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Yeah, that probably wasn't a good recommendation now that I think about it. Other alternate history stories to avoid: Stars and Stripes Forever by Harry Harrison; Domination by S.M. Stirling; any Robert Conroy novels.
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Jun 3, 2017 22:11
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I haven't read it yet but I've heard good stuff about The Years of Salt and Rice by Kim Stanley Robinson.
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Jun 3, 2017 22:19
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i was not seriously suggesting he read the book about time-traveling afrikaners, to be clear
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Jun 4, 2017 01:00
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Do not read S M Stirling anything ever ever ever.
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Jun 4, 2017 16:23
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Wheat Loaf posted:Yeah, that probably wasn't a good recommendation now that I think about it. Do you know of any books that are historians writing "what ifs" about various events?
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Jun 5, 2017 02:28
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Your Taint posted:Do you know of any books that are historians writing "what ifs" about various events? I feel like writing what ifs are explicitly contrarian to the purpose of a historian
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Jun 5, 2017 02:38
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Your Taint posted:Do you know of any books that are historians writing "what ifs" about various events? Harry Turtledove 
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Jun 5, 2017 02:41
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Your Taint posted:Do you know of any books that are historians writing "what ifs" about various events? /r/historicalwhatif , sort by best. You have to be a flair'd / verified historian to answer iirc. Some interesting threads.
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Jun 5, 2017 03:23
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I feel like writing what ifs are explicitly contrarian to the purpose of a historian Most histories are what ifs because it's actually kind of hard to pinpoint exactly what happened in the past and you have to make educated guesses most of the time.
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Jun 5, 2017 05:23
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Your Taint posted:Do you know of any books that are historians writing "what ifs" about various events? I believe Winston Churchill wrote a couple.
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Jun 5, 2017 09:14
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Your Taint posted:Do you know of any books that are historians writing "what ifs" about various events? Mentioned this on previous page but here it is again: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Virtual-History-Counterfactuals-Niall-Ferguson/dp/0241952255
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Jun 5, 2017 19:08
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Wheat Loaf posted:I believe Winston Churchill wrote a couple. He wrote only one, to my knowledge, imagining how history would have turned out if the South had won the American Civil War: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_It_Had_Happened_Otherwise
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Jun 5, 2017 19:10
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Have any of you ever started a book club? I've had some interest at work and have been thinking of starting one, but I have some questions: 1. Is a lunch break of one hour enough time to hold a meeting? 2. How many people is enough or too many? I was hoping to have fewer people to get more time for each person, so maybe 4-6? 3. How do you pick books? Do you automatically toss/prefer certain genres? How do you reconcile different tastes between members? 4. Monthly meetings? How much of the book should be read in the month? Some? All? Thanks for the input!
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Jun 12, 2017 19:40
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areyoucontagious posted:Have any of you ever started a book club? I've had some interest at work and have been thinking of starting one, but I have some questions: 1. It can be. Our meetings usually last for 1.5 - 2 hours average, but have gone on longer. 2. I'd say at least 4 members. Our group started with 9, but now the average is about 5-6 a meeting, but we've had as few as 3 and it was fine (we've had meetings with 11 people and it was fine). We don't do a round-robin type thing, whoever suggested the book kinda takes the reigns to get people to talk, and everyone just kind of respectfully discusses it as it goes on. Anyone is free to throw out a thought, or an idea, or argue a point. We've gotten some really good discussion just from a bad book no one enjoyed. 3. It has to be a book that we feel has enough merit to actually discuss. We tend to lean towards more literary fiction, but genre's aren't off-limits. Whatever the book "is", we don't repeat. If we read a collection of poetry, next month can not be a collection of poetry, unless it's a completely different type of poetry. Everyone who finishes the book is allowed to bring in one suggestion for what the next book is, and if we can't decide through discussion, we draw it from a hat. (For example, this month we're reading a Raymond Carver short story collection, last month we did the graphic novel memoir(s) Fun Home (Bechdel) and My Friend Dahmer, before that we did The Dinner, but we've also done horror, non-fiction, etc.) Sometimes people have a few ideas ready just in case multiple people say "I'm in the mood to read ____ instead of ____". We typically save horror-related stuff for October, though. We also try to keep an emphasis on authors. If we've read too many American straight white guys in a row, we'll switch it up to a female author of color, or a LGBQT author, etc. It doesn't come up often since we're a pretty diverse group. 4. Once a month is about as good as it gets. Read the whole book before the meeting. If it's especially long, split it into two meetings with an agreed-upon stopping point. We read A Prayer For Owen Meany, which took two meetings (close to 800 pages). We did Parts 1-6 for one meeting and then Parts 7-9, because it was evenly divided. Nothing wrong with starting off with shorter books to ensure people read it and have enough time to come up with thoughts, notes, ideas, criticisms. We usually agree to meet the last Thursday of the month, as long as it works for everyone.
