BOOK CLUB: Administrivia / Chatter.

[crispini]

Anyone got any ideas about how to encourage people to participate in the Book Club? The "Kansas" thread has kind of petered out.... maybe it's just 'cause we're coming up on the holidays?

Thoughts? Suggestions?

(I'm REALLY looking forward to Lakoff, btw. JUST the antidote to the negativity in "Kansas").

[DebJ]

1. Hi crispini. I think the holidays are definitely part of it...for example

we couldn't reach any of our friends today because they were shopping from 10am to 5, took quick showers, and then left for a party (that we were too old to go to after shopping ourselves, ha!)

As for the Kansas, I don't really have any suggestions.
But when Lakoff gets rolling, I will do postings on the GD board re Lakoff and reference the book group discussion...because everyone really, really needs to read this book!

I just started a political group (York County Committee of Correspondence) in York Pa. At our first meeting last week, Lakoff took up a chunk of the discussion. Everyone who has read it is ready to go with reframing debates. So I'm pushing the rest of the group to read it too, buying two more copies to loan out in the group, one person has DVD access, and seeing how many copies our library has, giving out the phone number to Borders and telling people to call and order a copy...they don't even have to stop in to Borders, just call in an order and they'll tell you when to get it,in about a week.

But sorry, I don't have enough enthusiasm for Kansas.

[crispini]

2. Yah, I think Kansas is kind of a downer.

and we got quite a few participants it being the first month and all. So far so good, really, and hopefully future participation will be more lively!

[Francesca]

3. I have not really participated but read

kansas and already read the Lakoff book and enjoyed some of the responses on the board. I think you will have a huge response to Lakoff and love the idea of the book forum and having a monthly title to discuss.. Since you started relatively recently and with a book that offers no real solution/closure I would say if anything it seems to be doing rather well. I personally found Kansas hard to put down but was certainly frustrated as well. I think your doing a great job!!

[CitySky]

4. Jan. should work better.

I for one hope to participate in January. Just couldn't read "Kansas" this month; am a bit stressed with working too much to have even a semi-normal Christmas, which is giving me some holiday anxiety. Also, am reading fiction right now...

It seems "Elephant" will be a quicker read, & we could also cross-post a reminder to the Frame the Debate group that there's a discussion here to join when it gets rolling.

Then again, with a certain key colleague quitting at the end of the year, I may be "working too much" even more in Jan & Feb. So we'll see...

[nickshepDEM]

5. Im gonna join. I need some motivation to keep reading.

Im not sure if my library has "Dont think of an Elephant."

I havent read Kansas yet. Do you think it would be better for me to read Kansas first before reading the book by Lakoff?

[crispini]

6. Well, Kansas is depressing as hell, but I think it provides

some useful insights into WHY the RW think the way they do and how we got here.

Drop by your local bookstore, leaf through it, see what you think, or if you can get it thru the library, all the better. It's also only available in hardcover right now so that might be a factor for you. I'm glad I read it but it also made me wanna throw it across the room from time to time.

You'll probably have to order Elephant online but it's not that spendy. $10 at Chelsea Green website I think.. someone I know also found it at overstock.com if you can stand to buy from them, they're RWers IIRC... :)

[DebJ]

7. also Border Books will order one for you if they don't have it in

stock. You don't even have to go into the store to order...just call. If they have a copy, they will reserve it for you, at least for several days or a week or so. If you special order, I think they will hold it like 24 days or a month or so

[crispini]

8. Since this is the 'chatter' thread I'll add it here:

I got, like, half the proposed books on our possible reading list for Christmas! Woohoo! AND -- get this -- a gift card to Container Store to buy more Skandia bookshelves. My family knows me very, very well. :D

Anyone else get any good books for Christmas?

[DebJ]

9. Wow! not one political book. Think I overwhelmed them last yr?

Actually, both my hubby's family and mine cut way back on Christmas this year. Everyone is broke!
Did get a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. And four US History related books.

[crispini]

10. QUESTION: Should we clear out the Nominations Queue

and start fresh for March? We've had votes selecting from this list in much the same form for three months now -- Dec, Jan, and Feb.

The queue is here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=209x309

If you scroll down to post #21 you'll see the most recent version I've done of the list. If you look over the list you'll see that many of the people who did much of the original nominations haven't been around a lot. Whaddya think, should we start a fresh nomination list which might possibly get us some more interest? Or is what we have pretty solid?

Also the big list is getting kind of full and for practical purposes I only can put 10 on the poll so if we emptied the queue and started over again that would solve this problem. People could always re-nominiate stuff, after all... Thoughts?

[crispini]

11. Well, I need to get the nominations for March rolling soon.

Anyone got any thoughts on cleaning out the list and starting afresh? I guess if I don't hear from anyone one way or another I'll just keep the old list. :shrug:

[Tangledog]

12. I'd just as soon keep the old list

I thought there was enough interest in some of the "also-ran" titles to justify keeping them around. New titles can always be added?

[OrwellwasRight]

14. When would you like new or reiterated nominations for March and

beyond? And is there a way to "notify" book club members that nominations and votes (etc) are closing in case they are away on vacation or just vacationing from DU a bit and need a little e-mail reminder to log in?

Also, just for future reference, is the book of the month limited to political non-fiction, or could someone nominate a biography, history, economic, sociological, other book? And if they did, would anyone vote for it?

Thanks. :-)

[Fleurs du Mal]

13. At least trim it

Looking at it last month it did seem rather unwieldy. I think re-nominating a book is the way to go.

Maybe limit the list to one per person. There really isn't a need for people to have multiple books on the list. We only vote for one at a time. Pick the one you most want to read and nominate it. This will automatically take care of multiple nominations from a single person being in the poll. There seems to be enough activity that it should be nominations from 10 different people, unless there just isn't enough.

[Fleurs du Mal]

15. March nominations/vote?

Has the book for March been decided yet? I thought we were to vote this week.

[OrwellwasRight]

16. Are nominations even closed? Where are we collecting them?

Should we just start a March nominations thread? Looks like Crispini has not posted to this forum for a couple of days, so maybe we could help out by starting a list???? :shrug:

Edited for clarity. Added smiley.

[crispini]

17. Oh, crap, I got all torqued up with the electoral college vote

and completely forgot about this forum for a while.

For future reference, if I go off to lalaland for a while, anyone, feel free to run the place -- everything that I do is in the Administrative Guidelines..... :D

I'll kick the nom thread and post a reminder.... SORRY! Bad, bad Crispini! :P

[crispini]

18. Ok, I'm an airhead.

I haven't been around for a while. I went ahead and kicked up the old nominatations thread and called for noms and seconds to close next Wednesday. Then we could vote the last week of the month, sort of.

Is that OK with everyone?

There didn't seem to be a real clear consensus on cleaning out the thread or not so I just kept the old one. We can fire up a new one next time, eh? That'll make four books from the old list -- at that point it probably really will be time to clear it out and start afresh.

I'll try to be better in the future. :( I got distracted and didn't come by for a while. I'll make sure to write it up better in the Admin thread so that people can take over if I get hit by a bus or somethin' .... I have no problems with people other than myself doing administrative stuff for the book club, BTW.... :)