT: Forgot some words :p

An idea stolen from the Fantasy Buddy Reads group (sorry :p): Blind date with a book. They did it in February for Valentine's Day but we could try it anytime :)

The idea is that someone post a 'bio' describing themselves. The others members then give book recommendations according to that bio. That someone then have to choose one (or several) book to read WITHOUT getting more info than what's given in the description of the recommender.

An example of a bio: (view spoiler)[

Virginie, 24 years old, studying to be a civil engineer (building bridges and stuff <3)
Likes: books (duh!), fluffy cats, playing tennis, sarcasm & dark humor, making lists and hiking. Also dragons.
Dislikes: people hitting on me during my commute, pickles, hypocrisy and tiny dogs that compensate with barking.
Looking for: a character-driven book with a villain/anti-hero protagonist.

(hide spoiler)]

What do you guys think?

Virginie wrote: "An idea stolen from the Fantasy Buddy Reads group (sorry :p): Blind date with a book. They did it in February for Valentine's Day but we could try it anytime :)

The idea is that someone post a 'bi..."

Not a bad idea. I'm looking forward to a suggestion from Liam. He always has good stuff to talk about. Another might be a competitive challenge. The only problem is I'm afraid Virginie would win them all!

Hey thanks Tnk - I'm actually composing a list of discussiony things in a notepad next to me...

I'll get back to you. I have to figure out how far I want to go with this.

Virginie wrote: "An idea stolen from the Fantasy Buddy Reads group (sorry :p): Blind date with a book. They did it in February for Valentine's Day but we could try it anytime :)

The idea is that someone post a 'bi..."

And I agree this is a fun idea :)

Tnkw01 wrote: "Not a bad idea. I'm looking forward to a suggestion from Liam. He always has good stuff to talk about. Another might be a competitive challenge. The only problem is I'm afraid Virginie would win them all! "

I'm doing a team reading competition with Fantasy Buddy Reads (the only other group I'm part of). Believe it or not, but I'm not even in the top 10. Those people are reading monsters :o
You can take a look at their stats here

Virginie wrote: "Tnkw01 wrote: "Not a bad idea. I'm looking forward to a suggestion from Liam. He always has good stuff to talk about. Another might be a competitive challenge. The only problem is I'm afraid Virgin..."

I'm not sure what I'm looking at on the spreadsheet - what does a point correspond to?

The team name Tome Raiders made me laugh :)

I love deconstructing what authors are doing. I have a dozen or so topics we could talk about off the top of my head. Posted one here - maybe people will find this stuff as interesting as I do...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

100 pages = 1 point. Then we get bonus points if the book is part of a challenge (0.25*page points) or a buddy read with the group (0,5*pages points).

I have 200 and some points. The first has more than 600. Yup. 430 pages/day average. :o

Oh, and I'm a member of Tome Raiders :D

Liam wrote: "I love deconstructing what authors are doing. I have a dozen or so topics we talk about off the top of my head. Posted one here - maybe people will find this stuff as interesting as I do...

https:..."

Oh, that's interesting. Before joining GR, authors were like mythical creatures for me. I suck at doing anything creative so I really admire people capable to write an entire book...
Only now do I realize than writing said book then getting it published is really, really complex.

Virginie wrote: "100 pages = 1 point. Then we get bonus points if the book is part of a challenge (0.25*page points) or a buddy read with the group (0,5*pages points).

I have 200 and some points. The first has mo..."

Wow. Yeah that's some crazy reading.

Go Tome Raiders! :D

Ive only been on here for a few months now so i don't know what it used to be like. I have noticed, however, that most contributions are from the same handful of people (i dont include myself). Although I've greatly enjoyed my interactions with them, it does seem a shame that in a group with over 2500 members there isn't wider involvement. One BOTM only got 11 votes!
I'm not sure what the amswer is but i look forward to peoples ideas. Yours is a good one Virginie though i suspect only the regular handful would involve themselves (this time I do include myself :) )

I really appreciate all the responses. We are starting to get some good ideas. Let's see if we can get some more. I'm going to try and brain storm and come up with some of my own.

