March 3rd, 2006
Blogger book posts and an idea…
Great to see that I’m not alone in my bookish obsession. Richard at Sicilian Notes, Colm, Fiona, Simon, Pete at Slugger, Treasa and Auds have all declared their bibliophilia. I love the quote Kevin offers from Gabriel Zaid as justification for book hoarding.
The truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more.
Richard also ponders if books and blogging are ultimately distractions but then he’s reading Banville at the moment - and out of sequence! I’ve never read an author’s work chronologically, even if I’m extremely interested in the development of their style, so read on Richard.
I have a confession though. This afternoon on my walk back from a screening of the pensive but violent The Proposition, I passed Oxfam on George’s Street only to see a ‘All books - half price’ sign. Before I knew it, my legs had propelled me in the door and I was paying for Cider with Rosie and Jennifer Johnston’s How Many Miles To Babylon?.
Tsk tsk.
Anyway, Richard’s post gave me an idea. If so many of us are bibliophiles, with tomes piled by the bed, why don’t we set up a blogger bookgroup? It could be very informal, meeting up in person, say, every couple of months. Anyone who can’t be there could post comments and register feedback. The person nominating the book up for discussion could even write a review.
March 3rd, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Can I teleconference into this book club?
March 3rd, 2006 at 4:45 pm
Absolument! In fact I imagine Damien will stop by and suggest all sorts of geeky ways we can do this. God forbid we’d go the normal route and meet up to discuss books over a pint.
March 3rd, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Book club fantastic idea.
As is How Many Miles to Babylon.
March 3rd, 2006 at 5:20 pm
Oh could video confernece and get loads of monitors. So evereyone would have a monitor for there head. Could even stick a pair of jeans on each mointer to make them seem almost human.
March 3rd, 2006 at 6:33 pm
Sounds like a great idea.
March 3rd, 2006 at 7:14 pm
I like this idea, but am notoriously bad for missing blog meets.
Now if we could only agree to read books that would help justify the piles of books I have lying around, rather than creating new ones.
Hows about a full list of the unread books we all have, there’s got to be some correlation in there…
March 3rd, 2006 at 7:25 pm
I can’t imagine having thousands of unread books. The thousands I have are all well thumbed.
March 3rd, 2006 at 8:14 pm
That’s a good point about not just creating new piles. Hmm.
We could follow the awards or something? I always mean to read the Booker shortlist but usually wind up just reading the winner after it’s announced.
So what’s pride of place in Twenty’s library?
March 3rd, 2006 at 8:18 pm
Have you seen this? http://www.listal.com/
I’ve started listing the Irish section of my bookshelf, partly in an effort to sort them all, partly as an extension of irish writers online. Of course time is the bugbear as usual and I still have a long way to go, but if you’re starting a bookclub it might be a nice extension of it. My personal list (so far) is at
http://felimc.listal.com/view/books
in case anyone is curious as to how it works. I haven’t got them all tagged properly, of course. Time, again. Once you’ve logged in as a member, you can search the various amazons for titles, ISBNs etc and import them into the list.
March 4th, 2006 at 8:24 am
As is How Many Miles to Babylon.
Auds, How Many Miles to Babylon is a quality text, I’ve read it and seen it countless times over the last two years. If anyone wants to know how it compares to Of Mice and Men or Dances with Wolves, you know where to ask.
Good idea Sinéad.
March 4th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
If you’re setting up a blogger bookgroup, might it not be better to set a text and a deadline for posts on each member’s blog, with debate then rolling around the comment boxes, rather than simply doing a meet [piss] up which people might not be able or inclined to attend.
You could take your cue from the quarterly blog carnivals in the US blogosphere. One blogger per text could take responsibility for doing a round up of posts on the various blogs involved and perhaps then set the next text for the group. I’m just thinking, perhaps the debate could take place in the aggregating blog’s comments rather than on the external posts.
Of course, certain people would have to cop themselves on about deleting and barring comments if they were hosting the “carnival”.
(A blog carnival is typically a round up of the best blog writing in a subject area over a set period - law, history etc. They tend to be academic. An example here: http://pilgrimheretic.blogspot.com/2006/02/more-early-modern-than-you-can-shake.html)
March 4th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Call me old-fashioned but I like the idea of good old discussion in person (not necessarily in a pub), which could then be expanded to included posts/comments. Anyone not attending for whatever reason, could then pick up the debate online.
If the posts and comments were rolling around on various blogs, I think the whole thing would get fragmented so I think keeping them in the one place, possibly on the blog of the person who picked the text, would work best. In terms of selecting a book, various people could nominate a book and anyone taking part could vote for their preference. At bibliofemme, we would all take turns to pick a book blind in the hope that no one had read it, but I don’t think that would be feasible here.
I think the blog carnival is an interesting idea, but perhaps too much work for some people?
March 4th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
I take your point. A blog carnival is essentially just a collection of links so the level of work involved would be entirely related to the number of blogs involved.
Perhaps a melding of the two suggestions. You read the book, blog some ideas to get your position straight in your head, read what others have to say and then go to the meet up to fight about it.
You’ll notice that I have quite an antagonistic conception of what a literary discussion involves so I’ll recuse myself.
March 4th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Charity shops are good!! In fact, too good sometimes. Two recent charity shop finds Hanna’s Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson, and Nuala O’Faolain’s Almost There. Must reads.
March 21st, 2006 at 12:03 am
Good site!
March 15th, 2008 at 6:59 pm