Revolutionizing BOOK CLUB!!!

I think I like the idea of playing better than organizing when it all comes down to it. I mean sure I wouldn't mind spending time on front page ever so often and even looking through a pile of useless books to find the gem...

I would have kicked myself in the ass if I didn't at least speak up and express my interest. I happen to believe in old sayings. Don't bite off more than you can chew...and the ever forgotten Shoemaker stick to thy last(alluding to the time when cobblers were also dentists and the LAST was a tool in making and repairing shoes)
That being said i do appreciate nominations and would welcome the job but...other fish to fry...and I look at this as yet another unnecessary distraction to these too important pages...I dont have the time to look to the future I'm spending all mine looking backwards at these moments that are slipping away no matter how fast I type them...so as this new pearl jam plays and i feel the tone coming on...if you ever get the opportunity to interview DeLillo I'll be here...waiting.

[img]http://www.jeffwalsh.com/blog/1-thumb.jpg[/img]

Well, if you're going to work here, get used to us. We're not all hardcore readers and dissusion people. Some of us, can in fact, be assholes, so if you have pictures of yourself in drag on your website, we will post them.

sweet.
[img]http://www.jeffwalsh.com/photos/pics/colon.jpg[/img]

I'm well aware that those are on my site...

At least do something interesting, fire up Photoshop and have some guy about to shove a cock in my mouth or something...

Jeff

Oh, and as for pictures of me crawling out of a 40-foot colon... that was actually an event attended by members of the SF Cacophony Society, aka the group behind the Santa Rampages that Chuck wrote about and inspired the entire Project Mayhem portion of Fight Club.

So, that's actually on topic here.

Jeff

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by jeffwalsh [/i]
At least do something interesting, fire up Photoshop and have some guy about to shove a cock in my mouth or something...
[/QUOTE]

Oh, [I]thats[/i] not so interesting, c'mon! Here's an example of some fine [url=http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/community/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6032] photoshopping[/url]...

Since Dennis has been so kind as to mention that I haven't posted anything publicly about the Book Master gig, and since I won't have time to post a full bid as per Denis' request in the "5 Candidates" thread untill Sunday or early Monday (Tickets to the Civil War! Go Ducks!) I thought it might be better to post the email I sent to him a couple of days ago first and see what people have to say. So without further ado......

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Alright Dennis, I’ve freshened up and put on my tie, so this may go better.

I would like to formally toss my proverbial hat in the proverbial ring. I have been thinking pretty seriously about this for a week, but initially I figured that my relative newness to the Cult would work against me. I’m kind of shy that way sometimes*. But, with moe.ron’s prodding (for lack of a better word), I’ll explain a little about myself.

Books. I read lots and lots of books. In fact, Chuck’s work got me back in to aggressive reading a couple of years ago. For about 5 years before, I was a passive reader; I picked up a book about once every month or two, usually something I already had on the shelves. Now I’m up to two books a week and I spend a couple hours each day browsing at a bookstore or on the interne, trying to keep up on not only authors, but the book world in general. This is getting more and more expensive, as I’m buying 15-20 books a month. I swear, if I didn’t live two blocks from a Goodwill, I’d be flat broke.

Web. Like I said before, I am a little rusty with my HTML. I did just get assigned to redesign a website for the company I work for so if the admins can put up with a few stupid web questions, and with Bit Of A Finger’s help I can get up to speed in a timely fashion.

Grammar. I wasn’t an English Lit. major in college, but I know the rules just as I know there’s a time when they aren’t needed. I’m not a grammar nazi, but I wouldn’t be misspelling ‘book club’ on a webpage, either.

So anyway, without further ado, I have typed out a couple ideas I had and want to know what people think of them.

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Idea #1: Multiple books each month.

The Book Club is moving way too slow for my tastes. I read about 2 books a week and, while I understand that not everyone has the time to read that much (or may read even more), I think there is a happy medium that is more aggressive than the current situation. I was thinking three or four books a month. This way, we get a wider variety of books, appeal to a larger audience, and gain general flexibility. If one of the picks doesn’t sound interesting to you, don’t read it. You still have two or three others to choose from. The Main Idea is to get a lot more discussion about ANY BOOK than what’s currently going on. Of course, the more ambitious members will probably read them all. Here’s a preliminary breakdown:

Book 1: The “If you like Chuck then you’ll like this book” book.
Book 2: The “You aren’t a complete person if you haven’t read this book” book.
Book 3: The “Non-fiction book of the month” book.
Book 4: The “I’ve heard a lot about this book” book.

Idea #2: Poll for each month’s picks

Basically, this would require the Club Members to participate in the selection process, as they would email or PM the Club Leader with their desired pick(s) and the Leader would form polls, say, two weeks before the first of the month with three or four books for each of the abovementioned categories. These would be temporary threads, deleted on the last day of the month, and would allow more democracy in the Club. Also, this format allows for book recycling. A book you want to read may not get picked the first month, but it probably will sooner or later.

Let’s put as much literature in front of the Club Members as possible.

Idea #3: Contest?

Who doesn’t like promotions? I believe you said once tons of people send you books; why not give one away once in a while? Shit, I’ll send people books if they make interesting and intelligent conversation…

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I guess what I’m trying to get at here is that I think we need ways to prompt more conversation in the forum. We’re all here because we have something to say. We’re all here because of books. There are some really intelligent people on this forum (which is by far the best I’ve been a member of) and I want to hear their thoughts. Imagine what would happen if we could harness the power of, say, Brock on the Book Club Forums. One of the things I was looking for in the book club was discussion of a book by a ton of people. I can read any friggin’ book I want to, but I rarely have the chance to discuss it with anyone.

So, thanks for taking the time to read this, and I’ll try to get more ideas posted soon.

Sincerely,

TastesLikeChicken

*Illustration: I was at the Eugene, OR reading a couple of weeks ago, and I SO had that signed first of Fight Club in my pocket… All I had to do was print out a couple of the Chuck Documentary flyers and ask Chuck if I could tack them up behind the table he was signing at (I was near the front of a looooooooooonnnngggg line). However, me being the wuss I am, I didn’t even have the cojones to ask. That’s a tough $350 lesson I’m gonna learn when I fork out for one on abebooks.com.

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Book 2 Idea: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

In all seriousness this is the first book I thought of when you brought up books that you aren’t a complete person if you haven’t read this book, because seriously atleast 10 people told me to read the above book.

Just thought I would squeeze that in there.

Also, I know I am not alone in seeing that Mr. TastesLikeChicken is very very into this whole idea and would make a fine Book Club Person.

I have a suggestion:

Let's not make the books really fuckin obscure. I'm sure whatever y'all pick will be decent, but I'm not running all over the place trying to find a book. Make it something easy to find.