Virginie wrote: "When I joined this group, I took great pleasure in reading the conversations in the 'general fantasy discussions' and 'general chit-chat' folders: things about reading habits, trends in fantasy books (grimdark VS 'hopeful'), etc. Those kinds of threads are easy to join as they don't require reading a certain book. Maybe we could think of a few topics and launch one once in a while if enough members are interested?"

I love this suggestion. There used to be some good conversations on here about these subjects. I used to try and start a conversation about the FBC's BOM and who would be good to star in it if it were made into a movie. Never really took off. So, maybe we could come up with something else to tie into the BOM.

Virginie wrote: "Tnkw01 wrote: "Not a bad idea. I'm looking forward to a suggestion from Liam. He always has good stuff to talk about. Another might be a competitive challenge. The only problem is I'm afraid Virgin..."

So, this seems like a lot of work. Does everyone figure there own scores and doesn't this take time away from reading?

Tnkw01 wrote: "I love this suggestion. There used to be some good conversations on here about these subjects. I used to try and start a conversation about the FBC's BOM and who would be good to star in it if it were made into a movie. Never really took off. So, maybe we could come up with something else to tie into the BOM. "

I'll admit, I never really participated in the 'movie casting' threads because I can never remember actors' names >< I'll try and think of a topic we could tie into the BOM.

Tnkw01 wrote: "So, this seems like a lot of work. Does everyone figure there own scores and doesn't this take time away from reading? "

Excel nerds (me included) set up a spreadsheet doing all the calculations, ranking and stats. Each participant has his/her own scoresheet, and you only have to enter the book title, the page count, date completed and a 'Yes' in the right column for bonus points.
An example here

But it was a lot of work for the moderators to set it up in the first place. Figuring out the participants' reading pace in order to make the teams, setting up the rules, etc.

Jason wrote: "Ive only been on here for a few months now so i don't know what it used to be like. I have noticed, however, that most contributions are from the same handful of people (i dont include myself). Alt..."

Good points! Yeah, I'm afraid only a few people would participate in the 'Blind date with a book' thing. (Yes, we're calling it that. Period. :p)

A simple thing to implement would be a monthly mail to all members. Something along the line of the 'Welcome to XXX" thread announcing the book of the month and giving links to the relevant threads.

I think participation dwindled because the group isn't very visible. I blame GR's Group Discussions tool which isn't very practical.

Would a monthly mail be too intrusive?

Virginie wrote: "Jason wrote: "Ive only been on here for a few months now so i don't know what it used to be like. I have noticed, however, that most contributions are from the same handful of people (i dont includ..."

I get lost a lot trying to navigate Goodreads. I thought maybe it was just me.

Check out how this bookstore implements Blind Date with a Book:

https://imgur.com/gallery/qsEz8

Liam wrote: "Check out how this bookstore implements Blind Date with a Book:"

Oh! OOOOH! That's just brilliant.

At one time, this group used to organize a 'topic of the week' (or month, it's been awhile) where we invited a 'panel' of folks to lead off the discussion and the membership jumped in. That opened up a lot of book discussion - around themes and what was controversial in books past and present.

That required somebody organizing - I used to assist with liaison with authors if the group did not know them, or have personal contact with someone they wanted to participate.

Even just creating a themed thread in discussion - can open up avenues and intro folks to reading they may not encounter otherwise - (example: Dragons, are they tired or have you read an original take on them, or what was your favorite AND WHY? example: what was your favorite read from the '90s (or any decade) AND WHY? example: do you think 000 type of read is underrepresented AND WHY?

Sometimes it takes just a little nudge to start a great discussion, but unless there's a lead in, people may be very hesitatant to start a thread themselves. If a group looks 'too ordered' or 'too inside cultured' it makes it more intimidating for some to join in.

As simple, even, as encouraging in the opening post for the 'what are you reading' thread - asking WHY did you choose this title, or WHAT do you think of it as you are starting - that encourages a deeper comment than just a list of titles getting posted.

Just my 02 cents - as a very longtime member, and avid reader of fantasy.

Tnkw01 wrote: "So, I recently joined some other groups to see what they were doing different. I have discovered that these groups are member driven.."

Virginie wrote: "Fantasy Buddy Reads."

