How can we improve our book selection process?

Chris OConnor · Sun Nov 06, 2011 9:31 pm

Do you have ideas for how we can improve our book selection process?

Dexter · Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:31 pm

Not sure, apparently there are just not that many people willing to commit to a book selection.

I could understand not wanting to read someone else's choice -- it's hard to settle for one that you wouldn't have read otherwise, but I'm not sure why more people aren't proposing something they want to read anyway

Chris OConnor · Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:54 pm

Amen. I agree. Totally baffles me. We have literally thousands of people as members between our forums and our Facebook page. I just don't get it.

I do have a feature I can employ very soon. We have a "newsletter" mod that has been installed and people can opt-in to receive updates on book polls and author chats and such. I haven't learned how to customize the newsletters and use the mod yet, but when I do I can see the value. Maybe it will be a way to allowing all of the active members to keep in the loop without forcing me to spam 6,000+ people.

Tonya1000 · Mon Nov 07, 2011 6:23 pm

I'm not too sure this is all new to me still.

Damifino · Tue Nov 08, 2011 8:18 am

I'm still trying to figure out this site myself. I just noticed that under my avatar it says I am now eligible to vote in book polls. Now I just got to figure out where the polls are.

A few weeks back someone started a new thread asking for suggestions for the Nov - Dec book. People started giving out their suggestions. I made mention that I would be interested in reading House of Spirits from someone's suggestion. I never did see a poll though. Was there one?

Being a newbie here I am still a little intimated in being the host of a book.

On another online reading site that I belong to we each pick a month we want to host a book. Then that person will suggest 3 - 5 books and we do a poll. We encourage people to vote only if they plan on reading that book. But many times I have read the book that I had not voted for and loved it.

R. LeBeaux · Tue Nov 08, 2011 10:39 am


	Chris OConnor wrote: Amen. I agree. Totally baffles me. We have literally thousands of people as members between our forums and our Facebook page. I just don't get it.

My problem is time and my own personal book list (which is incredibly long). Because I must dedicate my days mainly to work, I read only at night in bed, and I always have at least one book going. This means I would have to stop whatever I am currently reading and read the latest selection, which is tough to do. Plus, I am a bit eclectic in my choice of reading nowadays, so my suggestions would probably not find much favor among the general membership. I would like to see more selections involving books about writers, editors, author biographies, history of literature, etc., but from what I can tell by seeing the book selections, I doubt others would. In fiction, I prefer what would probably be referred to as "literary" novels, and I don't really care for genre fiction, with the exception of an occasional (very occasional) SF novel. It seems that the book selections here run more toward things that stimulate long-winded debates, and although some of these are fairly interesting, most involve philosophies and ideas I've already debated to death over the years, so they become tiring to me. I guess this doesn't really answer the question, but I can't think of an answer that would be worth suggesting, so I thought I would just mention some of the reasons why I don't participate in the discussions of chosen books.

Chris OConnor · Tue Nov 08, 2011 11:59 am

I'll be replying to all of your ideas and comments as soon as possible.

Aqueda_Veronica · Tue Nov 08, 2011 3:52 pm


	Damifino wrote: On another online reading site that I belong to we each pick a month we want to host a book. Then that person will suggest 3 - 5 books and we do a poll. We encourage people to vote only if they plan on reading that book. But many times I have read the book that I had not voted for and loved it.

That seems like a good solution! I would support that since I find the fact that people won't step up to lead the discussion extremely annoying. Or maybe we should implement a rule that if you choose to nominate a book you will the discussion leader by default? Something to think about...

Damifino, what website is it again?

Dexter · Tue Nov 08, 2011 4:59 pm

Aqueda_Veronica wrote:


	Damifino wrote: On another online reading site that I belong to we each pick a month we want to host a book. Then that person will suggest 3 - 5 books and we do a poll. We encourage people to vote only if they plan on reading that book. But many times I have read the book that I had not voted for and loved it.

That seems like a good solution! I would support that since I find the fact that people won't step up to lead the discussion extremely annoying. Or maybe we should implement a rule that if you choose to nominate a book you will the discussion leader by default? Something to think about...