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Jun 12, 2017 20:11
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Book clubs where everyone has to read the same book like its a homework assignment are really stupid and annoying.
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Jun 13, 2017 01:02
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A human heart posted:Book clubs where everyone has to read the same book like its a homework assignment are really stupid and annoying. What're the alternatives?
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Jun 13, 2017 01:16
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You just talk about the books you've read recently maybe with adherence to a loose theme.
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Jun 13, 2017 02:37
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have everyone in the circle list what books theyve read recently and then mock them to their faces for their bad taste
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Jun 13, 2017 03:48
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chernobyl kinsman posted:have everyone in the circle list what books theyve read recently and then mock them to their faces for their bad taste This is what I do and I'm the most popular member of my book club.
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Jun 13, 2017 12:20
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areyoucontagious posted:
Judge by your audience and participants is probably the important thing. For the BotM here, I try to pick things that will push people's envelopes a bit but also be reasonably accessible. Also, ask your participants what they want to read. The main reason I do the poll is because I find it increases participation dramatically, sometimes because I had no idea everyone wanted to read a given book, sometimes because the act of voting encourages people to commit to actually reading, sometimes just the added visibility of the competitive poll gets more eyeballs. The reason we pick one book every month is because sometimes it's nice to talk about a book together and there are only really two ways to do that: 1) find an ongoing discussion of that book and jump in (works best with genre fiction; this is why we have the big rear end threads), or 2) everybody decides together to read the same book and then talk about it (this is why we do the BotM.
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Jun 14, 2017 03:28
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What's the opinion here of Mo Hayder? She wrote The Treatment which I just watched the Belgian film of the same name of. She also wrote Birdman.
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Jun 14, 2017 06:58
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Jun 22, 2017 18:22
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"Hermione and her two useless friends" pretty much sums up the series.
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Jun 23, 2017 12:13
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Judge by your audience and participants is probably the important thing. speaking of, any suggestions for next month?
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Jun 27, 2017 03:28
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paradise lost because it sounds like a rad classic that I haven't read yet and is easy to get a copy of.
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Jun 27, 2017 08:50
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the nibelungenlied
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Jun 27, 2017 23:52
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A play
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Jun 28, 2017 08:24
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When the main character of a book is an author, and they're writing a book, and there are big excerpts from the fake book, make one of those the book of the month.
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Jun 28, 2017 15:54
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:When the main character of a book is an author, and they're writing a book, and there are big excerpts from the fake book, make one of those the book of the month. They've already done Master & Margarita at least
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Jun 29, 2017 08:09
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Never any end to Paris is just like that and good and should be a botm
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Jun 29, 2017 17:32
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La familia de pascual duarte
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Jun 30, 2017 00:14
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I meant only the fake book itself: i.e read only the excerpts from the fake book and not the novel around it. And review and discuss it like it's real.
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Jul 3, 2017 06:51
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can't wait to do a botm on the navidson record
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Jul 3, 2017 06:54
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Edit - Wrong thread.
Lord Krangdar fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Jul 3, 2017 |
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Jul 3, 2017 07:01
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Don Quixote by Pierre Menard for BOTM
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Jul 3, 2017 11:39
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CestMoi posted:Don Quixote by Pierre Menard for BOTM Done. I actually thought I'd done this one already but looks like I hadn't. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Jul 3, 2017 16:15
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corn in the bible posted:can't wait to do a botm on the navidson record This guy gets it.
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Jul 3, 2017 16:42
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:I meant only the fake book itself: i.e read only the excerpts from the fake book and not the novel around it. And review and discuss it like it's real. i like this idea
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Jul 3, 2017 19:25
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Pale Fire, by Johnathan Shade
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Jul 5, 2017 00:29
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quote:I seldom abandon books after reading just a couple of pages, but in this case I had no choice. Two pages into the book I was so annoyed by McCarthy's random use of apostrophes and near-total lack of commas that I felt I had better stop reading to prevent an aneurysm. I'm sure McCarthy is a great storyteller, but unless someone convinces me he has found a competent proof-reader who is not afraid to add some four thousand commas to each of his books, I'll never read another line he's written. I can only tolerate so many crimes against grammar and punctuation. Never change, Goodreads.
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Jul 5, 2017 19:50
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