Old Books, New Readers discussion

What would you like to see? More polls, quiz's, trivia about our books? Recipe folder? Let me know. I know not everyone can post all the time but lets get some participation going! If you aren't comfortable putting a message here then by all means private message me! I am all about constructive input. I can't fix it if I don't know it is broke. I look forward to seeing what you have to say.

I have just joined this group and found out that many interesting topics are "dead" - they haven't updated in a while, or the thread has steered from its original course...
Is it possible reviving them?

What topics do you refer to that you would like to see revived? Anything is doable!

5-10 favorite books? The last messages are old and not so much on the topic...

Gotcha. Perhaps we should archive that one and start a new thread under a similar vein that would be more up to date.

Just listed my favorites on the old thread. Appreciate your hard work in keeping the site/club going.

I added one to the Bookshelf Book Suggestions tonight. :-)

Jennah wrote: "Buddy reads? I did one with a few members in another group and it was great! A lot of groups do them-you choose a book to read and get others to read with you! You can set a start and end date or j..."

I've enjoyed Buddy Reads on Goodreads. I'm not really sure what the difference is between a Buddy Read and a Group Read. Seems like either way two or more are needed and there's no limit on how many can join. I just like having a plan for it and threads for discussion of each section of the plan....be it chapters or pages.

Is there a way to safely find out if there are any members in your area? I'm suffering from post-college lack of intellectual literary discussion!

Thanks Jennah. :-)

I'm always up for either but I'm busy till the end of October. I'm in ten book clubs. LOL.

Emily wrote: "Is there a way to safely find out if there are any members in your area? I'm suffering from post-college lack of intellectual literary discussion!"

I have had much the same question, too. But I have not bothered with it further, because most social media formats remove geographic barriers quite effortlessly. Plus, if you find someone with whom you want to correspond, that is obviously a mutual consent situation. Almost like sex. (Did I really just write that?)

Emily, I don't think it's safe anytime! I've tried meeting new people on the net - I started choosing from those who have common taste and interests and comment smart things. But when I added them as friends- they turned into creeps who asked to see my photograph and had lots of weird posts only open for friends. I'm glad they were on different CONTINENTS!
You should try finding those at parties- of course you'll meet someone smart among the friends of your friends! Just throw in many quotes and see who recognizes them :)

Sophia brings up a good point about safety. What you could do is get with your local library and maybe start a classics face to club! You'll get twice the classics and twice the friends!

Angela wrote: "Sophia brings up a good point about safety. What you could do is get with your local library and maybe start a classics face to club! You'll get twice the classics and twice the friends!"

Excellent idea! In modern libraries, it is becoming more difficult to check out books from the shelf, simply because everything is online. And with so many library budgets being cut, there is no other way to access them except online. But the good news is that every library has conference rooms and meeting rooms for childrens' and adult literacy classes, plus many other functions.

Sophia wrote: "Emily, I don't think it's safe anytime! I've tried meeting new people on the net - I started choosing from those who have common taste and interests and comment smart things. But when I added them ..."

Sophia wrote: "Emily, I don't think it's safe anytime! I've tried meeting new people on the net - I started choosing from those who have common taste and interests and comment smart things. But when I added them ..."

Good points! Safety first!

Hi, everyone!

How would you feel about doing a Balzac Marathon? Hahaha!

I know, maybe it is impossible to finish all the books Balzac wrote! It is a lot!

But would anyone give it a try?

Rose wrote: "Hi, everyone!

How would you feel about doing a Balzac Marathon? Hahaha!

I know, maybe it is impossible to finish all the books Balzac wrote! It is a lot!

But would anyone give it a try?"

I'll get back to you. Balzac is considered the French Dickens, and in view of our recent conclusion of Great Expectations, that may be a heavy dosage of naturalism for some readers. But I would not mind trying just one of his works, such as La Peau de Chagrin.

But if you are asking about cycling the entire La Comedie Humaine, I'll pass.

I've never read anything by Balzac, so I'd like to read one of his works first before I decide If I want to try doing a marathon.

I was thinking about reading all the Comédie Humaine! hahaha!

But of course it will be difficult, so maybe we could start with 3 important books: Père Goriot, Lost Illusions: Illusions Perdues and Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes.

They tell the story of the same characters, so they complement each other the most...

What do you guys think? :)

How hard r they to understand?

Terry wrote: "How hard r they to understand?"

Hi, Terry!

I actually read the third book and thought it was enjoyable... Not that difficult, once you get used to the many characters.

But I read in Portuguese, which is my native language. You can try the Kindle version in English to have an idea... There is a free version of the first book:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

I'm going to make this a yearly thread so I am closing this one out and putting up a new one.