I think generally people who nominate a book are willing to be discussion leader. Usually that's not really an issue if you've got enough people involved.

It seems to me picking a month and then having only one person nominate books would just make it even less likely to come to a consensus. We just have to encourage more people to nominate selections, and hopefully one of them will generate enough interest. I usually pick something on my list of things I'd like to read, and throw it into the nominations for every poll -- usually there isn't enough interest, but it's worth a shot

DWill · Tue Nov 08, 2011 7:11 pm

The book selection process might be connected to the degree of success the book discussions have. I mean that members might have less desire to propose books because a number of the discussions seem to bomb, to put it bluntly. It's hard to sustain discussion of a book over the time needed to read it. Some people drop out and some who said they'd read the book never get it. It would be kind of cool if discussions could begin when a certain number of people had finished the book. Maybe there should also be "cheerleading" for groups that are going on, a little attention given to them. Maybe there could be reports from the discussion leaders on what's happening in the group. Perhaps the people in the discussions would enjoy feeling supported by the whole community.

This doesn't answer directly the question Chris asked, but it's what's on my mind right now.

giselle · Tue Nov 08, 2011 8:13 pm

I think the book selection process is pretty good. The only problem I've had is getting my book (usually from Amazon) quick enough to participate in the discussion. I have considered getting a Kindle but I prefer reading from conventional books. I haven't had any problem with reading books that I didn't vote for, actually I 've read some good books as a result of not getting my choice and the discussions have been good too. It would be nice to have more members participate in discussions, and it is odd that the numbers are small given the huge number of members, so I think that 'promoting' the discussions through whatever means possible is a good idea. I wonder sometimes if our discussions are not 'accessible' to some people and they get scared off?

Damifino · Wed Nov 09, 2011 8:48 am


	Aqueda_Veronica wrote: That seems like a good solution! I would support that since I find the fact that people won't step up to lead the discussion extremely annoying. Or maybe we should implement a rule that if you choose to nominate a book you will the discussion leader by default? Something to think about...

We all pitch in and help in the discussion. Someone may find a reading guide and could post possible questions, or we will find pictures that relate to the story. We break up the book in sections and talk as we go.

Sure hope i like House of Spirits. Then I can see how the discussion goes here.

LanDroid · Sat Nov 12, 2011 11:30 am

DWill said "The book selection process might be connected to the degree of success the book discussions have." Damifino said "Someone may find a reading guide and could post possible questions..."

Yes, along those lines we have to recognize the problem that online book discussions are difficult. You have to determine what you want to say, get online, compose it, etc. As compared to being in a group sitting around a coffee table and just speaking up.

One method that might make discussions easier would be for discussion leaders to post more leading questions. "Why did the character do this?" Or "did you notice the similarity between X and Y, and what does that mean?" Leading questions should inspire readers to write responses.

Leaders frequently post very insightful thoughts, which obviously we do not want to discourage, but recognize this may not expand the discussion much beyond "Good point, I hadn't thought of that."

On the problem of getting books in time for the discussion, I've lost track of how much time there is between the closing of a poll and the start of a discussion. Perhaps that time needs to be expanded?

Aqueda_Veronica · Sat Nov 12, 2011 5:49 pm


	LanDroid wrote: On the problem of getting books in time for the discussion, I've lost track of how much time there is between the closing of a poll and the start of a discussion. Perhaps that time needs to be expanded?

I second that!
I strongly suggest that we start taking nomination for January in the first week of December and than have a poll in the second week of December, so this will give me time to arrange everything before Xmas

Chris OConnor · Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:10 am

I appreciate all of the feedback. It looks like everyone agrees that we need more time between the announcement of the chosen book and the beginning of the new discussion period. Sometimes this is hard because a thread will be created asking for suggestions AND feedback on suggestions and it sits empty for weeks at a time. Had people actually participated in the suggestion thread a new book would have been chosen long before the start of the new period.

I'm thinking. There is a solution here somewhere and I am really thinking it is probably going to take a newsletter that people can opt into that is sent out to notify interested members of polls, author chats and other stuff. I cannot email the entire community without pissing many people off. But there are active members that I think would respond if they received a full-color HTML newsletter that they opted into.

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