75 Books...More or Less! discussion

Since several group members expressed suggestions and interest in doing a group read Christy and I have decided to do a pilot book or two and see how it goes. Please be patient as we try to work out the details.

This is an optional read and members are NOT required to participate.

I have set up a thread where members can submit suggestions and then we will create a poll from those choices. Members of our group will elect a book based on the highest votes. If we have a tie we will use one book for this month and the other for the next.

For our first read we are going to skip the poll and start with The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I apologize for not having a poll to pick the book but we simply ran out of time. A handful of people were discussing this book and the desire to read it together so that is how it was picked.

Since we don't want to tie up our board with lots of threads we are going to try using a spoiler thread where people Cautiously post ***SPOILER*** and the page number that they are up to then leave a gap so people not up to the point can skip over that post. I'm not sure how this is going to work out due to the display format of the forums. We'll give it a try to tweak from what we feel didn't work. During this time feel free to post comments and suggestions for improvements. As always your input is most welcome and appreciated. We depend on the members of the group to help us improve and grow!

Thank you,

Andrea and Christy :)

Thank you Andrea and Christy...

I haven't read this one before, I know it can be called as a classic by now and shame i haven't read it before... I've got it now, ready to start :) I am actually glad this is a short one I have quite a pile of books to read for january already :)

cheers

Tugce, I am glad that you are planning on joining in! If I recall from the first time I read it a million years ago it goes very fast!

I'm looking forward to this one as well! I read it years ago and really enjoyed it, hopefully it lives up to the memory.

It should be fun! I'm also looking forward to see what people want to read in the coming months!

I am so excited about re-reading this. I loved it when I first read it but it's been a while and I'm looking forward to diving in again!

I will be diving in as soon as I can get it from the Library!

Me too, I'm going to stop on the way home from work Monday!

Same here! I just received the notice that it's waiting on the shelf for me.

I'll be getting this from the library soon. This is one of the (many) books that I "read" in high school and remember nothing of. I don't remember enjoying it, but then again I enjoyed very little of our required reading, so hopefully reading it on my own will allow me to appreciate it more.

I started it last night and I'm reading the forward and enjoying the way Bruccoli is seeting up the period of the novel.

My mom got it from the library yesterday and I got pretty far in. Shopped ALL day today, so no reading done. More tomorrow! :-)

I've never read The Great Gatsby, at least not that I can recall. I've finally been able to secure a copy from the library, which I'm picking up tomorrow! I hope it's good! :)

I don't have it in front of me- I am at work- but maybe next week we can talk about the first few chapters- if anyone has the book- please figure out which ones! LOL

Merri (and group), should we slpit the book up into a couple of sections over the month?

I picked up my copy at the library yesterday and I'm looking forward to getting started.

As for splitting the book into sections, it seems like it would be a good idea in order to allow discussion with out spoilers throughout the book. Another option would be breaking out the book into different discussion or character topics.

Hmmm...I'll work this out tomorrow!

My favorite way I've seen it formatted is with one thread for spoilers and one for no spoilers. For the most part, people use the no spoilers to talk about impressions they had before they read the book or just as they started, and the other thread to discuss later parts.

That's a good idea too Mollie. I'm sure we can come up with something. It's a short book so we can maybe just break it down to 4 sections (threads) where people can post after they have read up to that point.

I notice the poll's down; when do we get to find out what we're reading next month?! :)

well we can already call it this month as here in Istanbul where i live its already 8pm :)

We have 3 winners! Should we do Jan, Feb and Mar?

Sing Them Home 6 votes, 24.0%
Left Neglected 6 votes, 24.0%
Water for Elephants 6 votes, 24.0%

Sounds good to me! Can I vote Water for Elephants first? I've had this one at home forever. :)

I assume you mean Feb-Apr, since January's over.

Other than that, works for me. Unless we want to do 2 in one month, and people can read one or the other or both to discuss. I only mention that since, we had 6 nominations in one month, how many more will we get in three?! I just envision getting to May and having 50 books to choose from.

Whatever people want to do is fine, just thought I'd throw the idea out there.

Charleen this is also a god idea! I would be fine with that or even one book every 2-3 weeks since we all seem to be reading at a good clip.

