Reading Lists - Book Suggestions

CSflim · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 6:32 pm Post subject: Reading Lists - Book Suggestions

There are plenty of intelligent well-read people on this board. I think that this would be a great resource to tap into.

At present there are plenty of book recommendations on the site and that is in itself a great resource. But I think we can go further. At present people only really recommend books that they think would be suitible for the quarterly read. As such the scope for what gets reccommended is quite limited. Also as the reccommendations just get added onto a big list it is less than helpful if you wished to consult it for something specific.

I think it would be a good idea to compile reading lists on various topics. People could reccommend books that they have read on the topic and say if they thought they were good (maybe even provide a mini-review). Or if necessary, warn people away from books which weren't so good.

There are plenty of categories which we could create. Just off the top of my head, a couple of potentials:
-History
-Current Affairs & Politics
-Evolution
-Physics & Cosmology
-Religion
-Paranormalism and debunkery

If this was sucessful we could even, if required, make lists of a finer "granularity".
-Nature & Nurture
-Moral Philosophy/ Ethics
-Logic and Analytic Philosophy
and so on....

Often I think to myself - 'I would love to know more about such-and-such a subject'. ' Being able to consult somewhere like this would be great. (I would also love to reccommend some of the books that I have read).

So what do others think? Do you think this is a good idea? Is it workable?

___________________
Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
-Douglas Adams, Last Chance To See

Edited by: Chris OConnor at: 3/21/05 2:15 am

scrumfish · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:30 pm Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

I think that is an awesome idea. I especially like the idea of subtopics. I personally think an entire section should be dedicated to this. On a side note, my husband has mentioned to me that for a form that is called BookTalk, the book parts of the form are kind of hidden away.

Mr. Pessimistic · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:17 am Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

I like it.

Chris...I can set up the threads...I dont think separate forums are necessary...

How about putting sticky threads in a forum...Book Suggestion Forum? Acadamy? Dont want to cluster forums...how about putting separate stickys in topic relevant forums?

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

Loricat · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 2:31 am Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

Can we include "Social History" as a sub-genre? This is my favourite newish genre, full of incredibly focussed titles like "Salt: A world history" and "The history of the Screw"?

Lori

"All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds."

Mr. Pessimistic · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 10:27 am Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

I have "SALT" on my 'when I get more money' list!

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

Loricat · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 10:57 am Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

It's wonderful -- makes you look at the world in a whole different way. I'm now reading his book 1968.

Lori

"All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds."

Loricat · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 10:59 am Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

See?!? Look at what a group of book lovers will do...

Somebody organize this before we get carried away with recommendations without structure -- then we'll never be able to find book titles again!

L

"All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds."

Mr. Pessimistic · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 11:21 am Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

I put a temporary thread in the Roundtable. See that for more detail.

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

Chris OConnor · Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 11:46 pm Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

CSflim

I do like your idea, but am not sure of the best way to make it a reality. Let’s use this thread to discuss it further.

scrumfish

Quote:
...my husband has mentioned to me that for a forum that is called BookTalk, the book parts of the form are kind of hidden away.

Any suggestions on how to improve in this regard? What do you mean by the "book parts?" Are you specifically referring to the "BOOKS" link at the top of every page in the orange link bar?

I need specifics in order to implement a change. First we must consider that there are actually two different web site URL's for BookTalk. Almost every page is located on the booktalk.org domain, while our message board resides with EZ Board. I have freedom to do plenty with the booktalk domain, but am limited with what EZ Board permits.

What specifically can I do to make the "books parts" more apparent? If I add links or text on the forums page it will bump the forums down. This doesn't seem desirable, as visitors will see only what appears on the very top of the page. Most visitors to any web site skim the material and quickly judge whether or not they want to stick around. If the forums get bumped lower those transients will not even see the top forum as it will be too far down the page, and require scrolling to see.

So just to be sure we are on the same page, what do you mean by "book parts" Scrum? I need to know so I know how to process your suggestion.

misterpessimistic

As I said up above I love the idea, but am not sure how it can best be implemented. We have a forum called "book suggestions," but do we want to add 5 or more “sticky” topics to this forum? A sticky topic should stand out...that is the entire purpose. When you have more than 1 or 2 you loose the entire benefit of having that feature.

When people visit that forum they can easily miss new posts to non-sticky threads, as those threads will always appear deeper down the list. Imagine the most recent post appearing 8 threads down the list. This is a reality when you consider that the book suggestion thread regularly already has a handful of sticky topics by necessity.

We will always have the Permanent Book Suggestions thread stuck up top, or at least until we hire a programmer to design a database for all book suggestions. For the time being that thread must always be on top.

Then we will always have our official poll threads and nominations threads. This amounts to 3 or even 4 sticky topics. Shall we add 5 or more additional sticky topics? Maybe, but I'm not convinced this would benefit that forum.

Quote:
...how about putting separate stickys in topic relevant forums?

Since we already have a book suggestion forum it seems silly to put any book suggestions anywhere but there. I am convinced that all book suggestions should go ONLY in the book suggestions forum; otherwise this community will look like a complete mess to visitors AND members.

