SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I was trying to look up which book we read in which month, and it took quite a bit of digging to find out.

So I was thinking, can we get a folder that is read-only listing which books we read when?

Ideally, there would be precisely two topics, one for Fantasy, one for Science Fiction, and each would contain a sequence of posts listing which book was under discussion for which month, linked both to the folder of discussion and to the book's page.

(Librarian types generally are made happy by orderly presentation of information.)

Well, also, while we're at it, in the first (sticky) post of each discussion folder, could you include:

(a) when it was officially read, and
(b) a link to the book's page.

E.g.:
- - - - - - - - - -
topic: "The Game of Kings" Discussions > Post The Game of Kings Discussions Here!

The Fantasy selection for February 2012 is The Game of Kings- First in the Legendary Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett . Enjoy!
- - - - - - - - - -

'K?

Richard,
I like the second idea.

Could the date also be included in the Topic title -

Instead of "Alphabet of Thorn Discussion"

it would be "Alphabet of Thorn Discussion March 09"

The advantage to this- if I'm looking for the date information, I don't actually have to open any posts- I can just find it in the title.

That sounds good, but I'd still like to see a historic list. The way GR's forums work, the topics move around, so even if the first post had the date, it would be hard to see the sequence of books.

Oh oh I like these ideas!! That would be a great help.

If you really want to be, er, OCD about it, then to take advantage of lexical ordering it really should be "2009-03: Alphabet of Thorn - Fantasy discussion"

:-)

Oh Richard - I like how you think ;-)

Richard wrote: "I was trying to look up which book we read in which month, and it took quite a bit of digging to find out.

So I was thinking, can we get a folder that is read-only listing which books we read wh..."

If you look at the bottom of the group page, you will see the group book shelf. Each book that we have read is there with the date we read it. In addition, if you click "view" you will be taken to the discussion forum threads associated with that book.

Oh! I guess I'd never paged all the way to the bottom. And now I recognize that the groups shelves are organized quite cleverly, so the "date started" and "date finished" correspond to the assigned month, and the scifi vs. fantasy shelves tell which category it was in. So: skip my main idea.

I'd still like to see a bit more information in the first/sticky post, but that was a minor point.

Thanks!

Ok Krisjan - I feel like a fool now - you are absolutely right - I never looked at that. Thanks for pointing it out to my "blind as a bat" eyes.

Well, we can also do a single thread, and only post one entry for each month, with the info that you are asking for (Month, book, link to discussion, link to book).
That would keep the thread on top, especially if we put it in the "General" section, which only has the one topic right now.
For security, it can be locked and only added to by the mods, if they feel that is needed.
But it wouldn't be a thread for commentary, just a list, basically.
Thoughts?

When Kristjan pointed out that the groups bookshelf contained which books had been read as well as their dates, I didn't think that would be necessary. But now I've re-thought.

I was just poking around, and realized that using the bookshelf list as an authoritative source can be troublesome. For example:
* Jim Butcher's Storm Front discussed Sept 2008 isn't on listed on the Fantasy shelf, so slips through the cracks when viewing by category.
* Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End , was discussed April 2008, but apparently as the result of poll during the month?
So an authoritative list might be nice to have.

I also realized that the "View >>" links at the very bottom of the main group page provide access to a discussion page I'd never seen before, and as far as I can tell there is no other way of getting to it.

Contrast these two pages for "The Road":
Discussion-plus page versus Discussion-only page.

The Discussion-plus page is pretty cool -- shows all member reviews on one page, updates of those still reading it, and brings together other topics where it has been mentioned. It'd be cool if there was also a heading pointing out other groups' discussions where it had been mentioned.

But it was pretty well hidden!

So I'm thinking again: an explicit master index of which books were read by the group, along with the dates all the relevant links included, would still be useful. And, yes: not a discussion topic, so writable only be moderators would be correct. A single thread in the right place would do the trick nicely.

Richard and Kristjan,
I'm glad you pointed me towards the discussion-plus page. I particularly like that it includes all of the member reviews of the book.

Richard wrote: "The Discussion-plus page is pretty cool -- ..."

Ya It is cool - I found it just yesterday - probably the same way you did - didn't even know such a thing existed but I really like it.

Richard wrote: "...Jim Butcher's Storm Front discussed Sept 2008 isn't on listed on the Fantasy shelf, so slips through the cracks when viewing by category.
..."

That one definately slipped through the cracks (my bad) ... thank you for pointing it out for correction.

"...* Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, was discussed April 2008, but apparently as the result of poll during the month?

This one was actually outside the normal book discussions schedule and did not really have a discussion leader; however, I have now added it to the book shelf as well.