Exercise One:
I am currently a member of a book club that I started with some friends and neighbors almost 6 years ago now. It is a diverse group of women who have learned a great deal from each other and the books we've read and discussed. We meet once a month usually at my home. My preference would be to participate with people in-person rather than online though I do like using Visual Bookshelf by Living Social on Facebook to see what others are reading and keep track of my own reading. I do not regularly give a review when finishing a book but happily give others my feedback when asked personally for it. I do enjoy reading others reviews though. I'll leave the writing up to the talented people like Secret Asian Girl and LoneStarLibrarian.
Exercise Two:
Our library has a book club that meets monthly though I have never attended a meeting. Our patrons are busy people and I am not sure there is a demand for another book club here at Fairbanks. Judging from what people ask us for we would be better served having computer classes and workshops for typing a resume.
I did checkout all the resources as listed on #54.
Houston Great Books Council - I found a group that meets at the Panera Bread at 12220 FM 1960 Road W. So when I am ready to tackle Canterbury Tales someday I know where I can go and discuss it. Don't hold a seat for me quite yet.
ReadingGroupGuides - I have used this website many times in the past to get discussion questions for my book club to help keep our members talking about the book. It of course is a good source of ideas for what to read next but that usually isn't a problem as I have a list of books I want to read a mile long by the time I'm done with all the professional reading I try to keep up with. We also take turns picking the book for book club and rarely does anyone have trouble finding something to read. Based on my most recent visit here I would add Things I Want My Daughter To Know to my list of suggestions for book club.
Reading Group Choices - Another website I am familiar with and enjoy, however it doesn't have as large a selection of books to choose from for the discussion questions. I do enter the drawings when I visit the site. It seems some of the links are not updated regularly; i.e. the News and Events section's most recent listing is from 2007.
Readerville Forum - My least favorite of the four because in order to search you must login. The last thing I need is to join yet another blog/forum/website etc.. Not being able to search for a specific discussion, I just looked around at some of the discussions but found like my book club there was more discussion about off topic stuff than books including bacterial meningitis, Java installation and when they will be making a movie of the book. However, Readerville has additional resources so there is more to it than just the Forum.
I have a LibraryThing account which I started in June 2006. I've always wanted to enter the books I own but still have not done so.
I took a look around Goodreads but since I knew people on Shelfari I opened a Shelfari account instead of using Goodreads.
And finally, I have a visual bookshelf on my Facebook.
Exercise Three:
I looked up People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. On Shelfari they had 181 reviews of this book and 7 posts under the discussions. Most of the reviews were favorable though not all. One of the reviews quoted one of my favorite passages from the book. "...there were people who could see that what united us was more than what divided us. That to be a human being matters more than to be a Jew or a Muslim, Catholic or Orthodox." Goodreads had far more reviews of this book at 7574 and they broke down the reviews into categories for 5 star, 4 star, 3 star, 2 star, and 1 star ratings and gave you the average rating which was pretty helpful. And lastly, I looked at Visual Bookshelf on Facebook for People of the Book and found 923 reviews, 5323 people who include this title on the "bookshelf", 2 discussions, and 50 books under "similar titles."
I am currently a member of a book club that I started with some friends and neighbors almost 6 years ago now. It is a diverse group of women who have learned a great deal from each other and the books we've read and discussed. We meet once a month usually at my home. My preference would be to participate with people in-person rather than online though I do like using Visual Bookshelf by Living Social on Facebook to see what others are reading and keep track of my own reading. I do not regularly give a review when finishing a book but happily give others my feedback when asked personally for it. I do enjoy reading others reviews though. I'll leave the writing up to the talented people like Secret Asian Girl and LoneStarLibrarian.
Exercise Two:
Our library has a book club that meets monthly though I have never attended a meeting. Our patrons are busy people and I am not sure there is a demand for another book club here at Fairbanks. Judging from what people ask us for we would be better served having computer classes and workshops for typing a resume.
I did checkout all the resources as listed on #54.
Houston Great Books Council - I found a group that meets at the Panera Bread at 12220 FM 1960 Road W. So when I am ready to tackle Canterbury Tales someday I know where I can go and discuss it. Don't hold a seat for me quite yet.
ReadingGroupGuides - I have used this website many times in the past to get discussion questions for my book club to help keep our members talking about the book. It of course is a good source of ideas for what to read next but that usually isn't a problem as I have a list of books I want to read a mile long by the time I'm done with all the professional reading I try to keep up with. We also take turns picking the book for book club and rarely does anyone have trouble finding something to read. Based on my most recent visit here I would add Things I Want My Daughter To Know to my list of suggestions for book club.
Reading Group Choices - Another website I am familiar with and enjoy, however it doesn't have as large a selection of books to choose from for the discussion questions. I do enter the drawings when I visit the site. It seems some of the links are not updated regularly; i.e. the News and Events section's most recent listing is from 2007.
Readerville Forum - My least favorite of the four because in order to search you must login. The last thing I need is to join yet another blog/forum/website etc.. Not being able to search for a specific discussion, I just looked around at some of the discussions but found like my book club there was more discussion about off topic stuff than books including bacterial meningitis, Java installation and when they will be making a movie of the book. However, Readerville has additional resources so there is more to it than just the Forum.
I have a LibraryThing account which I started in June 2006. I've always wanted to enter the books I own but still have not done so.
I took a look around Goodreads but since I knew people on Shelfari I opened a Shelfari account instead of using Goodreads.
And finally, I have a visual bookshelf on my Facebook.
Exercise Three:
I looked up People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. On Shelfari they had 181 reviews of this book and 7 posts under the discussions. Most of the reviews were favorable though not all. One of the reviews quoted one of my favorite passages from the book. "...there were people who could see that what united us was more than what divided us. That to be a human being matters more than to be a Jew or a Muslim, Catholic or Orthodox." Goodreads had far more reviews of this book at 7574 and they broke down the reviews into categories for 5 star, 4 star, 3 star, 2 star, and 1 star ratings and gave you the average rating which was pretty helpful. And lastly, I looked at Visual Bookshelf on Facebook for People of the Book and found 923 reviews, 5323 people who include this title on the "bookshelf", 2 discussions, and 50 books under "similar titles."
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