Book Club?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Okay!

So I read a ton, and when I posted my Cornel West Democracy Matters post earlier this week, it generated some different discussion and some interesting thoughts for a book few had read. Is there interest in doing this semi-regularly, where those of us who are interested pick a book about history or politics and have an open discussion about it?

[Poll #1794124]

For the record, we probably wouldn't bother with this until after the major holidays are finished, but I'd like to see if any interest exists at all. At most, we'd be talking a book a month, or even every other month, or whatever people are interested in.

Comments

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Icelanders are manaical about books. And I'm no exception.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Bleh, typos.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

^ Ditto

[onefatmusicnerd.livejournal.com]

Can we make sure it has a Kindle edition (or even a Kindle Library edition).

I work on the road fifty weeks a year, so paper books tend to be a pain in the ass.

But yes.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I think that's possible.

(I love my Kindle)

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

My Nook is better. ;)

[onefatmusicnerd.livejournal.com]

My kindle can stream porn.

[ghoststrider.livejournal.com]

Bah. Sony eReader for the win.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I may not have time to read the book. This is because I now have to work to pay for the offspring's nanny. And, of course, the demands of the offspring and SWMBO.

My reading list has been growing and growing and I worked out recently that I'm now about two years behind. :(

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I started using Goodreads about a year and a half ago and my to-read list is insurmountable at this point. Even at the pace I read, I would a) have to read nothing but what's on my to-read list and b) never add another new book and I might get through it in 8 years.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

I solved the problem by never putting a non-fiction on my reading list :D
(I tend to read most fiction in a day..which sometimes means very late nights)

Oh and I put other, because while I usually read every book when in a book club, if it's in the library, or I find it in a used book store.

By the way, it's better to have a personal library with lots of books you haven't read than one that only has books you have :D

[404.livejournal.com]

I'd like to but with grad school and job hunting I probably will not have time to read a book with the prerequisite amount of notes and what not to be any good in some sort of book discussion.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

I have vast amounts of spare time off-tourism-season (which is virtually for half of the year), so I'm in!

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Only if we start with The Prince and go from there.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

That might be a good starting point, actually.

[onefatmusicnerd.livejournal.com]

I say Discourses on Livy. I have read Il Princeps ad nauseum.

Ooo, ooo, or we can read The Prince and Leo Strauss's work on Machivelli.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I have a copy (that I even started) so it would work for me...also "The Art of War" might be a good one (another book i have a vague idea where it is)

[terminator44.livejournal.com]

I don't need anybody to tell me what to read. I can decide on my own.

I don't think he's suggesting a recommended reading list

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

It's a discussion of certain books. If you want to participate then you'd participate, if you don't want then you wouldn't. I would say my own participation would depend quite a bit upon which books were chosen for discussion. Too many of the kind which I thought had no merit at all would tend to militate against me participating. If the books that ended up being chosen sound like they had some intellectual merit, and the topic interested me, whether I agreed with the book or not, I'd probably read it. I wouldn't dismiss the idea as someone attempting to "tell me what to read" without seeing whether or not the book selection process amounted to that first. Those details haven't been put forward yet.

[raichu100.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in doing this, but not quite as frequently. I don't think I'd have time to read a book a month, or even necessarily two.

It depends upon the book and the constraints on my time

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting idea. It's probably worth investigating. There are questions though: How will it be decided which books are worthy of investigation though? Who chooses? How are the choices to be made?

Re: It depends upon the book and the constraints on my time

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I figure we'll take a few suggestions, run a poll, and go with it. We'll have to figure out if a book is widely enough available, too.

Re: It depends upon the book and the constraints on my time

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Someone mentioned The Prince above, some older classics like that might be good because they're available for free online.

Re: It depends upon the book and the constraints on my time

[ghoststrider.livejournal.com]

I would totally read The Prince, Plato's Republic, and all that good stuff. I think that would be an excellent place to start.

Re: It depends upon the book and the constraints on my time

[ghoststrider.livejournal.com]

Well, first, we'd begin with the Online Library of Liberty, read everything there, move on to all the free books at the Mises Institute, then we'd start on some of Cato's books...

Re: It depends upon the book and the constraints on my time

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

Or One of Michael Moore's books, or Al Franken, oh wait, we really do want people to participate...

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

Good idear. I would suggest a day of the week be chosen for the book vote, kinda like the whole lulz Friday.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

Depends on the book, but yeah, I'd be interested. Right now I'm reading Muzzled: The Assault On Honest Debate by Juan Williams.