Dear Froggers,
UPDATE! I just realised that polls can’t be updated without going to a whole new diary, so please read this new “poll” and then vote in the comments:
How often shall we convene?
* Once a month to discuss the whole book.
* Every other month
* Read one chapter a week and meet weekly
* Other
Greetings from the midwest, where I feel profoundly grateful this morning that my family and I are dry, sheltered, fed, and safe. I hope you are equally blessed. I wish all of our brothers and sisters in the South could be so fortunate as we. It is, to a great extent, through this blog that we find out the news about them and how we can help them.
The other day, in this diary. . .LINK. . .BooMan leveled with us about the financial challenges of running this beloved blog. If you didn’t read his diary then, I hope you will now.
One idea that came out of it: run Powell’s Bookstore advertising. We’re big readers here, right? So why not direct our book buying dollars to a place that will benefit this blog? All the better that Powell’s is a an independent book store and a unionized, very Blue company.
That led to a second idea: Let’s have a regular BooMan Book Club in conjunction with Powell’s. We’ll pick a book having to do with politics/current events/history. We’ll get our copies from Powell’s, using the links on this site. We’ll all read it at the same time and then have a rollicking good discussion and arm wrestling about it.
I’ll keep this simple, so we can discuss and decide.
I’ll run three polls today:
POLL #1 will run until noon CST: WHICH DAY OF THE WEEK TO HOLD OUR DISCUSSION?
POLL #2 will run from noon to 6 p.m. CST today: FREQUENCY OF BOOK CLUB DISCUSSIONS (every two weeks, every month, every other month, etc.)?
POLL #2 will run all night and it’s the one you really won’t want to miss: WHICH BOOK?
This is a regular cafe day, so we’ll chat as we always do, but if you’re interested in the book club, let us know below what you think about frequency and book choice. I’ll argue for the book I’d most like to read and you guys give it your best for your book choice. I’ll read all your comments and use what you say to guide my next two polls.
Reading, talking to each other, making a little money for BooMan Tribune. . .shouldn’t that be somebody’s idea of heaven? 🙂
I’ll prime the pump for one of the choices in the first poll. As ejmw pointed out in another thread, Saturday is the low traffic day for this site, so maybe that would be a good day to “meet.” (The bookstore will be a its own diary, not a Cafe diary.)
I suggest: You decide.
ONE MORE THING! We need a name. Let’s decide the frequency/day/book today and then I’ll announce them in a diary tomorrow. I’ll run one last poll at that time and we’ll choose a name.
Kudos to JLong who ran a popular book discussion group here at BooMan’s for awhile!
Please recommend today’s cafe and unrecommend (sob) ManEegee’s lovely diary from yesterday.
me a S.O.B.? 😉
If the shoe fits. . .
Lol!
That depends…how’s the DC plan coming?? 🙂
Steadily progressing.
(why do I feel like I’ve been possessed by GWB?)
<bathes in holy water>
P.S. I voted for Saturdays for two reasons. 1)leisure reading is hard to do during the week. 2)anything to generate traffic on our slowest day
Is everything hard work? Are you staying the course? Make the sign of the cross and hang garlic.
I’d like to suggest we read the very book that Powell’s is advertising here: BAYOU FAREWELL by Mike Tidwell. I’d like to read something that connects us with the Gulf and informs us about the history of what we’ve lost and the reasons it was and continues to be so endangered. The more fully informed we are about it, the better we can weigh the politics of it, I think.
So that’s my suggestion.
I like that idea. Can we do it in blocks of chapters each week? I have a hard time squeezing in pleasure reading sometimes.
I like your idea a LOT, CG. That would certainly make the discussions more manageable. And the reading, too, for busy people.
Let’s see how others respond to that.
I’ve been assuming it wouldn’t be a Cafe. Do you agree with that, or. . .what do you think?
I don’t think I care one way or the other about it being a cafe. I think it might be nice to do a weekend thing, for 2 reasons: (1) more relaxed pace (ie, no dinner or school work or work-work); (2) site traffic is generally slower then.
Anyone else have an opinion?
good suggestion
He was on the DR show today which I listened to on my drive back from the office.
Just ordered it – I’m going to read it whether it’s our selection or not. If you click on the link to it at Powell’s from here, there’s a link on the upper left of that page – “Read an excerpt.” Recommended.
Hi everyone, I had the dardnest time getting this screen up to even write this.
I think the Bayou farewell is a good choice for book club.
I need to get my thoughts together to contribute more to the book club idea.
Morning, Diane. I’ll bet your beautiful site is a nice, calming refuge for anxious people. The news is so disturbing today.
Yes it is and there are a lot of ‘love’ diaries on the site that may be helpful .
I also want to urge people everywhere to start their disaster preparations now; my daughter and I are planning our survival packs,(stocking up on basics) because I think you will find a lot of shortages and high prices in the coming months. I have a lot of info on site for disaster/survival preps.
For the book club, what about Boomers Book Club.
boomers the name of the undergarment that cheerleaders wear? Every time I see that word, that’s what I think of and it gives me a chuckle. Either that or I’ve been outed as a perv.
Okay, so far today you’ve been identified as an S.O.B. and a perv. What’s next? A right-winger? Gee, ManEegee, we all thought you were such a nice guy!
they called bloomers?
