VOTE APRIL 2014 - ARBITARY APRIL

[Meadow337]

Scent of Butterflies - Dora Levy Mossanen

A novel singed by the flavors of Tehran, imbued with the Iranian roots of Persepolis and the culture clash of Rooftops of Tehran, this is a striking, nuanced story of a woman caught between two worlds, from the bestselling author of Harem, Courtesan, and The Last Romanov.


A Love So Deep Can Forever Scar the Soul


Such audacity she has, Soraya, a woman who dares to break free of the diamond-studded leash of her culture. A woman who refuses to accept the devastating betrayal her husband has perpetrated. A woman who refuses to forgive her best friend.

http://www.amazon.com/Scent-Butterflies-Dora-Levy-Mossanen-ebook/dp/B00F3D8KMO/

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami

A marvelous hybrid of mythology and mystery, A Wild Sheep Chase is the extraordinary literary thriller that launched Haruki Murakami’s international reputation.

It begins simply enough: A twenty-something advertising executive receives a postcard from a friend, and casually appropriates the image for an insurance company’s advertisement. What he doesn’t realize is that included in the pastoral scene is a mutant sheep with a star on its back, and in using this photo he has unwittingly captured the attention of a man in black who offers a menacing ultimatum: find the sheep or face dire consequences. Thus begins a surreal and elaborate quest that takes our hero from the urban haunts of Tokyo to the remote and snowy mountains of northern Japan, where he confronts not only the mythological sheep, but the confines of tradition and the demons deep within himself. Quirky and utterly captivating, A Wild Sheep Chase is Murakami at his astounding best.

http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Sheep-Chase-Novel/dp/037571894X

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino

You go into a bookshop and buy If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. You like it. But alas there is a printer's error in your copy. You take it back to the shop and get a replacement. But the replacement seems to be a totally different story. You try to track down the original book you were reading but end up with a different narrative again. This remarkable novel leads you through many different books including a detective adventure, a romance, a satire, an erotic story, a diary and a quest. But the real hero is you, the reader.

http://www.amazon.com/Winters-Night-Traveller-Vintage-Classics-ebook/dp/B004GKMU5I/

A late entry I missed who knows how.

Charles Stross - The Atrocity Archives

Charles Stross takes a departure from his epic science fiction to craft this cross between Len Deighton—style espionage and H.P. Lovecraftian horror.

Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up with the endless paperwork he has to do on a daily basis. He should never be called on to do anything remotely heroic.

But somehow, he is.

 

[Meadow337]

And WHERE are the VOTES!

All you peeps what had so much to say about democracy - EXERCISE IT!!

 

[Polly Parrot]

I voted already, yessir, ma'am!

 

[Sparhawk]

I see that there was a rush to suggest books and to vote.

 

[Meadow337]

Votes are tied AGAIN .... calling for a tie-breaker! Any one else want to exercise their right to vote?

 

[Răspunsul]

I see that there was a rush to suggest books and to vote.

I'm new to the site, but I ask you as one member with more experience, how can someone (me) vote on several books they have not read?
Wouldn't it make more sense just to allow members in turn to choose book of the month, based on their personal reading experience? It would still be ultimately democratic and the book concerned would have the experienced backing of at least one member?
If this has already been tried and abandoned, please excuse my ignorance. I don't mind looking the fool, till I find my way around so to speak

 

[Meadow337]

I'm new to the site, but I ask you as one member with more experience, how can someone (me) vote on several books they have not read?
Wouldn't it make more sense just to allow members in turn to choose book of the month, based on their personal reading experience? It would still be ultimately democratic and the book concerned would have the experienced backing of at least one member?
If this has already been tried and abandoned, please excuse my ignorance. I don't mind looking the fool, till I find my way around so to speak

The point of book clubs is to read books you haven't read. Like choosing a book in a store, read the blurb and see which one you would prefer to read. Regardless of how the book is chosen, you are still going to be reading a book you haven't read before, which is the entire point.

I'm going to put the same suggestion to you I have to made to others, if you think you have better ideas on how to run this section, to make it interesting, to generate more participation, please go right ahead.

Same invitation is extended to any one else who moans, but contributes nothing to this section. Got ideas (rather than just complaints) please volunteer and take it over.

Otherwise, try participating. Suggest themes, suggest books, vote on suggestions, read the book chosen, join in the discussion.

 

[Conscious Bob]

The point of book clubs is to read books you haven't read. Like choosing a book in a store, read the blurb and see which one you would prefer to read. Regardless of how the book is chosen, you are still going to be reading a book you haven't read before, which is the entire point.

I'm going to put the same suggestion to you I have to made to others, if you think you have better ideas on how to run this section, to make it interesting, to generate more participation, please go right ahead.

Same invitation is extended to any one else who moans, but contributes nothing to this section. Got ideas (rather than just complaints) please volunteer and take it over.

The only person that does any moaning about Book of The Month is you, Book of The Month was a fixture on this forum well before you joined and forumites participated in it without your direction. Everyone is entitled to make suggestions without having the gauntlet handed to them like some sort of final solution. If you don't want to organise it then don't, end of.

I also note that my book suggestion was left off the list, not democratic but certainly arbitrary.

 

[Meadow337]

The only person that does any moaning about Book of The Month is you, Book of The Month was a fixture on this forum well before you joined and forumites participated in it without your direction. Everyone is entitled to make suggestions without having the gauntlet handed to them like some sort of final solution. If you don't want to organise it then don't, end of.

I also note that my book suggestion was left off the list, not democratic but certainly arbitrary.

I'm sorry if I did that, what was your suggestion? And yes, that is the last bloody straw. Some one else can do this.

I'm done.

 

[Răspunsul]

Book of The Month was a fixture on this forum well before you joined and forumites participated in it without your direction.

