The rules

Jen, Jen, Jen. If the "What are we doing for New Year's Eve?" debacle has taught us anything, it is that the way to achieve consensus is through a bald dictatorial assertion of power, not a coy series of honest questions. In this vein, I declare: January is the month of The Prophet. Buy a copy, read it, blog about it. Moreover:

READING/DISCUSSION: As a general rule, you should try and be finished with the book around the early 20s of the month, and blogscussion will begin around this time. Since The Prophet is short, I don't think our late start this month should be too much of a problem.

CHOOSING NEW BOOKS: Each poster will submit ONE suggestion for the next month's book (or none, if they so desire). The last day for suggesting a book is the 20th of the preceding month (which is around the time people should start finishing the current month's book). Starting the 21st, people will vote in the following way: Vote for as many books as you'd like on an approval basis, i.e., if you list a book, you're giving it a thumbs-up. The book with the most approval votes wins. In case of a tie, winner is the first book formally suggested. Last day to submit your vote(s): the 27th, one week after the last day to make suggestions. Along with being sort of easy to remember, this gives people a few days to go out and buy the book, or order it online, or whatever.

LETTING NEW PEOPLE IN: Seriously, is our book club that awesome that this is going to be a problem?

I forgot if there were any other issues. Complaints about this method can be posted and, if they reach critical mass, we can tweak. But I think my system's pretty good, don't you?