Book club planning thread and suggestions

[Cramulus]

well said

[the last yatto]

break them out of their BIP

[LMNO]

For what it's worth, I can imagine a number of far less pleasant things for the book club to degrade into aside from a method to mutually troll authors. Although authors are not going to be forum members, without some level of understanding about the social atmosphere here, very little communication will likely get through due to cultural communication fail. Ben Mack appeared to use perhaps one of the least optimal styles for communicating to us -- a combination of hippie loveydovey word choice that doesn't go over well in this atmosphere, txtspeak that gets on the nerves of our resident grammargodwins, marketingspeak that puts nearly everyone with a television, radio, or internet connection a little on edge, and the worst of DK-style "I have an education, bow down to me" response style. I should reiterate that this probably works on lots of people -- it does not work for us. It's perfectly reasonable to meet authors half-way, but it seemed to me that most of us were terribly civil to Dr Mack most of the time, and that for the most part we *did* try to meet him half way. We, as the larger group, cannot universally bear the brunt of communication.

Holy shit, Enki just posted something intelligent and insightful.

[Elder Iptuous]

well, it's Enki version 2.0.... now with 30% more comprehensability! 

also, if you squint your eyes, the text forms a sigil....

also, i agree with his sentiments

[Triple Zero]

To me, part of that thread read like the hazing that newbies often get. It was the whole "learn to communicate with us" (not the other way around) vibe, and also the ad hominems.

huh? how did you get that? i didnt get that at all.

i saw mostly everyone trying real hard to have a meaningful discussion with the author, but he refused to discuss anything either for being not written in perfect e-prime (which is pretty hard if that's not your thing and totally condescending to request) or for simply being questioning.

i can't imagine even the nicest person having an actual discussion with that guy's attitude. he didnt want to have a discussion, but more like a magazine interview or a press conference.

i don't think he would have answered any question except "your book is awesome, would you please tell us something more about it?" or "what influenced you to write this book?" and other perfectly neutral questions that would allow him to expose on pretty much whatever he fancies.

but wait, i may have an idea for that!

basically if that's the only way an author wants to "discuss" their work, I'd rather have them blog about it, because it doesn't misleadingly give the impression of two-way communication. so if this happens again, why not ask them to write for Verwirrung? it'll stroke their bloated ego and hopefully distract their attention from our actual discussion.

however, how likely is it to happen again? first the author has to show up, and then he also has to be a condescending hippie master.

we don't need to challenge them, provoke them, break them out of their BIP, thicken their skin, or otherwise irritate them towards us.

unless they deserve it.

or it's funny.

or a million other exceptions.

I'm just apprehensive because I can easily see this developing into a trend where we read books and then piss off the authors. Posting on an internet forum and interacting with a dozen strangers is challenging, but let's reduce HOW challenging when it comes to talking with the people whose ideas we're discussing. Hostility is a self-feeding cycle, especially on forums. It's SO easy to throw a snowball that becomes an avalanche.

yes! this brings me to another bunch of ideas we had:

1) Just to be on the safe side, from now on, we only pick books with authors that are DEAD.

1b) Variation: We get someone to answer our questions with a Ouijja board.

2) We pick open source creative commons books from authors that are active online to draw them to our forum. But we only pick books about why quantum resonance proves the benevolence of the angelic lifeforce in rainforests and how we can use that to save the dolphins to teach us universal love powered faster than light travel in order to reunite with our spiritual sisters in the pleiades. Then we tear them apart for the lulz.

[LMNO]

If I recall, Ben found us because he has some sort of google spider that looks for keywords?

I doubt that will happen twice.

[Cain]

Breaking news: PD.com book club busted by FBI as assassination ring, due to a ban on discussing living authors devolving into a deadly business of killing off writers they wished to discuss.

[Eater of Clowns]

I declare the first book club experience a smashing success.

[LMNO]

Breaking news: PD.com book club busted by FBI as assassination ring, due to a ban on discussing living authors devolving into a deadly business of killing off writers they wished to discuss.

In that case, I nominate The DaVinci Code.

[Eater of Clowns]

Breaking news: PD.com book club busted by FBI as assassination ring, due to a ban on discussing living authors devolving into a deadly business of killing off writers they wished to discuss.

In that case, I nominate The DaVinci Code.

DaVinci's already dead, stupid.

[Cain]

Right, working from the assumption that Angel-Tech was indeed the choice for the next book, I have uploaded it here: http://ifile.it/vjagfkr

Start a discussion on, say, August 17th or so?  Although, I don't mind putting it back another week, if you think we need three.  In fact, it might work out better, since I have some stuff in the next two weeks that is going to limit my online time a little.

[LMNO]

Downloaded.  No promises It'll be read by the 17th, but I'll see what happens.

[LMNO]

Ah.  There are lots of illustrations.  That might make it more difficult for me, as the Kindle doesn't do those terribly well.  But I'll make do.

[Elder Iptuous]

Right, working from the assumption that Angel-Tech was indeed the choice for the next book, I have uploaded it here: http://ifile.it/vjagfkr

Start a discussion on, say, August 17th or so?  Although, I don't mind putting it back another week, if you think we need three.  In fact, it might work out better, since I have some stuff in the next two weeks that is going to limit my online time a little.

Excellent!
thanks for the book, Cain...

[Iason Ouabache]

I'd also like to nominate "The Nothing That Is - A Natural History of Zero" by Robert Kaplan. Or would non-fiction  be too difficult for a book club?