Why do you come to BookTalk?

tarav · Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2005 12:51 pm Post subject: Why do you come to BookTalk?

I am interested in finding out about how our community attracts and keeps members. Whether you’ve been a member of BookTalk for a day or a year, please consider posting a response. What aspect of the community made you want to join BookTalk? Why are you a member of BookTalk? What do you like best about BookTalk? I wonder if most of us come here to be able to read posts about what like-minded people have to say about various topics. Perhaps more of us come here to be able to write about and express our thoughts on certain topics. Maybe some of us participate mainly to have the opportunity to chat with an author, or attend our casual chats. Members may most enjoy being able to debate religion and philosophy. I am sure that most of us have more than one reason for participating in this community. Please share those characteristics of BookTalk that keep you coming here!

Edited by: tarav at: 1/2/05 12:53 pm

Mr. Pessimistic · Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2005 2:41 pm Post subject: Re: Why do you come to BookTalk?

Tara:

You actually summed it all up nicely for me!

I originally found booktalk while searching for Michael Shermer info. I was reading "How We Believe" at the time and saw you actually had him as a guest! I was pissed I missed it..but apparently, Shermer missed it too! lol

I love talking to rational people about important topics, I love writing my opinions and other general chat topics...this is the best place I found to encompass all these things!

Mr. P.

The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.

I came to get down, I came to get down. So get out ya seat and jump around - House of Pain

HEY! Is that a ball in your court? - Mr. P

I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper

tarav · Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:31 pm Post subject: Re: Why do you come to BookTalk?

While I enjoy many things about BookTalk, two things stand out as most important to me. First, I enjoy and need to discuss nonfiction science books. The reading alone is wonderful, but I feel that I learn more from my reading if I can discuss it with others. Related to that endeavor is my other big reason for coming to BookTalk. I use this site as a book recommendation service! The polls, chats, and posts provide me with a continual stream of books to add to my reading list.

PeterDF · Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:18 pm Post subject: Re: Why do you come to BookTalk?

Hi all

I came to booktalk when I found out that Richard Dawkins was going to chat online. Although I missed the chat I felt at home right away. I have learned a lot from being a member of Booktalk, and I love debating issues at the high levels of intelligence and education that Booktalk members typically have.

It has been harder to keep up with what my friends have been saying lately as my time has been taken up with other things - but I still feel a great attachment to the community, and as Tara said it has been a great help in deciding which books I should read to help with my research.

Jeremy1952 · Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 12:33 pm Post subject: Re: Why do you come to BookTalk?

Here are my three main reasons, in order of personal importance:

(1) BookTalk causes me to read good books that I would not otherwise choose on my own. This is something my dear dead dad used to do for me. It is damn difficult to sample the world's offerings with books being written faster than any one person could possibly consider, much less read; and yet, it is important to one's intellectual breadth to avoid always reading one point of view.

(2) I get more value from many books by discussing them with others also interested, especially with those who disagree... generally harder to find than others who agree.

(3) I derive emotional satisfaction from the feeling of community here. Outside of the internet we tend to form relationships based on geography rather than interest; we BookTalkers comprise a better set of cohorts than I, at least, am likely to find in The Real World.

If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything. Daniel Dennett, 1984

scrumfish · Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 12:33 am Post subject: Re: Why do you come to BookTalk?

Booktalk first caught my eye because there were actual discussions of actual subjects instead of insults and complete idiots arguing with points that the person they were responding to didn't even make.

I continued to hang around because there was so much interesting information to be gleaned: Great links, interesting articles and essays, and enough books to grow my book list to a mile long.

I stuck around after my gathering of info slowed down because I didn't get a headache from huge, ugly signature lines with bright, flashing lights put there by people trying to prove that they're cool. (The previous sentence does not apply to everyone with a large, bright signature line, but is is so nice to not have to fight glaring lights every 4 lines.)

I still pop in because here is the one public place that I don't get funny looks because I don't believe in any gods. Here I can discuss things with people without having to state an opposite-of-pascal-clause to get past the whole "but god makes it work this way" stuff. That means a lot to me, especially now in this small town in the middle of a conservative state where the nearest non-theist is NOT just a coffeshop away.

jjacobs43 · Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:37 pm Post subject: Re: Why do you come to BookTalk?

I couldn't agree with you more scrumfish. That pretty much sums up why I come to this site myself. I have searched for other forums that have some kind of constructiveness to them and have been completely unsuccessful. They are always overcome by people who are just looking for an excuse to go back to their 5 year old mentality and start with the name calling.

I wish there were more political conversations on this site. I think that most of the regulars here pretty much agree with each other so not much gets said. But, even without that, I still enjoy reading the other conversations. Even if I'm not responding, I am reading them and trying to learn from other people's perspectives.

Loricat · Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 12:35 pm Post subject: Re: Why do you come to BookTalk?

Well, I just discovered BookTalk yesterday, and I'm (hoping to be) hooked.
Why?

I've been on the Internet for years, and have wondered about communities before. I've checked them out, and found, as others have, that the conversation is infantile or innane or sex-oriented. I began to quote Groucho Marx (the "I wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member" line), and avoid the elusive promise of community.

As I was reading some of the discussions yesterday, I did not see any silliness -- even in the more potentially silly discussions, on movies for example. People responded to each other with thoughtfulness and respect, and with some depth -- not the just the "Oh, I like the Matrix!", but a more careful explanation of why. This is more how I have discussions in life.

And I am really looking forward to the 2nd quarter book. I read non-fiction all the time, but never with an eye to discussing it with someone who is also reading it. I need/want the mental exercise of reading with an eye to dissecting the arguments in some intellectual discussion.

I'm glad I found BookTalk, and I hope to make myself at home here.

Lori

Murray Graham · Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:40 pm Post subject: Re: Why do you come to BookTalk?

As a veteran member of many political boards, I've grown weary of the same points argued by the same set of closeminded fanatics.

I like the discussion here, which is if nothing else, civil in tone and about something I enjoy.

Regards,
M. Graham

Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books.
For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring,
but to him they are but toys of the moment,
to be overturned with the flick of a finger. -- Gordon R.Dickson

Mr. Pessimistic · Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 3:11 pm Post subject: Re: Why do you come to BookTalk?

I agree with the last two posts. I used to go to the "e-thepeople" forum and got real discouraged and tired of the name calling and tit for tat.

Welcome to both of you!

Mr. P.

The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.

I came to get down, I came to get down. So get out ya seat and jump around - House of Pain

HEY! Is that a ball in your court? - Mr. P

I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper

Kate Fremont · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 8:57 pm Post subject: Re: Why do you come to BookTalk?

I'm interested in books and discussions that can present me with new ideas for consideration and which can help me refine my own thoughts and opinions. I am also pleased to discover a community here that differs from what I usually find at home: People whose only interest is to talk gossip, sports, or fluff TV shows. No doubt somewhere in my area there are people who think over issues and ideas and keep an open mind, but perhaps they have learned to keep their thoughts to themselves, as I have, to avoid rejection and isolation.

When reading I often find myself wishing I could share or discuss a passage from a book, if not the whole book, and would like to learn of other books and authors through a reciprocal exchange. The people I know, however, have no interest in books of substance, and while fluff reading and entertainment are fine once in a while, I get to hungering for something more meaty and challenging. BookTalk sounds like a wonderful place in which such wishes can be fulfilled.

"Everything that Mr. Smallweed's grandfather ever put away in his mind was a grub at first, and is a grub at last. In all his life he has never bred a single butterfly."
--Charles Dickens, "Bleak House"


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