Reading the Chunksters discussion

I'm not a Mod, but trying to get a conversation going for this year since there is some interest in the Chat About Whatever discussion board. Does anyone have any ideas on what they'd like to read this year? We can make polls too once we have some ideas!

It seems like this group reads ~3 books a year? With the schedule as:
January-April: Catch-all section, any type of book to read
May-August: Contemporary
September-December: Classic

How does everyone feel about this plan?

Vanity Fair, Forsyth Saga, Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace, or Rebecca work for me. I particularly like the idea of The Forsyte Saga or War and Peace.

i'd love to read vanity fair, war and peace, and rebecca.

I liked the suggestion of ...And Ladies of the Club. I'm just finishing up War and Peace after a year-long read. I read it along with Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia which I found to be an excellent NF companion.

Rebecca is a possibility for a reread for me, since I'm doing a theme of "winter" this year, and there are some "sequels" to Rebecca that I'd like to read. September would be the perfect time for that. I also have plans to read The Odyssey this year. I'd also love to read The Pillars of the Earth

Brothers Karamazov, A Suitable Boy, any Dickens chunkster besides Bleak House (just read recently)

Having read the others, I vote for Vanity Fair, but happy to defer to more compelling reads that others have.

Sorry, I sent a message to the mod to see if she'd help organize this but she hasn't responded yet. Let's do Vanity Fair!

I am very happy to see this group active and as I have not yet read Vanity Fair...I am in.

I'm tempted by Vanity Fair and I already have a copy at home, so I might join in if I can keep up with the reading schedule.

I have Vanity Fair too so I'd be keen to join in!

I think that looks great. About 50 pages per week, it looks like.

The pace is perfect but can we start a week later? I don’t have the book and others may not, either.

If you read e-books, it is available free online, its there on my iPhone or on project gautenberg.

I just found it for $0.99 on amazon for kindle. I’d forgotten about Project Guttenberg. Thanks for the reminder!

I love this idea and I'm so thankful to you Mo for having launched this attempt of making at least a portion of this group survive.
I won't read "Vanity Fair" though, I've promised myself to only read books this year that I've already got.

From the books mentioned above I do have (and still haven't read) "The Forsyte Saga", "War and Peace" and "The Brothers Karamazov". Let me know when it's time to decide the next reading! Love to you all! 💜

Andreas wrote: "How do we create a discussion for Vanity Fair? Is that something we need a mod to do?"

I think maybe anyone can do it.
At the very bottom of the discussions list, there could be a link that says create new discussion, or event.

I created a thread on another group. I'm not sure if that's how I did it.

Andreas wrote: "How do we create a discussion for Vanity Fair? Is that something we need a mod to do?"

It looks like any member can do it, because apparently I created some threads for a group read last spring and I'm not a mod. So I say feel free to create a new folder and threads for Vanity Fair. If you don't know how to do it, I can also help out, just let me know.

I haven't started reading yet since I wasn't sure if everyone was actually on board or not.

Laurel wrote: "I liked the suggestion of ...And Ladies of the Club. I'm just finishing up War and Peace after a year-long read. I read it along with [book:Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russ..."

"And Ladies of the Club" really is good. Laurel, I too took about a year to read "War and Peace." I met a couple while traveling and they said one read the "War" part and the other the "Peace" part cause that's the only way they could get through it. Good joke, really. But it IS a rite of passage for all real readers I think.

I have "Vanity Fair"! It's been sitting on a bookshelf for years...it's staring at me now! But I'm terrible at buddy reads, I say the wrong things and get kicked out. (Even my dentist kicked me out in November of last year!) I might sorta read along and drop in though and say really positive things.

Andreas wrote: "I found how to make a topic, but I don't know if and how I can make a folder to nest it under, which is what previous discussions seem to have done."

OK, yeah. It appears only mods can create new folders. I'm a mod for a different group and I had to compare the two to find out that the option is not available for me here.

How about I contact Lorna, the mod for this group, and ask her to create a new folder. Then from there on we can create the threads. I'm not sure how active she is at the moment, though. Should we wait to start the discussion this coming week, then?

Two weeks per thread sounds fine. I shall get to reading, then! :)

Sounds good to me,. Plus then I have to read beyond the 4th chapter. Not loving it so far but will continue on.

Not going to be reading this, but it's good to see the group active again!

I've started reading and am almost done with chapter 5. I haven't heard from Lorna yet, though, so I don't know what you guys think we should do regarding the discussion threads. I guess we have a few options:

1. Hold off on reading until we hear from the moderator and can get some threads up. We can then revise the schedule.

2. Continue with the proposed schedule and create some discussion threads in one the existing folders, which could be later moved into a dedicated Vanity Fair folder by a moderator.

3. Hold off on this book altogether for the time being. I'm not sure how many people here made a final commitment to actually read along.

Thoughts?

I think we should continue , anyways we always read something so why not this book , it is a milestone in English literature so I want to read it.

OK, well I'm still reading but it's been slow going for me, and I would like to continue as it's also been on my shelf for awhile. But I don't think making threads in a different folder and having to move them later is a good idea as it's just creating more work for the moderator. How about we just continue reading on our own, and if/when Lorna checks in then we can see where we are in the book and possibly make threads at that point. And also see where the group is at with choosing another book.

There are Vanity Fair threads in the 2011 archives if you wanted to use those.

OMG, I didn’t even think to check. Thanks, Amanda!

Yes, I always prefer previous threads , they are helpful in difficult books.

That’s perfect. Thank you so much, Lorna! 🙂

Hello, is there anybody still here?

What happpened with this project of 2021? Are you reading something else after you've finished "Vanity Fair" and where can I find the discussion thread?

Hi! Sorry everyone, I know I started this convo then left, I had to change jobs & move across the country so I didn't have the time. I'd be interested in starting to read Vanity Fair starting 2022!

Well, I already have the book.

My reading of Vanity Fair fizzled out, I had made it to chapter 10. The book is still sitting on my nightstand with the hope I would come back to it, but my print reading time has been lacking. :(

There had been no discussion of further reads after this one.

I too have read till chapter 10. Then I started to give attention to books read by other groups, which have regular discussions and this one was left behind.


But I like the book and will try to finish it this year. Some groups have options of Annual Reads, I will fit it in that category.