Classics for Beginners discussion

If anyone has any suggestions for the group let me and the other mods know here.
It can be anything from a new thread, changing an existing one, or the layout, or something completely new.

Nicolle ... this isn't a suggestion for THIS group, but is there a format for communicating suggestions to those who run GoodReads?

One thing I'd like to see is a way to add additional "date read" to my book record. I DO re-read books (though I'm trying not to). So if I change the date read to today's date, then I lose the date I originally read it. If I leave the original date and just note that I've read it twice (or 3, or 20 times) then it doesn't load on my shelf as a recent read.

I'm also on Shelfari, and their system allows for entering multiple dates.

So .. where / how do I communicate this to the GoodReads gurus?

I'm not sure...I will look into it for you.

Try this http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...

Nicolle wrote: "Try this http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1..."

Thanks, Nicole. I didn't really want to "join" another group, but I did so that I could ask my question.

OK, you can always delete your membership once you have made your suggestion heard. I think it is a really good idea.

Book Concierge wrote: "Nicolle ... this isn't a suggestion for THIS group, but is there a format for communicating suggestions to those who run GoodReads?

One thing I'd like to see is a way to add additional "date read"..."

I hope I'm not wrong, but I think this is something that they're already working on.

Yes, I thought it would be something that has been brought up many times, and I'm sure Goodreads are well aware of it.

Is there a particular edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes that we are to read for our March discussion? Since the original stories were serialized (and had a several year gap when Doyle killed of Holmes but was "forced" by popular demand to then continue the stories) ... I assume there are many versions of this collection.

I never thought of that...I will get back to you.

wikipedia says that originally The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes contains 12 stories. if you can believe wikipedia.. and if you read ebooks then in gutenberg is this 12 stories edition.

There are 56 short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle and four novels about Sherlock Holmes. The short stories have been packaged into different books including one specifically called The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I particularly recommend any penguin versions: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

We will read the standard version of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which includes:
"A Scandal in Bohemia"
"The Adventure of the Red-Headed League"
"A Case of Identity"
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery"
"The Five Orange Pips"
"The Man with the Twisted Lip"
"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle"
"The Adventure of the Speckled Band"
"The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb"
"The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor"
"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet"
"The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"
You can choose to read any amount of these short stories or all of them.

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this suggestion, but here goes...

I have always loved this group, but recently haven't been keen to use it. I have been trying to figure out why and I think it has something to do with the overwhelming group home page. Things just seem a little confusing and hard to find. Is it possible to have a bit of a clean up? I know that some groups have an 'Archives' folder for older threads. Things like the Birthday Competition could go in the Archives folder. There are also some buddy reads that seem to have a new thread for every five chapters - Is this necessary when it isn't a group read? Just a few ideas. Please don't take this as a complaint.
From a slightly muddled group member :)

I set up a Buddy Read separated into sections because several people indicated they wanted to read the book and many indicated they wanted to read at their own pace. I find it frustrating to participate in a group reading when there are spoilers. Separating the readings is helpful and other groups do it.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the ones who were going to do the buddy read actually participated. In that respect, it didn't work out. If the group says it shouldn't be done that way in the future, I won't set it up that way.

The homepage is a little cluttered, but you can collapse the folders (they don't always stick for me though). I like the idea of buddy reads or group discussions themselves split into sections, not only to avoid spoilers but because I just prefer more ordered things.

I understand :)

I will have a spring clean :)

If a topic has been inactive for more than a few months, I will move it to Archive. If it reactivates I will move it back to the relevent folder.

Is that any better?

Been wondering, i've recently watched Emma and Pride and Prejudice mini series, and i found that PBS and BBC have a lot of adaptations of classics from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and The Mill on The Floss to infamous ones such as Sherlock Holmes and Great Expectations, so i don't know if anyone suggested this before but perhaps we can alongside reading classics watch some of these mini series adaptations, i know this group is about books mainly so not a lot of people would want to divert from that but i just wanted to throw it as a suggestion...anyone interested?

That's a good idea, Namida! I'll create a thread to discuss how we want to do that.

Here's a thread to discuss how we want to accomplish the group watching of classic movies:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Nicolle wrote: "If anyone has any suggestions for the group let me and the other mods know here.
It can be anything from a new thread, changing an existing one, or the layout, or something completely new."

Nicolle (and the rest of the mods),
I could not find another place to post suggestions for books I'd like to add to our To-Read list so I hope you don't mind my posting them here. Just a few that I would really like to add to the list: 1) Bleak House by Charles Dickens, 2) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 3) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, and a few others but I will keep it to 3 for now (smile).