I’ll ask George at our next wingut meeting, since he was a squad leader and all…
I see you have already been corrected as to the boomer/bloomer, so you must now be aware. I had in mind Boomers as in baby boomers, which a lot of us are, and then it also ties in with the name of the site.
Of course manee you are not a baby boomer, but we can make exceptions as your ‘exceptional wisdom’ for a ‘Youngster’ grants you entree into the club.
Kansas I think you might look to the Oprah book club as the model for this. Everyone gets the book, reads it and then a date is set for the review and discussion. One month might be a good target date, but it actually may require a longer period for many to acquire and read.
I am having a hard time getting my words/thoughts/spelling together today, so I hope everything has made sense.
Bayou Farwell…seems like it must be the chosen book. The Bayou is definately gone now.
Oh, Tracy, just seeing your words. . .”the bayou is definitely gone now,” makes my eyes fill with tears. And Haley Barbour has the nerve to blame god instead of politicians like himself.
BookMan (oops, genderised)
PondLife
Between The Covers
Read This!
LibRary
oo, those are fun. I love Between the Covers and LibRary. Clever lad, can you think of something that hints of Powell’s, too?
Pow-Wow – talk about books, powered by Powell’s
everything else comes up towels or bowels
How about Undercover-something?
Undercover PowWow. Hmmm. Could be politically incorrect.
Undercover Power. ???
Mornin’ and g’day all,
I don’t do a lot of book reading these days so I’ll leave that discussion to the rest of you.
With so much of the south desperate to climb out of its misery and neglect, here’s a mountain view of a place we all might want to escape into.
The Olympic Mountains on an early autumn morning, shot by holding the camera up to the eyepiece of our sight-seeing telescope.
Ahhh. Isn’t it surreal to be living normal lives while all of that is going on? Of course, I’m not sure how “normal” things are going to stay.
I’ve just learned that my eventual small state gov retirement pension will cut my health care support in half. It’s odd; I paid in twice to this system, once for being the spouse of a covered worker under worker-and-spouse rules, and also for myself. So while we’ve qualified for 4 individuals, we’ll recieve only 1 1/2’s worth of coverage–but that optimistic hope is what remains after the first-ever cutback the state has announced.
Like most Americans, we need gasoline for errands and work, and like many Americans on the declining end of the economy, we’ve already cut out frivolous travel and vacationing. We got lucky on yesterday’s fillup; we’re remote enough that they hadn’t had a chance to boost the prices.
Unlike most Americans, I make things for a living, so I depend on petroleum products for shipping, energy, and for raw materials, adhesives and coatings. The alternative for me is a variety of endangered species of exotic natural materials that are disappearing from the market. And of course like so many the few other Americans who do still make things, I depend heavily on the Communist Chinese for most of my machines, tools and fasteners. I think I could serve half a national economy making anything from boats to musical instruments and toys without using one supplier outside China. It’s an interesting notion for someone who grew up in the eastern Great Lakes when the region was the factory for the whole world.
I’m also unlike most Americans of my income range in having the odd luck of renting in a country-club development, where we earn less than some of the tradesmen who make up most of the daily traffic around the neighborhood of part-time vacation homes. Since we can’t stay much longer, we’re shopping for rentals in our own class, and the contrasts are striking.
The biggest difference other than raw wealth is the calm and security of these estates. House pets and tiny children often stroll the sidewalks unattended. Families will sit out at the community park gazing at the mountain views. At a picnic last summer one father remarked that it can hardly get any better than this, and asked “I wonder what the poor folks are doing this afternoon?” I almost answered him “sitting beside you and thinking real hard.” In the neighborhoods where we’re headed, there are chain link fences for outdoor watchdogs, locks on everything, and people don’t walk unaccompanied at night.
The collapse in New Orleans underscores the incentives we feel to find some way to remain in this area even though we’ll have to leave the development proper. When the going gets tough, smart peasants will sacrifice much to secure a place inside the moat with the lords.
There’s a definite chance that Americans will find that image coming to mind more often as time passes.
You know, Gooserock, this journey of yours would make an interesting diary or series of diaries. Right now, you’re like a Spy in the House O’Wealth.
Self: continue using Newsweek articles for diaries, you will get a load of traffic on your site due to their website feature, “Blog Report”. I’ve had 77 visits today, and was averaging six prior…hopefully some of the readers make their way here.
Whoa, is that ever interesting. Hey, Susan, quote Newsweek!
I have to leave for a while, so y’all carry on.
Hey y’all mighty slow readers!
I’d say once a fortnight. Those that haven’t read the book may be inspired by debate to do so.
but of course we have to take in to account delivery time of books
I’d vote for once a month to discuss the whole book.
I don’t like the idea of reading a chapter a week for several reasons:
. stretches the discussion out over so many weeks that it would be pretty easy to forget what was discussed a couple months earlier.
. means that you don’t know how certain point in one chapter might be further discussed in a later chapter.
. too disjointed and too limited
Hi andi,
My idea was for clusters of chapters weekly, but not the whole book. I think a single chapter at a time would drag too long…
Okay, I didn’t understand that. Makes sense.
AndiF, what do you think now?
Maybe we could start in a convention way with a set date in a month. See how that goes. Then maybe experiment with doing bunches of chapters.
Another interesting book, from the Powells ad: Losing Moses on the Freeway: The Ten Commandments in America, by Chris Hedges. He’s cleverly described as a former NYTimes correspondent and theologian. If it’s as good as his last book, should be a good read.