So the real question is – how do we start up an extensive and ever-growing list of book suggestions without compromising the order and design of the community?

Chris

Edited by: Chris OConnor at: 3/21/05 12:00 pm

Chris OConnor · Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:39 am Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

It sounds like the main concern is that the thread entitled, "Permanent Thread - All Book Suggestions go Here," is bulky, confusing, and hard to navigate effectively. I agree.

The solution seems to be us having one large sortable database. By "sortable" I mean that there would be several fields that anyone can sort however they like.

I will soon be paying a programmer to create this database so that anyone can effectively view our database and find what they want quickly and easily.

Here is how I am envisioning the design...

Imagine a page on our site entitled, "Suggested Books." This page contains a table, with the following columns across the top...

Title
Author
Subject
Amazon.com link

If you click on "Title" it sorts the entire database of book titles alphabetically. Click it again, it sorts in reverse alphabetical order.

Click on Author it sorts the entire database by author alphabetically, and then naturally if you click it again it reverses the order.

What it seems you guys want is to be able to sort by subject. Well, we will be able to once this database is created and up and running. We will try to keep the total number of subjects to a minimum, such as "science, history, current events, etc..." Or we can get even more specific, but the goal will be for people to be able to find books quickly and efficiently, so fewer categories seems wiser.

I don't see a reason to have a bunch of sticky topic threads, when many of the books suggested will have to be suggested yet again in the permanent thread. Talk about redundant. Visitors will really think we're a mess.

I also will soon create a page that explains the whole voting process for new people. We'll be using the Acronym "SNOW."

S = Suggestions
N = Nominations
O = Options
W = Winner

(S) Suggestions

We will continually be adding to the book suggestion database that I just mentioned above. The books we suggest will NOT have to be ideal for our quarterly readings, but merely good books members suggest other members read. This is an important point. Again, this massive database will simply be a sortable database of books members suggest other members read.

I'll always reserve the right to not allow certain books into the database, as we don't want it too damn big. Heck, big is ok I suppose. If it is designed properly. We could even have categories for Humor, Art, and other off-the-wall topics.

I'd like to make it so members can enter books into the database themselves, but I'm not sure if this will be possible. I may have to do it myself.

(N) Nominations

From our database members can pick a handful of books they would like to see on any given poll. In other words, they scan the database and pick books they feel would make excellent reads for our quarterly selections.

They then make a post in the appropriate nomination thread naming the book or books they wish to nominate. All books appearing in the nomination thread must appear in the database, and if they don't they will be added. Nominations should be a subset of our database.

We could have a dozen nominated books appearing in the nomination thread, but obviously we will never have more than 5 on a poll. Ideally, each book poll contains 3 or 4 books.

(O) Options

From the nomination thread we will pick between 3 and 5 book options that will appear on the poll.

(W) Winner

One book will be announced as the winner of each poll.

So we go from suggestions to nominations to options to a winner. This is basically what we do now, but the process is confusing without a page explaining how it works for new people. And also, without having a sortable database we have to use that bulky "permanent" thread.

Chris

Chris OConnor · Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:43 am Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

Oh, and there would be a link on the Forums page and on several other pages throughout the site to the Book Suggestions database. At the top of the Book Suggestions database page would be a link entitled "Suggest A Book!"

This link will take you to a page with a form for suggesting books. Here is an example of how that page might look.

Chris

CSflim · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:31 pm Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

Here is something I'm working on behind the scenes. Right now that page only contains our past book selections, but it will eventually contain all of the books that were suggested and deemed suitable for nomination for polls. Any book on that page will be acceptable for our quarterly readings.

That's interesting Chris. However, my problem with it is that it doesn't include a description of the book. The Book Suggestion thread is ideal in that sense. Perhaps a 'best of both worlds' is possible?

___________________
Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
-Douglas Adams, Last Chance To See

Edited by: CSflim at: 3/23/05 8:21 pm

MadArchitect · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:58 pm Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

I don't mind that you've moved the book discussion folders to the top, as I realize that's the focus of the site, but since I come here mostly for the category folders (eg. "Religion, Philosophy, & the Arts"), I'd like to see them in the next category down.

Also, since I now know that the Book Suggestions forum is primarily for suggesting the quarterly reads, I'd say it would be more intuitive to have it in the Book Discussion Forums category.

CSflim · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 5:19 pm Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

I have to say that I really like the new layout. Much more suited to a place called BookTalk!

Minor suggestions: "Book Archives" could probably be placed at the end of the "Book Discussion Forums" tab, rather than getting a tab all of its own. and "The Academy" could be added either to General or Book Discussion. I say this because having tabs with a single element in them looks ugly, takes up more space than is needed, and makes things look more complex than they need to.

___________________
Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
-Douglas Adams, Last Chance To See

scrumfish · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 6:31 pm Post subject: Re: Reading Lists

I had a thought I'm going to throw out just to make everything even more confusing. What about doing CSflim's suggestion the opposite way? If someone has a topic they are interested in reading about have a forum where he can post a thread asking for suggestions on the topic? It doesn't really cut down on confusion and it probably isn't what CS had in mind, and anyone could do that in the appropriately subjected forums, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.


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