The Rules and First Assignment

Welcome to Book Club!

Well, after along period of procrastination (on my part), we are ready to start this! But first we have a few rules, or thoughts, or guidelines, or you-better-abide-by-all-of-these-or-else things.

Anyway...

#1 - Each book will have a "moderator". That person is in charge of picking the book of their choice, assigning reading sections, and starting the discussion. You'll have to come up with thoughts and questions for us all to answer and talk about, but just as a starting off point. And whoever is the moderator for that month (or however long it takes to get through the books) has complete control over the book choice. The rest of us get to just smile and nod : ) So if you want to choose "Island of the Blue Dolphins" (Which I for one would be thrilled over!) or "War and Peace" or "The Catcher in the Rye" (I beg of all of you, though, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't choose that!), go for it!

I'll try not to bemoan stupid Holden Caulfield. (I'm only really complaining about this because I HIGHLY doubt any of you would have chosen that stupid, stupid book.)

When it is your turn to be moderator I'll e-mail you an invitation to become a contributor to this blog. That way each of you can log on and write straight from here.

The order of moderator will be as follows: Kate, Meagan, Karissa, Suz, Katy, and me. So Kate, be ready to announce the new book at the end of "The Master Butchers".

#2 - NO PLOT SPOILERS! However the moderator decides to split a book up is up to them. For "The Master Butchers" we will do it in halves. If you want to read past the halfway point, awesome! Just be sure that you don't include anything in your comments that take us further than the halfway point. Make sense?

#3 - The "discussion"... Since we can't actually talk about all of this in a normal conversation, we are going to talk to each other through the comments section. Comments are posted from first to last. So read through the moderators thoughts in the actual blog and then read through everyones comments and post your own. Pretty easy!

#4 - Everyone must comment at least once per reading section. This is a book club, right? So we all want to hear what you are thinking! So speak up and ask more questions and challenge us! If the discussion takes us a long time, then AWESOME! Let's keep it going : ) And feel free to leave numerous comments.

Okay that's it for the RULES!!!!

Eventually, Katy and I would like to open this to more girls, but for now let's keep it to us just so we can get the "flow" down. But think about ladies you know who might like to participate!

Ummm... I think that's all I've got for right now.

OH!!!!!!!! The first assignment: We will read through chapter eight, "The Burning of the Mutts." In my book that takes us to page 198, almost exactly half way. Let's have that read by December 1, two weeks from today. I hope that works for you all!

I will have a new blog posted on that day with my initial thoughts and questions, and then we shall have this going... YAY!!!!!!

If you all can leave a comment just saying you read this and are able to comment, I would appreciate it. Also, if you have other thoughts or rules, please to mention them!

Be blessed, dear girls,
Gretch

Hello Katy!

Sorry it took me a bit to respond. Life has been hectic... There is a massive girls e-mail going out soon.

I set this up here because I am already really familiar with blogger and it's fairly easy to use. Maybe for each book choice the girl whose choice it was could log in here, assign the next book, set a reading schedule, and start the discussion: thinking of initial questions, trains of thought, or other miscellany. Those of us not moderating could then just post in the comments section.

I totally agree that everyone should post for each section read, and NO PLOT SPOILERS!!!! I can write up a general information and rules board. As for organizing the comments, they are just posted first to last. So once we finish reading the actual blog, we can scroll through whoever said what first and so on and so forth. Make sense?

As for The Master Singer's, what if we agreed to have the first half (I don't have it in front of me, or else I would choose a page) read by December 1st. That gives those with crazier lives (ie, Karissa) plenty of time to read it. And then let's say December 15th for the rest of it. What if you moderate this first round and I'll moderate the December 15th date? Does this sound okay?

With the order, let's go with next with Kate, Meagan, Karissa, Suz, you, and me. You can change that up, however you like. I just typed the names that came first into my head! And yes, NO complaining about book choices. And although I would like to ask for a commitment from everyone, I don't think that we should enforce it. This should be fun, not stressful if some of us are going through a busy patch.

Another question I had: Do we want to broaden this at all? I just know of a few other girls that might really enjoy this. That said, I'm perfectly happy keeping it to the six of us, it might just be fun to widen the circle. Maybe at some point down the road.

Ummm... I think that is about all I've got for now. Let me know, through the comments section, of anything I might have forgotten. And I'll, in turn, respond through the comments section. I hope you'll be okay with all of it, but really I'm open to anything. I have been thinking about this a lot lately and am eager to start reading! So let's get this show on the road. As soon as everything is okay by you, set the reading schedule and e-mail everyone the plan.

Do I sound too bossy? I don't mean to!

Much love, GG