A History of Royals discussion

There have been a couple of questions in this regard, so I thought I would post how the group reads work. Our group reads are somewhat unstructured, but here are the basics:

Around the 20th of the first month of a group read (in this case, March 20th) we will open a thread for book nominations. Here are the nomination rules:

--Each member is allowed to nominate the usual amount being one or two books per member.

--In your nomination please include the GR link to the book, the author, and tell us a little bit about the book or subject. Since this group encompasses such a wide subject area, there are probably many members who may not be familiar with any given royal figure.

--Books may be either fiction or non-fiction.


The thread for nominations is usually open for about three weeks. At that time we will take a look at the nominations that have been made and determine which of the following will happen:

1. If there are fewer than 10 nominations a poll will be set up to vote on the nominations. So far this has been the usual course of events.

2. If there are more than 10 nominations we will ask all members to post their top 5 choices, and we will take the most popular 5 of those and create a poll for all members to vote on.

The voting poll will usually stay open for about a week to a week in half. The closing date will be posted. We like to close off early enough to allow people to find the book or request it from the library. (Usually about three weeks before the group read begins)

A NOTE ABOUT DISCUSSION THREADS:

Before the start date of the group read, a discussion thread will be opened for the group read. Our discussions are very unstructured, with each member jumping in whenever they want to discuss, post thoughts, post quotes, ask questions, etc. Luckily, there are not really many spoilers with these books (at least not as too basic plot).

In cases where we have picked a HUGE book to read (Memoirs of Cleopatra and Sunne in Splendour come to mind) we will start an addition discussion thread for those readers who are starting later, or reading at a more leisurely pace.

The above are by no means set in stone, just an idea how things usually go.

So as an example - the next group read will start on May 1st. Around the 21th of March a nomination thread will be opened, with voting between the 2 - 10 of April. This should give everyone plenty of time to find/get the book.

NOTE: Above dates are estimates, not hard fast dates.

Another great idea Lyn :)
It`s great to have it all lined out for everyone

So - we made some changes to the group reads procedure and I just wanted to bump this up so everyone is aware of them. The changes are in italics. The decision was made to make the changes due to past comments and questions on the nomination process by some of the members. Thanks for your input all!

Please note the line in bold type at the end of the first post. I have put this line in bold so that it is more noticeable than in the past. In order to keep the focus on fun reading and discussion, and not get too serious, we want all of the group members to know that the above are not hard and fast rules, just guidelines.

Thanks Lyn

Hope it looks alright Jen. Let me know if you want any changes made. Sorry it took me so long to get around to posting the changes.

Looks perfect to me. I really like the new 'rules' :)
And no worries... I totally forgot all about posting the change or I would have done it too.

Sorry I can't do more around here to help Lyn, THL keeps me busy busy busy! I try to contribute but you are so on top of things sometimes I don't get the chance too! lol

Thanks Lyn, for all you do; modding is almost like a second job isn't it?

Thanks Colleen. And you do such a good job with THL, it is a lot more work than one would think, that's why we have each other to lean on, :)!

Thanks Lyn, I try. There does need to be a support group for mods somewhere lol j/k.

I'll be you and Jennifer's support group anytime:)

Thanks for that Lyn!

:D

P.S. Lyn, you are not the mod of last resort, you are a super mod to us! *heart ya*

LOL I was wondering about that nickname! You're the mod of everything, Lyn! The mod that holds the group together :)

I second that Jennifer!

Just a tongue in cheek nickname, since I was the third to join! No worries. I just like the way it sounds.

LOL As long as no one things it's what you really are!

mod of first resort more like!

A History of Royals Group Reads to date:

~November/December 2009: The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George
~January/February 2010: The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
~March/April 2010: Caligula the Corruption of Power by Anthony A. Barrett
~May/June 2010: Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser
~ August/September 2010: The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C.W. Gortner

Well, that's lovely. I haven't even finished one GR in my own group! Looks like I have some serious catching up to do! How's everyone else doing with them?

I have only finished Caligula, and wish I hadn't lol.

LOL Fine mods we are! Way to set an example LOL
I think C has read all of them except Sunne and Confessions.

Hey, but she has been at this Mod business longer than we have, LOL.

Wow... I've actually read all but the Caligula book!! I had no idea!
I think ya'll are fine mods!!

Thanks Aly and good job on reading them all! Everyone says that Caligula was so bad I feel like completely striking it from the list! I have no plans to read that one... ever...

Aly, you didn't miss much with Caligula and good job on reading all of the rest AND thanks for the mod compliment.

Thanks you guys! Jen is right, I am part way through Caligula but I am just waiting for to check it out again from the library, I didn't read Sunne but I will, and I am reading Confessions right now.

I heart modding btw!

Colleen wrote: "I heart modding btw!"

Me too!! :D

Me three!!

The library doesn't have Confessions right now so I have to wait and put a hold on it =/ Is it alright that I can't read it immediately right now?

Sorry, I didn't see this one before I wrote your welcome post, lol, but it is certainly fine to read the book whenever you get to it. We are not very strict here about group reads. In fact, a few of us are going to read the January Group Read next month because we couldn't get to it then. We leave the Group Read discussions open, so feel free to pop in and comment whenever you can.