Weird Fiction discussion

We have been going for six months now and membership has grown to 70 members exactly. Considering that most people still think Weird is an adjective rather than a genre, I count this a success, and am heartened enough to commit to continuing another six months. I'll reassess at that time for the next six months.

I have noticed some areas of concern, however. Participation is declining sharply. I am the only one who nominated books for October's group read. I am the only one who read this month's Modern Weird, and I feel I am the only one reading this month's Classic Weird selection. At least, I'm the only one reading it this year.

Another area of concern is that sometimes the book we select has nothing to do with the Weird genre. I don't mind in the slightest if they're related to Weird, like our Bizarro choice, The Haunted Vagina, or our Zelazny choice earlier, which I don't know what to classify as. Those were great books that cross over into Weird (in my opinion). But last month's Classic Weird and this month's Modern Weird do not. They were fine books; however, they weren't Weird by any meaningful definition of the term. I've so far been letting any nomination at all go forward in the polls without discrimination, but I think going forward I'll exercise moderator's prerogative and try to do a better job pruning works that I think outside the Weird genre.

Since interest appears to be diminishing lately, I think it's clear we can't sustain two books per month for group reads any more. I'm fine with that. I myself wasn't keeping up, and I'm moderating! I have only read ten of the twelve books on our bookshelf, all of which were great experiences by the way. Starting with October let's go to one selection per month.

Since we did not really read a Classic Weird book last month (August) and did not read a Modern Weird book this month (September), the rotation we should start with suggests itself. We can start with my Modern Weird nomination as the group selection for October's read: The Divinity Student by Michael Cisco. I was happiest and felt strongest about this nomination anyway. It is undeniable New Weird. Others have classified it as such. Discriminating reviewers whom I respect have given the book five stars. So I'm excited about October's selection even if I am the only voter for it.

The other change I am going to make is that I will be maintaining a topic for nominations going forward around the entire month. On the 18th of every month a poll for the following month will go up and a topic soliciting nominations for the month after that will be started. This way, rather than have only five days to nominate, as was the case this month, members can nominate a book at any time during the month at all.

It's my hope these changes will strengthen and continue to grow our group and that we'll have truly excellent reads for the next six months like we did the last. Comments or suggestions regarding these changes are always welcome. Cheers!

I think all of your changes and suggestions are good ones, Dan. I especially agree that two group reads a month was too many. One feels much more doable.

Thanks for all the hard work you put into the group.

That makes a lot of sense, Dan.