SwiftReads discussion

So The Great Gatsby won the poll! It will be our first book.

I know a few of us have already read this book and like I have read it many times. Dawn suggested these two modern adaptions of The Great Gatsby for those who do not want to read Gatsby again. I am going to read one of them. So that way we can still stay active with this months book.

The adaptions:
Gordon Korman’s Jake, Reinvented takes place in a high school setting and Sara Benincasa’s Great is also with a teen crew in the Hamptons but with Gatsby as a female.

Since this month is almost over this book will be for the rest of the month and February's book. I know a lot of people want to start reading right away. This may be a lot of time for some people, so if you have extra time maybe you can read one of the adaptions too!

Thanks y'all for joining! I am excited about this journey!

P.S. We had a LOT of people wanting to join and too many comments on the initial post about the club book on TSL for me to respond to everyone. The update posts did not get a lot of attention compared to the initial so I am about to post about the book for this month. If you can reshare and answer any questions you might see on the post about how to join this group! Thanks!
My username in case you need it @LegallyLexi

Yay! I reshared! The more the merrier! So how is it going to work? Just read at our own pace or are we going to have some structure?

Allyson wrote: "Yay! I reshared! The more the merrier! So how is it going to work? Just read at our own pace or are we going to have some structure?"
I was thinking our own pace this first go around. And then maybe trying to implement some structure the next go. And I think I might ask some general questions and put spoiler in the title for discussions. I know a lot of us have read this book so some of the spoilers are already out there.

Alexis wrote: "Allyson wrote: "Yay! I reshared! The more the merrier! So how is it going to work? Just read at our own pace or are we going to have some structure?"
I was thinking our own pace this first go aroun..."

Awesome, I think that sounds great :) I've never read the book but I have seen the movie version with Leo DiCaprio... So some spoilers there but I'm excited to read the original!

So are you thinking periodic stops and discussions and/or final discussions at the end. Also maybe post some theme related questions to consider while reading, and that also could help for those who have already read it, to reread with a different purpose?

I read it a long time ago. Didn't really get into in emotionally. Originally read it in Estonian (my mother tongue) but this time I'll read it in English. I prefer reading in the original language so no meaning is lost though translation.

Alexis wrote: "Allyson wrote: "Yay! I reshared! The more the merrier! So how is it going to work? Just read at our own pace or are we going to have some structure?"
I was thinking our own pace this first go aroun..."

I'm a really fast reader and don't like reading multiple books at once, so keeping to a pace might be hard for people like me but also for slow readers. Just putting that thought out there =)

Allyson wrote: "Alexis wrote: "Allyson wrote: "Yay! I reshared! The more the merrier! So how is it going to work? Just read at our own pace or are we going to have some structure?"
I was thinking our own pace this..."I think we all read at our own pace. And I'll make themed related questions and discussions. We can just title them chapter 1-5 related question themes or something so that way those who haven't gotten past a certain point will know not to open.

I think I am going to need people create questions and discussions. Just to be mind full of others. Anyone can start a discussion on our group.

I think that method might work best for us. If it doesn't we can adjust.

sounds great, Alexis! And I don’t know if this has been said, but thank you for organising this!

Just downloaded it on my kindle. I read it many years ago so happy to reread it. My biggest problem is I am an EXTREMELY fast reader, like 100 pages an hour, but at that rate I don’t retain very well past a few days. That’s why I like YA so much, especially trilogies or multibook worlds. I don’t have to think too much 😝
The liking to read fast without thinking too much has been why Ive never joined a book club before. I’m sorta excited to get outta my comfort zone. But I think I will still wait til about a week before the end to start it.

This sounds awesome! I've already read TGG so I think I'm going to check out the adaptations over the next month. Thanks for suggesting those! And thank you, Alexis, for putting this all together! I'm super excited to be a part of this!

I saw that Gordon Korman was the author of one of the modern adaptations. I read a bunch of his other books when I was younger and really enjoyed them, but they were definitely for a middle school demographic. I'm not sure if this one is similar.

Sounds fun! I'm going to read it! 😀

Thanks for the tip about the adaptations! I've definitely read Gatsby too many times but I've never read an adaptation of it. I especially like the idea of Gatsby as a woman. Will there be separate discussions for these books or just the general discussion on the original?

I’m so happy to be reading this again! I can’t wait to hear everyone’s opinions on it. So, I think it might have been answered but, are we doing a group discussion at the end of February?

@Becca I know, I used Swindle as a reading group book for years in my classroom. Love me some Gordon Korman! But, yes, this is a YA novel!

Thanks for listening! 💕
Since I’ve already read Jake, I’m going to read the female Gatsby. Sounds like it is a really awesome version.

This is going to be my first time with Gatsby. I am excited, never been a part of reading club, so thank you Alexis for creating this one.:) Now I just have to decide if I am going to reading in czech or english. I am afraid, that the english is the old one and I am going to have trouble to understand.

I'm excited to read this! I tried it a couple years ago, but I never finished it. It's a classic, though, so I'm happy to finally have a reason to pick it back up.

I am so excited to read this! I've read it a few times so I will read the adaptation that I didn't know was around

Just checked out "Great" by Sara Benincasa from my local library. I've only ever read one retelling/adaptation of a classic, but I liked it a lot, so I'm excited about this one!

Very excited about the adaptions for those of us who have read Gatsby multiple times. I've never read an adaption so I'm down for either of those. I'm pretty bummed that it looks like my library does not carry either of them but they are both fairly cheap on kindle so I'll definitely read one of them, if not both.