Those who refuse to participate until after the thread is stickied are guilty of Anti-Soviet Agitation and deserve execution for their actions directed toward the overthrow of the book club of the worker’s and peasants’ soviets!
To prevent this in the future, there should probably be an adjustment to the voting. Instead of using upvotes, use posted votes. Then, all accounts that voted are expected to participate in the weekly discussion - but only if something they voted for won. Any who fail to participate after voting should probably be barred from future book club votes.
I don’t think anything would have prevented this. Of the two people who participated in the thread one admitted to only reading one chapter and skimming the other two.
Not only is Gulag Archipelago long but it’s also dense. It’s not impenetrable in the way I’d guess Nietzsche would be but it’s rich with information to a point it’s hard to know where to start with a post. Starship Troopers was still a fictional story and full of filler that no one would talk about. Reading through this it seems you could have discussion for days on multiple paragraphs if you had enough history and feedback for it.
On top of that the book is depressing and is coming in at a depressing time given everything happening. It wouldn’t surprise me if most people called it quits at chapter 3. Not everyone can have a proper maladjusted sense of humor to draw interest at the suffering of others. Someone remarked before that they stopped reading after chapter 1 or 2 due to the depressing material and after finishing chapter 7 I’m sure things are just going to keep going down hill.
Since this is the second book there are still some kinks to work out in how much should be read in a week so that people can keep up and digest it. Some books may also need to be skipped and read as individual work at least until a core group of readers can be established.
One change that I’d make for future books, if it could be done, would be if the person that recommended the book would take lead on the discussion, have a digital download of the text ready before hand though something like Project Gutenberg or z library, that they had already read the book prior to recommending it, and would be able to write up three or so comments for each week. I don’t know if that would help but it should kick start the discussion at least.
It’ll be a learning experience for the first half-dozen books at my guess.
Well said. This was basically my second line of thought, but I hadn't shaped it into proper words yet. The content of this book seems useful, but perhaps it was simply too dense to use for a book club. I would be reluctant to suggest rules for content of books, or even rules for density.
One change that I’d make for future books, if it could be done, would be if the person that recommended the book would take lead on the discussion,
I support this measure. It could take care of some things. No offense to the OP who started things, but I think a sort of rotating leadership makes more sense for a book club. Assuming any other participant is actually interested in the responsibility.
I think this book club thing is dead...
Those who refuse to participate until after the thread is stickied are guilty of Anti-Soviet Agitation and deserve execution for their actions directed toward the overthrow of the book club of the worker’s and peasants’ soviets!
Someone did predict that this book would be the end of the book club.
Democracy strikes again!
To prevent this in the future, there should probably be an adjustment to the voting. Instead of using upvotes, use posted votes. Then, all accounts that voted are expected to participate in the weekly discussion - but only if something they voted for won. Any who fail to participate after voting should probably be barred from future book club votes.
I don’t think anything would have prevented this. Of the two people who participated in the thread one admitted to only reading one chapter and skimming the other two.
Not only is Gulag Archipelago long but it’s also dense. It’s not impenetrable in the way I’d guess Nietzsche would be but it’s rich with information to a point it’s hard to know where to start with a post. Starship Troopers was still a fictional story and full of filler that no one would talk about. Reading through this it seems you could have discussion for days on multiple paragraphs if you had enough history and feedback for it.
On top of that the book is depressing and is coming in at a depressing time given everything happening. It wouldn’t surprise me if most people called it quits at chapter 3. Not everyone can have a proper maladjusted sense of humor to draw interest at the suffering of others. Someone remarked before that they stopped reading after chapter 1 or 2 due to the depressing material and after finishing chapter 7 I’m sure things are just going to keep going down hill.
Since this is the second book there are still some kinks to work out in how much should be read in a week so that people can keep up and digest it. Some books may also need to be skipped and read as individual work at least until a core group of readers can be established.
One change that I’d make for future books, if it could be done, would be if the person that recommended the book would take lead on the discussion, have a digital download of the text ready before hand though something like Project Gutenberg or z library, that they had already read the book prior to recommending it, and would be able to write up three or so comments for each week. I don’t know if that would help but it should kick start the discussion at least.
It’ll be a learning experience for the first half-dozen books at my guess.
Well said. This was basically my second line of thought, but I hadn't shaped it into proper words yet. The content of this book seems useful, but perhaps it was simply too dense to use for a book club. I would be reluctant to suggest rules for content of books, or even rules for density.
I support this measure. It could take care of some things. No offense to the OP who started things, but I think a sort of rotating leadership makes more sense for a book club. Assuming any other participant is actually interested in the responsibility.