One of the things I really enjoy about Goodreads is getting regular emails about the things my friends are reading. (No offense, LibraryThingers – Goodreads is just what clicked for me.) I’ve also been enjoying the long-form reviews over at letters and sodas. In a recent post, Heather linked to Emily’s Attacking the TBR Tome Challenge – basically, a challenge to pick 20 books off your To Be Read pile or shelf or list and commit to reading them in the next year.
This got me to thinking about our failed attempt at a DC book club and various other virtual book clubs I’ve attempted to organize or participate in – which led me to wonder if a virtual book club where everyone committed to reading something that THEY wanted to read might work better. Here’s roughly how I imagine it working – drawing heavily from Emily’s previously posted challenge:
- 12 months, 12 books from the To Read pile. The pile can be physical or electronic.
- All titles should be ones you already own in your format of choice.
- Your titles are selected in advance, and posted on your blog, Facebook, Goodreads or LibraryThing or your book site of choice, by an arbitrary date to be determined. If you don’t do any of these, email me with your list, and I can include it in a round-up of participants.
- Upon finishing each book, you post a review – long or short. If you don’t blog or do Facebook, etc, find your own way of notifying the world that you’ve just read something and you loved/hated it.
- At the end of 12 months, we rejoice in our shared good fortune.
So who’s with me?
latterdaybohemian 
I’m in.
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I’m in, though my “to read” list is pretty fluid and includes lots of stuff that I’ve just come across at one time or another. I suppose it would be good to whittle it down some. And I’m going to totally disregard #2 – my *library* has all the books I need. 🙂
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Oh, I think I might be with you on this. Let me double check my TBR stack though. I’ve actually winnowed it down impressively and may not have enough interesting reads to participate.
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i try this ALL THE TIME. Hasn’t worked so far but I will commit to 6!
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Oh hooray!! I like it!
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OK, I’m in. The books I’ll try to tackle, in no order:
1) George Friedman – The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st century
2) Jonathan Franzen – The Corrections
3) Don DeLillo – Underworld
4) Anthony Bourdain – Kitchen Confidential
5) Ashley Khan/Jimmy Cobb – Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece
6) Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet
7) Michael Chabon – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
8) David Byrne – Bicycle Diaries (in progress, barely started, it counts)
9) Fyodor Dostoevsky – Crime and Punishment: Norton Critical Edition
10) Bill Bryson – The Lost Continent
11) Kurt Vonnegut – Breakfast of Champions
12) Graham Greene – The End of the Affair
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I’m in. Damn the CAS! 😉
I’ll put my list up soon.
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I’m in — a little late, yes, but just picked this up from Karin Suni.
The List:
Dante’s Purgatorio (Mark Musa translation)
William Carlos Williams, Poet From New Jersey
by Reed Whittmore
The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester
City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman’s Account of War and Resistance by Haifa Zangana
The Way and Its Power by Arthur Waley
The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino
To Think With a Good Heart: Wirarika Women, Weavers and Shamans by Stacy B. Schaefer
Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana Through India by Jonah Blank
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Matsuo Basho
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