Hi sonja. THE topic for suggestions is just below the list topic, though you can post in either :)

I have enjoyed this group and it has encouraged me to pick up certain classics that I wasn't considering in the immediate future. It has also given me a "finish in one month" goal which has helped me to read more.

I have found it difficult to pluck one work out of a series and then move on. For example, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, I had to drop out of the group reads in order to try to finish the collected works on my own. Also, it is a particular challenge to read The Fellowship of the Ring and not continue with the series.

Okay, now for an actual suggestion :-)

I wouldn't mind something like a "First Read This" type of thread where we could post potential "pre-requisite" materials.

I notice as we read all of the references to other works, such as a big mention of Gulliver's Travels in Jane Eyre. If I recall correctly, The Red Badge of Courage and Selected Short Fiction was mentioned in Slaughterhouse-Five. It would be interesting to see what kind of collected resource we could come up with...

Sure that sounds great. If you want to make the topic yourself and run it I am fine with that, or I'll do it if you don't want to. Just ler me know. :)

I'll make it! Sounds like a good idea.

I thought you would be an excellent resource for something like that!

Chris wrote: "I thought you would be an excellent resource for something like that!"

I made it in the classics tab, it's a 'first read this' section.

I admit I love doing research and reading books that are connected to each other in some way. Like for instance by the same author or books referencing each other.

I just came across the Inspiring Quotes section of our discussion pages. I see it has been there for a little while, but I just now noticed it. I really like this section, so I have a suggestion for another similar heading: Witty Quotes, or maybe Funny Quotes. I think it should probably be separated from Inspiring Quotes, because, well, they don't exactly correspond all the time. Any one else interested, I have written down several very funny quotes over the years from a range of classics and other books I have read that I would like to share. I would also like to hear from others. If this sounds like a good idea, do I start the discussion title, or do I need to ask Nicole if she can start it? If you read this Nicole, let me know.

You can start it.

It's fine john if I don't like something you do I'd let you know, but I pretty much give free reign to members and my moderators. :) I mainly intervene if something could be better in another folder or there is already a similar topic which people have missed.

I've been so eagerly looking forward to my first group read here (I joined mid-July) and I'm becoming frustrated because I don't see any discussion threads for the books scheduled and indeed, they aren't even listed on the home page as current reads. Am I looking in the wrong places?

Denise wrote: "I've been so eagerly looking forward to my first group read here (I joined mid-July) and I'm becoming frustrated because I don't see any discussion threads for the books scheduled and indeed, they ..."

Denise, thanks for letting us know. There are several new moderators and we are taking turns in setting up the nominations and threads. I think everything is now set up for the discussion and the home page has been updated.

Hi there, moderators,
not sure whether this is the best place to put this but I cannot find a better one and at least someone should see it here :)
I am currently reading Little Women and it is in the list of previous group reads, so I'd love to browse through the discussion while reading the book, but I can't find the thread. Neither in the group reads, nor the archive nor anywhere else. It might be me just not seeing it but can anyone help me here? That would really be great!! Many thanks!

Hi! I am one of the moderators and I have the same question. I was looking for a discussion from a book read a few years ago. It seems to have disappeared. Nicolle, do you have any idea where the old discussions are located? I don't see any archived threads.

☯Emily wrote: "Hi! I am one of the moderators and I have the same question. I was looking for a discussion from a book read a few years ago. It seems to have disappeared. Nicolle, do you have any idea where th..."

I had a similar problem at my group. Discussions seemed to disappear. A moderator has to go into SETTINGS which will be up in the green menu choices up in the upper right had corner of the screen. On the Settings page, scroll to the bottom and click on ADVANCED OPTIONS. Three display options will appear. See if that fixes the problem. Don't forget to click on SAVE, after you change the display settings. Hope that helps.

I will do it now. Sorry for the late reply.

Could a mod go through and unpin some of the older threads, for nominations and group read discussions in particular? It's getting difficult to find the current nomination and discussion threads. Thanks!

Not sure how to do this, so if you can give us some guidance, that would help. Can someone other than the one who set up the thread, 'unpin?'

I think I was able to handle this months nominations and group read discussions and they should be the first ones listed.

Thank you, Emily! Having the current stuff pinned helps, too. :-)

I know when you edit a topic you can check or uncheck a box marking the thread as "important." I assumed any mod could edit any topic in the group, but I don't have enough experience with (active) co-moderators to know whether that's true.

Any moderator can do it as I just found out.