It's alive!

So some people think we should use the blog again, and this time for more than just book clubbing. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

F=MA

So, Special Topics in Calamity Physics is over 500 pages long. And, judging by the enthusiastic response all 85 pages of The Prophet received, Clint and I have determined that it might be best if we both extend and segment the reading of this tome. I think tome is the correct word for so...weighty a text, yes?

Thus: We will all attempt to have around a hundred pages read every week. This should take just over a month (Clint may need to check my numbers. We're not all math majors, you know). All participants are encouraged to both develop and answer discussion questions for/by their fellow readers, to foster even more of that stimulating debate this humble blog has played host to in its illustrous one month history. Of course reading ahead will be permitted, and falling behind, though mocked, will be tolerated. Barely.

The first hundred pages should be finished by, let's say, next Saturday (the 24th). We should finish the book by or before the 23rd of March, but discussions are encouraged throughout this process. We will recommence suggestions and voting for April's book when Special Topics is done. It'll be like an extra-special birthday surprise for me. And Shane, I guess. As if he even counts.

p.s. you'll thank me later

jeniscrazy...crazy about tagging!

Oh, um, by the way. I am a new-wave digital librarian. I like tagging and so on. So when you write new posts, try to fill in the the "labels for this post" with tags/labels/metadata, whatever you want to call them. You can make up new ones or whatever, but try not to duplicate-with-slight-variation or anything. For instance, I've been using rules, suggestions, voting, and now theprophet. So you could add one like jeniscrazy or pomo or intertextuality or homoeroticism or something, but (for example) don't add election or prophet (unless this last one is about the character of the prophet or something). Super fun, right? All the labels can be seen if you click the "show all" link next to the label box, or if you click "edit posts" under the "posts"/"posting" tab on the dashboard. If you click on a label, it will show you all the posts with that label. And so, in a few months, we can check back to see how much we talked about homoeroticism or how jeniscrazy, or (more usefully), see all the posts containing book suggestions. Mmm, classification goodness!

I've sort of...um, been editing other people's posts to add labels. I feel sorta bad about that. I can't help myself! The post looks so lonely when it's not labeled correctly! I may continue this trend, and maybe we should just say that anyone can label anyone else's post with a topic, if they feel as though the original poster forgot something, or if a new topic comes up in comments or something. Or, we can declare even this minor sort of post-tampering verboten, and I'll try my hardest to resist the siren's song of folksonomy...

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?

First Things...

It's all well and good to pick a book to read, but how are we going to run this show?

Are we going to get more people involved? Michael, Robyn, Steve, and Megan never replied to the blogger invitations, and I wasn't sure if anyone else was going to be interested. Oh, and I propose a group vote for any new members, so we can be exclusive and catty.

Are we all going to read the book-of-the-undetermined-amount-of-time and then post responses? Or are we going to discuss as we go? How soon can people get The Prophet read, if that's the book we're going for at the moment? Or, will this be a more informal "read what you want, when you want, and post about whatever you happen to be reading" sort of thing? That could work too, though conversation may be somewhat hampered. And then it's not so much a "book club blog" as...a blog about books. Without the club!

Also: seriously. Suggest some more books for later. I need time to find them at Half Price, because I am putting myself on a strict book budget after the $100+ book buying extravaganza that was Christmas Break.

Yes, this is Jen being a rule-focused downer. I'm sorry. I require structure. Surely you've noticed by now.