Beyond Reality discussion

Hi everyone,

The rule on Beyond Reality, since the group started almost a decade ago, has always been that a book has to be available new - not second-hand - on both Amazon US and Amazon UK to be eligible to become Book of the Month. This effectively means that out of print (OOP) books cannot be nominated. We were talking about lifting this rule on the Yahoo group right before we moved over here, and I wanted to bring it up here too so we can decide what to do. Here's why we've had this rule for so long:

If a book is available on Amazon, it usually means it's available from major book distributors. This in turn means that it can be ordered in almost any physical bookstore. Because of this, everyone has access to the book, including people who may not be comfortable ordering things online or don't have a credit card to order things online. People who don't have a big-box bookstore in their town can order from
Amazon or have the book ordered from any small bookstore. This would not be possible for many books that are not available on Amazon. It's
basically a way to ensure that everyone has access to the book. Even if a book is available second-hand on Amazon, some people aren't comfortable making purchases like this because it involves sending your mailing address to someone on the internet. I'm not saying this because I'm one of those people (I'm actually a seller on Amazon myself) but because I know other people may have these issues.

So basically, the rule is not there because we are such big fans of Amazon, but because we don't want to make it hard for anyone to buy/read the books.

The counter-argument: allowing out-of-print books means more options to choose from (not that there isn't a wealth of in-print books to choose from...) Also, even if an OOP book is nominated, it doesn't necessarily mean it'll win the poll --- I know many people won't vote for a hardcover book because they're too expensive and/or may not be in the library yet, so likewise people may not vote for an OOP book.

So! Please let us know what you think. I'll leave this thread open for a few days and start a poll later on to get the official vote.

Stefan

I think you should let people nominate any books they want to. Like you said, just because it's nominated doesn't mean it'll win in the polls. Enough people would have to want to read a particular book for it to win. And if it does win, that means people are okay with getting the book. And those who aren't can skip the group read for that month, just like they can any other month. :)

I have no qualms about out-of-print books. Perhaps it's because I work in a building with a library on the first floor and in a large metropolitan area. I don't normally have trouble finding a book, even when out of print. It's like treasure hunting without all the sand, saltwater and eye patches. :)

I'm fine with OOP books as well.
I rarely buy the book we're reading, I'm a library reader primarily, so the only books I usually have problems with are the brand new releases that I might have to wait a couple of weeks to get.

I can't say as I agree.
If we have problems with getting discussions going with available books I would expect it would be harder with OOP books.
A suggestion that might work is every once in a while have maybe have a OOP discussion.

I am indifferent. I have been buying a lot of books at used book stores and places like Goodwill, so I've been able to get lots of OOP books that I never read when they were relatively new.

On the one hand, for the "official" BOTM discussions, it might be good to only have in print books, for all the reasons stated.

Keep in mind that we can discuss ANY book, ANY time, regardless of whether it's the official BOTM or not.

So maybe I have an opinion after all--keep the BOTM as in print and keep reminding people that we can read and discuss any book, any time.

Kathi wrote: "So maybe I have an opinion after all--keep the BOTM as in print and keep reminding people that we can read and discuss any book, any time."

That's more or less what we've been doing --- and I am hopeful that, with the new format at GoodReads, people will be more likely to talk about any book, any time, especially now we can have separate folders and topics for BotM's, general SF&F discussion, "what are you reading now?" threads and so on.

In my opinion, we should stick with books that are in print. It's so much easier that way.

It may be time to allow out-of print books, because it seems to me that books stay in print and on distributors' shelves for a much shorter time than they used to do. Someone on the third book of a great series who wants to introduce it to the group will now often find that the first book is no longer available. Second-hand availability is almost by definition hard to predict, but between Amazon, Abebooks and Ebay it's much easier to find oop books than formerly.

I think it depends on how scarce the book is & a good test is cost/availability on Amazon. Some OOP books are easy to find. Others aren't. If they aren't, it doesn't make sense to nominate them.

For instance, another group would like to read some books by Karl Edward Wagner. I'd love to suggest In a Lonely Place, but there are only 5 copies available on Amazon now; 4 hardbacks for $100 & 1 mass market paperback for $156! (Isn't that odd?) A check of the library showed only 1 copy in our system & that was an inter-library loan. There were more copies cheaper on Ebay, but it was still out of most budgets.

I encouraged Stefan to re-open this topic when I wanted to nominate 'Dayworld' by Philip Jose Farmer. I read, sadly, of his passing and had found out many facts about the authors series and life I hadn't known. One of the series mentioned was Dayworld. Imagine my excitement when I found a copy in my favourite second had bookshop the following week. We've been reading so many new authors lately, I was really in the mood to nominate something older - so many of us had enjoyed the foray into Amber last year!

Unfortunately, my excitement was short-lived as I discovered that Dayworld was only available used, not new, from Amazon. However, as there were something like 35 used copies starting at .01c available, it seemed to me that this minor inconvenience should not rule it out - hence the conversation.

So I guess that sums up my opinion! :)

I just set up the poll (http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/12...)

Please take a moment to vote!