I'm an original Mod at Fantasy Buddy Reads. I was a member here before the genesis of that group. I still check this group from time to time but to be honest I found that when I posted stuff it was only the same few people contributing thus I stopped.

Although FBR now is very much member driven the mods busted our asses to get it to that point. We still have monthly features including the team challenge which drive people to contribute. We're very active in tons of buddy reads. We participate in the general topic threads a lot.

I fee like this forum was very welcoming when I started so I'll offer my suggestions..

1. Get more and the right types of mods: We started out with two. Went to four. One quit. We brought on two more to bring it to five. Everybody owns something that is monthly focused and we all contribute to the team challenged.

2. Some monthly things we do (and you have some of them already): What are you reading this month, monthly book club poll winner, top three Thursday subject, what are you reading next month, book recommendations, author Q&A's...........

3. Challenges that start at different times. Cover challenges, topic challenges, A-Z challenges, series clean up challenges, owned bookshelf cleanup challenges.

4. This is the most important in my mind, nonstop starting buddy reads: We have at least 25 different ones starting every month. Anybody can start one, anybody can join. We tend to do a lot of series from start to finish scheduling a book a month until a series is done. It makes taking on 6-16 book series less daunting.

5. Get a forum that's hidden for just the mods to toss ideas off each other........and vent when needed.

Hope this helps.

Janny, your a genius! I may have to steal your idea about dragons.

Thanks Scott, The Fantasy Buddy Read was one of the groups I looked at. It was a very, very, very busy group. It's a good model. I may even participate in the group read with The Ships of Merior.

Tnkw01 wrote: "Thanks Scott, The Fantasy Buddy Read was one of the groups I looked at. It was a very, very, very busy group. It's a good model. I may even participate in the group read with [book:The Ships of Mer..."

Cool. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to PM me to ping ideas off me. I'm happy with where that groups at and don't feel competitive with other groups whatsoever. There's more than enough room around the GR universe for different groups to thrive. So anything I can do to help.

We have a challenge that is like the blind date idea, it had 2-3 people sign up and fizzled out.

I love buddy reads and am in a buddy group where we chat constantly about everything. This group has always chatted around a book which limits chat if you aren’t reading the book. We also had quite a lot of retreads in the last 18 months.

As for dragons, I love them!

Some good ideas here,

I have always wanted to run like a march madness type thing but based on fantasy and sci-fi books. There are so many things you could do it on like, protagonist, villain, series, author, location, magic systems etc.

Would there be interest in that? I guess I could always just do one and see if its worth it after that.

Also maybe a rearrange of the topic folders could help, Move General Chit-chat and Fantasy Discussion near the top to make it easier to find?

Aaron wrote: "Some good ideas here,

I have always wanted to run like a march madness type thing but based on fantasy and sci-fi books. There are so many things you could do it on like, protagonist, villain, se..."

So, how would this work. Isn't it kind of like the sub-genre challenge. I do like Virginie and I think Bill's idea to change the sub-genre around with different types of genre's.

I agree discussions might ought to be on the top.

Tnkw01 wrote: "Aaron wrote: "Some good ideas here,

I have always wanted to run like a march madness type thing but based on fantasy and sci-fi books. There are so many things you could do it on like, protagonis..."

No not really, it would not involve reading the books in the brackets, more voting on the two options until an outright winner is chosen.

For example "Strongest protagonist" could have Rand Al'thor vs Vin and Arlen Bales vs Kaladin. You would vote and (hopefully) discuss your picks. Once the outcome is known you would move to Winner vs Winner. I would think you could probably do a 16 entry bracket for each topic.

To keep it from just being a fan favourite you could ask people to vote based on parameters. Hence Strongest Protagonist and not favourite. So for that one, lets be honest, Rand wins outright haha.

There would be a bit to work out but I think it could be fun.

I like the idea Aaron. The only problem I see is that it always ends with the same popular series being represented/winning. I would certainly participate if you did a test one.

I’m also a member of Scott’s FBR group and one thing I like about how they handle challenges is that you can start them anytime and they are ongoing. There always seem to be new members starting them up and it keeps interest in them going.

