Boulder Book Club discussion

Should we reboot the book club? Should we disband completely? Should we linger in book club purgatory for a couple more years? Should we stare existentially at the closest wall?

Please take the following 1 question survey

I would like bookclub to change a rule, allowing book selection by fiat, in a rotating fashion. I think (and the records will affirm my steadfast posture in this area) that instituting democratic oversight of book selection has weakened book club nigh unto expiry, and further, that the parties so vociferously and successfully advocating in favor of said democracy have, after depositing their poison seed, long since moved on, removed their wit and vigour (sadly) and lawylerly effusion of rules and procedures (which effluents themselves sadly remain) from our enterprise, like the midge, which only sucks blood from its host, returning nothing but malaise or in extremum, fatal pestilence.

Mark: If recollection serves me well, the fiat rule didn't go over very well when we tried it before. Didn't the book club die almost immediately after implementation?

I don't know if the rule change was actually the cause of death, but that's how I remember the sequence of events.

I was never a fan of voting, either, but now it seems that we are in the position of needing to vote on whether to vote or not. Maybe we should vote on whether to vote on whether to vote . . .

Gosh, I'm spiraling into an abyss!

I like the simplicity of selection by fiat, but if a book or two happen to lack appeal for most members, I'm guessing we'll see low participation rates and high attrition.

Is there a way to combine fiat selection with a veto mechanism? Maybe we could have a fiat selection mechanism, checked by an opportunity for a yes/no vote. If the book is voted down, then the picker needs to re-pick until there is majority approval.

Would that work, or is it too complicated?

Choice by fiat was never implemented, it was shouted down by the peasantry, and then bookclub died of democracy.
Your abyssmal spiral reillustrates the problem. Like Kirk killing the computer with a math problem, see how I destroy bookclub with nothing more than idea. Mua-hahahaha!

Looks like bookclub is re-dying anyway. Book 2 and I only know of 3 participants. Apparently people like a bookclub in theory but in practice, find it more expedient to ignore. Like so many things.

Maybe we should have chosen to stare existentially at the wall.

Hey, three ain't bad!

I thought we were continuing with the email thread. Plus, until your review popped up, I didn't actually know what book or author was next. I thought you were going to send out another ebook link.