So...I've been consulting with a few of my great, amazing, sophisticated, intellectual, inspiring friends and a clear need for thoughtful literary discussion became apparent. A longing for challenging analysis of novels and deeper reading is present. Thus, the creation of this magnificent book club, which will be used as a tool to hold each of us accountable to bringing our reading practice to a higher level. This blog will be the platform for bringing intention and intellectual reflection into our everyday literary exploration. After much deliberation the following terms of a brand new book discussion group have been created:
1. Only fiction books (and memoirs) are to be read and discussed in this group. Now...this is a touchy subject and open to more deliberation, but after much debate a consensus was made between three of the "OG" members of this group to only allow fiction and memoirs due to the amount of stupid shit that people read that we all really won't be interested in as a whole. The consensus being that these two genres will almost always appeal to many different types of people and will enable varying interests to be appeased. Thoughts?
2. A person in the group chooses a book of their desire for the entire group to read. Once a person has selected a book for the group to read that person cannot pick another book until everybody else in the group has selected a book as well.
3. A loose timeline will be assigned to reading the suggested book, as determined by the book selector. A sample timeline might be...read to page 150 in "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by September 15, complete the book by September 30, and continue to discuss the novel until October 7. This timeline should be fairly flexible with the understanding that once the "discussion" deadline expires, postings regarding the expired book should no longer be published, with full attention given to the newly selected book.
4. Discussion, analysis, questions, rants, rambles, etc. are allowed at any time, as long as they are pertinent to the current book being read. This is really the key ingredient to the success of this group, seeing as we need discussion in order to deepen our reading.
5. Self-accountability will be used, but feel free to call out a slacker at any time and heckle worthless members at any chance you get.
6. Celebration (moving beyond tolerance, respect, and acceptance) of difference, experience, thought, lifestyles, ambitions, background, etc. is vital to this groups ability to flourish.
Additional thoughts, suggestions, challenges, adendums?
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