I think we should start with Water for Elephants then Sing them Home and finish with Left Neglected. We can also do two books this month and then use the 4th winner and another book for next month.

Everyone post your thought and we'll go with the majority.

water for elephants was something i wanted to read for so long and before the movies out so starting with that one would be great. I agree with, we can do 2 of them now and chosing again next month another additional so it will be 2 books again, by that i can see lots of new books which sounds great (actually early in the morning -6am here- dunno why ithink getting a larger tbr every month is good)

I prefer one a month, but if everyone else prefers the idea of two I'm fine with that. We could also post the threads now for all three and people could discuss as they are ready.

Christy, I think one per month is also better. My reasoning for this is that I don't want this to become overwhelming for members or make it too hard for people to participate.

Does anyone have a problem with just posting these three as our books for the next three months? I'm also wondering if anyone wants to lead the discussion for Water because I read it a while ago and I'm not sure if I'll remember enough to do a good job.

I can read the water discussion. I should be starting it next week.

So is it decided that the Water for Elephants book is the book for February? Or just any one of the three?

Gnatalby, I didn't get any feedback from the group. Let's just start with Water for Elephants!

Oh, I thought that was already decided :) I guess it was just because I have wanted this one and voted this one :) So we are starting with Water for Elephants...

I also assumed that had already been decided. Not sure if I will get to it this month though . . . I've been in kind of a reading funk lately. :(

I have started it yesterday and read one third of it, I am enjoying it so far. I liked the way it's told. I liked idea of, Jacob at 90 or 93 and 23 years old.

Are we going to talk about it over here or in a new thread and also what did we decide (or did we decide anything) about discussing it, partially or anyone says whatever he/she thinks?

Anyone reading it?

I LOVED this book!!! My copy is in Toronto and I am unable to get at it at this point, but if I can get it at the library tomorrow, I will pick it up and re-read it! Such a lovely book.

I like Charleen was in a bit of a funk as well but am rallying! I'll start this at the end of the week. Thanks for making the choice Andrea. I've heard nothing but good things about this book.

I have to agree with those who have already it, it was one of the best stories I had read in a while! I will post a thread for book chat. As far as what to post is everyone in agreement that if you are reading the thread you have finished the book and are ready to discuss with spoilers?

Andrea wrote: "I have to agree with those who have already it, it was one of the best stories I had read in a while! I will post a thread for book chat. As far as what to post is everyone in agreement that if you..."

That sounds reasonable to me.

Sounds good to me, thank you Andrea

Sounds good.

So the book for March is Sing Them Home right?

Are we still doing the group read thing?

is our March book.
is going to be our April book! Then in March we will do nominations again and then voting in early April.

Thank you Andrea... And isn't it kinda early there for you to be online??? :)

I jumped on for a few minutes on my way out the door for work. There are so many posts that I find if I don't get one at least 1-2 times a day that I fall behind...lol

yeah I definitely know what you mean as this is on my way to work :)

I just wanted to touch base about the group reads. I've had a hard time keeping up after getting stuck with Sing Them Home, which I'm still plugging through in a very slow manner..hahah Do people want to continue with the group reads? If so, it's about time to set up the nominations for our next couple of reads. We could follow the same format and pick the top 3 and that would take us through July.

I enjoy them, and I think it's okay if everyone doesn't participate every month. It's still fun to compare thoughts with those who do the monthly read. I still haven't read Water for Elephants, but once I do I plan to go back and read the thread for that book.

If people still want to do it, I'll put as a nomination A Discovery of Witches from my TBR.

Charlene, I think you are right! People can always go back and read the posts if they are not ready to read the book when others do. Also there is no obligation to take part in the group selections. It's just a fun way to get a few people together who want to read the same book.

I'm dying to read A Discovery of Witches, my boss said it was great!

I really enjoy the groupreads. I would never have read Water for Elephants or Left Neglected on my own, and I really enjoyed them both. It's nice to hear what other people think.

And if you quit Sing Them Home no one will judge, Andrea!

Hahah too funny :) Trust me I've thought about it since I just hate the wacky all over the place writing so far. However, you may recall it was my pick . I've had it on my shelf for years so I figured I just have to read it...lol I'm going to keep plugging away a few pages at a time.