What is lovely is that just with this thread being started, the participation level has increased tremendously. Long may it continue. I try to join in where I can but work pressures make it hard and threads don't always show properly on my phone.
I will definitely try to be a more active member now though.

Oh, yea Aaron, I do like your idea. But having a bracket set up to whittle down 16 books might take some time. What kind of time frame would it be set up in. I, also, would participate in a test run.

Bill wrote: "I’m also a member of Scott’s FBR group and one thing I like about how they handle challenges is that you can start them anytime and they are ongoing. There always seem to be new members starting them up and it keeps interest in them going..."

Our challenges can be started anytime also. Maybe we should simply remove the year off of them to make it appear as something that can be started anytime. Just starting it at the first of the year makes it easier to plan it out but last year I started the A-Z challenge late.

I've moved the chat threads higher, this is much higher and the more fantasy style one is under the group read. What do we think?

Tnkw01 wrote: "Bill wrote: "I’m also a member of Scott’s FBR group and one thing I like about how they handle challenges is that you can start them anytime and they are ongoing. There always seem to be new member..."

Like you said I think it’s a matter of just removing the year. I think when people who don’t read a lot go to join in later on and see the year they are discouraged from starting.

Thank you Janny and Scott for your suggestions.

Bill wrote: "Like you said I think it’s a matter of just removing the year. I think when people who don’t read a lot go to join in later on and see the year they are discouraged from starting"

Yeah, that could be intimidating. I'll take the year of my challenges' topics.

Maybe we should create a sticky thread with general information for the group and links towards threads: how the book of the month is chosen, what challenges we do here, etc.

All the information is already available in different threads on the forum (mostly in the Welcome to X month thread) but I think new members would appreciate such a summary. I remember struggling a bit to understand it all when I joined this group.

My apologies if such a thread already exists, I didn't see one.

Janette wrote: "What is lovely is that just with this thread being started, the participation level has increased tremendously. Long may it continue. I try to join in where I can but work pressures make it hard an..."

It did increase, it's amazing. There was a thread about 'lurkers' at some point, I remember considering myself one back then. The discussion actually helped me overcome a bit of my shyness and be more active in the group.

Helen wrote: "I've moved the chat threads higher, this is much higher and the more fantasy style one is under the group read. What do we think?"

Perfect!!! ; )

I can’t stand the top thread about spamming but every time I moved it someone would come in, spam and insult. Then someone else would move it back.

Virginie wrote: "All the information is already available in different threads on the forum (mostly in the Welcome to X month thread) but I think new members would appreciate such a summary. I remember struggling a bit to understand it all when I joined this group."

I think this a great idea. I know when I first started the group I was intimidated because I didn't know where to go or how things worked, what was allowed and what wasn't and I didn't want to step on anybody's toes. Over time I became more comfortable and I became more involved. I believe we need a area where we basically "hold new comer's hands", for lack of a better term. What does everyone else think?

Tnkw01 wrote: "I think this a great idea. I know when I first started the group I was intimidated because I didn't know where to go or how things worked, what was allowed and what wasn't and I didn't want to step on anybody's toes. Over time I became more comfortable "

If everyone (and more importantly Helen and Lara) agree to the idea, I'm willing to write the "Welcome to the group" thread (I suck at naming things too lol) when I have some time (probably this week-end).

Another idea: a monthly recommendation thread linked to the BOM.

The discussions around Nice Dragons Finish Last spawned a lot of titles and series of "dragon books". I was thinking of making a list of all the references in the recommendation folder (I can edit and add to the list as more recommendations arrive).

What do you think of doing this every month? That'll give members reading ideas to tackle if they liked the current BOM.

I think that would be a great idea. A thread about series or books featuring dragons would be brilliant. I have read loads but there are still recommendations on here that I have never heard of

I love the dragon idea :)

I’ve started drafting a new members bit and will post soon-ish :)

Helen wrote: "I love the dragon idea :)"

I volunteer as tribute!

(Seriously though, I wanted to do it for myself anyway so I'll do it and post it soon-ish :p)

:)

I've done a post for newbies Anything we want adding?

Just looked at it. It's really great!! I'm going to study it a bit and see if I can come up with any suggestions.