Has it always been run the same way Consci?
I just thought that if people suggested books they had read, it might raise the standard of those chosen and remove the lottery element.
I was in a forum recently where every decison was made by a team of three people working together, it struck me as a broader option and with three every decision was resolved either by majority or unanimously.
I hestitate to suggest trying this on here because I am young and new, but I make up for that in enthusiasm.
Please be as frank with me as you wish; I am not precious, just willing to suggest some new ideas.
If they're rubbish, just tell me.

 

[Meadow337]

Has it always been run the same way Consci?
I just thought that if people suggested books they had read, it might raise the standard of those chosen and remove the lottery element.
I was in a forum recently where every decison was made by a team of three people working together, it struck me as a broader option and with three every decision was resolved either by majority or unanimously.
I hestitate to suggest trying this on here because I am young and new, but I make up for that in enthusiasm.
Please be as frank with me as you wish; I am not precious, just willing to suggest some new ideas.
If they're rubbish, just tell me.

Astonishingly it was always run by a staff member who took responsibility for starting the relevant threads etc. I'm no longer going to do that. Some one can start a discussion on what you want to. If you want to let it die, as it was very close to doing before I took up the challenge of trying to generate some interest, that fine by me. If not, some one needs to stop moaning, and get working.

 

[Sparhawk]

Has it always been run the same way Consci?
I just thought that if people suggested books they had read, it might raise the standard of those chosen and remove the lottery element.
I was in a forum recently where every decison was made by a team of three people working together, it struck me as a broader option and with three every decision was resolved either by majority or unanimously.
I hestitate to suggest trying this on here because I am young and new, but I make up for that in enthusiasm.
Please be as frank with me as you wish; I am not precious, just willing to suggest some new ideas.
If they're rubbish, just tell me.

And how would you suggest we pick the books once we have all suggested books we have read? Someone is always going to be voting for a book they have never read before.

 

[Peder]

I too have been around for quite a while and have seen the ups and downs of the BOTM. I would definitely not criticize Meadow for trying in various innovative ways to rejuvenate the monthly discussions. She has tried more than anyone has done in a long time to improve the situation. I would say the interest in discussing books on this book forum has been declining for quite a while and is now at a new low. The interest by the general membership is what just doesn't seem to be there, whether for BOTM or anywhere else on the forum. So I applaud Meadow for her attempts, and Polly Parrot before her, but I suggest that members who complain about the BOTM just take a look at the threads anywhere else on BAR and see how few books are even mentioned, mush less discussed anywhere else on BAR. If you want to discuss books, then you actually have to post and discuss books, and I don't see much enthusiasm for that, right here, and just now. Moderating BOTM is a bitch of a job, and I support Meadow's challenge to anyone who thinks (or knows) they can do it better. Nobody can push on a string.
Just look at a recent attempt to get a list of member's best books they read in 2013. You might think anyone on this forum must have read one good book they could mention. But no! Only about 3-4 members IIRC could think of any book they had read or cared to post about.
Books are on hard times here. Discussions even worse. But complaints are always in good supply.

Yay for Meadow!

 

[Soraya]

The only person that does any moaning about Book of The Month is you, Book of The Month was a fixture on this forum well before you joined and forumites participated in it without your direction. Everyone is entitled to make suggestions without having the gauntlet handed to them like some sort of final solution. If you don't want to organise it then don't, end of.

I also note that my book suggestion was left off the list, not democratic but certainly arbitrary.

Here here..

 

[Sparhawk]

I agree with Peder, moderating a forum is a thankless job sometimes and its get even harder when people are more interested in saying what is wrong than helping to fix things. And if you feel so strongly about this, take the offer and trying doing the job yourself and fix those things you find so objectionable. I won't be offering as I do not have the means to do the job and I would be a lot less patient with complaints.

 

[Polly Parrot]

I completely agree with Peder. Is it really so difficult to see that merely complaining about the choices offered, or how BOTM is run isn't going to increase the number of active participators? Something like BOTM is a fun thing to do for a book forum but it is wholly dependent on people wanting to participate.

Saying that the nominated books aren't to your taste isn't going to change anything at all, what would change it is to put forth your own suggestions. There is always plenty of time to get your suggestions in. Unfortunately, however, the number of people suggesting a book has been low for quite some time now; yet once the voting threads are up the complaints start coming in from members saying there's nothing on there to their tastes. Astonishingly, those complaining rarely ever submit any suggestions at all.

There have been repeated attempts to revive BOTM and increase members' interest in it by doing things such as choosing a book in advance when there were so few suggestions and/or votes it was impossible to declare an obvious winner. Meadow has also been so kind to try and liven up discussions by posing questions about the books but those were rarely ever answered in an elaborate way and if they were there was never any follow-up by anyone who wasn't Meadow.

I actually enjoyed organising BOTM before and would be willing to take it up again but with interest so low and complaints instead of actual suggestions one can work with, I'm not sure anymore.

 

[Sparhawk]

I think that most if not all the "problems" that some complain about would vanish if they were to actually participate.

 

[Conscious Bob]

I think that most if not all the "problems" that some complain about would vanish if they were to actually participate.

I am a participant and all book discussions I respect. In defence of 'complainers' a lack of democracy coupled with oblique answers to polite questions is a disincentive to participate.

 

[Sparhawk]

I am a participant and all book discussions I respect. In defence of 'complainers' a lack of democracy coupled with oblique answers to polite questions is a disincentive to participate.

Honestly Bob, take a beep breath and chill! If it is such a problem for you, you do BOTM!

 

[Meadow337]

This discussion is now closed. It appears that the choice for April is If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino

As my last responsibility for the BOTM I will start the thread to discuss it.