27
votes
Tildes Book Club - Future
This month's discussion is the last thing on the schedule. Are people interested in continuing? If so, two things will need to be decided: a new schedule, and a new host; a rotating series of hosts, like in the CGA threads, is likely the most sustainable long term move IMO.
I certainly enjoy our book club, and have come to cherish some of the books we've selected. If there's interest in continuing it, I'll assuredly remain as a member.
That said, I do wonder if we have the momentum for another round. This is something that boxer brought up when it was just her and I talking in the Pnin thread. Book clubs do naturally slow down with time as life gets in the way or priorities shift. There's nothing wrong with that, and it doesn't change the great discussions we've already had.
If we are approaching that point, though, I think it's worth acknowledging it and to giving ourselves a clean break, rather than have it peter out over the next year. Going through the motions of voting, having the host(s) generate discussion prompts, only to have a few people actually show up wouldn't be fair to them.
It's a difficult thing to evaluate because we have so many talented contributors, and there's a lot of optimism about participating. For that reason, I expect most people will vote yes to continuing. Though I do think it's worth looking at the engagement numbers and considering if we have enough to keep going. If only a handful of people reply to this thread, it speaks to a reduction in interest. To put that in perspective, we have 74 people on our ping list, but most discussions involve 4-5 active users.
If there is strong interest in continuing, then I think we may wish to reconsider our format and focus. Perhaps start with a shorter book selection, and use higher vote thresholds so that each title chosen has a strong consensus.
The monthly cadence may also be a little tough to keep up for those with lower bandwidth. I've seen a handful of comments from folks in multiple book clubs, or those like myself that struggle to balance personal reading alongside our group picks. So I think it'd be worth discussing if an alternate schedule (bimonthly or quarterly) might be easier for people.
Finally, from what I can tell, the denser books tend to generate deeper thoughts and conversations, but have less overall engagement. We see a stronger turnout for shorter titles, especially in scifi and fantasy genres. So while I really enjoy the variety of our picks, we could consider establishing a theme if it's more likely to speak to our audience.
Those are my thoughts. I'm on board for another round, but I'd like to go in with reasonable expectations and perhaps a review of our aims.
I think it's worth considering that the 90:9:1 rule applies within subcommunities as well. If we assume those 74 people are "subscribers" then 4-5 regular participants are not that unusual.
In the long run I think it's not good for morale seeing things just gradually disappear over time, which could ended up beig a self-fulfilling prophecies (it seems no one are interested, so I shouldn't bother). Maybe if activites can be designed with natural stopping and starting points then people can set proper expectation ahead of time.
An analogy is a TV show with a set vision a head of time and was able reach the intended ending vs. having shows that just got randomly cancelled midway (which is known to ruin people desire to check out more shows in the future).
Another factor is if those 4-5 people are the same across the book club's run or if there're different 4-5 people for each book, this may affect how you design activities.
Sorry for chiming in without having joined the book club (yet), it's just that I have some things I wanted to try as well so this issue has been on my mind for a while.
Edit: a possible arrangement is each book should be hosted by the person who has read it. They'd be naturally already interested in the book, know what prompts to make without having to read it again if they don't want to. The different hosts can even check out each other's books in the "down time" if they feel like it.
I have fallen out of the reading pattern for this last round. Life just got a bit busy and there weren't many standout books for my interests (which, is totally fine, I've read plenty of books that weren't the most directly appealing for book clubs, Tildes' included!) I have also just had a rough year of reading personally, with a single book just crashing my reading enthusiasm for some reason.
All that being said, I think the monthly cadence is just kind of intense. I think that bi-monthly or quarterly might be more appealing to more people. Or what do I know, maybe that's not enough momentum and people fall off? Regardless, it does seem like overall participation has fallen off. Like uaeaaie pointed out though, maybe 4-5 isn't an unrealistic number. I don't have the time today but it would be interesting to see if it's the same 4-5 users or if there's any rotation in users. I suspect it's mostly the same...
I would be on board for another round, but that might just be optimism speaking. I certainly don't have the time to invest in leading the club, even if I would like to.
I'm definitely in the silent group unfortunately. Feels bad since two of the books this round were ones I nominated. I did get a couple of the books, but due to some timing stuff and getting distracted by other things (yay ADHD) it just... Didn't work out.
Beyond that, it feels like there's a "window" of time to participate. Last year I joined one discussion a bit after the thread went up, and by then discussion seemed to be done. So when threads would go up before I'd finish a book, it just felt like "too late". (I got halfway through The Truth while on a trip. Thread went up. I still have yet to finish, and the pacing makes me feel like I might need to go back to the beginning to make sure I didn't forget any of the small plot threads.)
I think if we do continue, maybe we should try a more casual and relaxed approach. Slow the momentum a bit, go for shorter books if possible, or broaden it a bit (my mom's book club recently had a meeting where they'd pick any book they wanted by a specific author, that could be neat). Offer people more time to get the books and read...
And also, maybe not plan a full six months out. I'm kinda chuckling remembering the "A People's Future of the United States" threads. The timing of that one was... not ideal.
I'm not always able to line up my reading schedule with the book club, but I have read a lot of books that I both really enjoyed and would not otherwise have read with this group! I am definitely in favor of its continued existence, if someone feels they have time to run it.
Echoing the common sentiments of "I like our book club" and also "life is busy and I can't always keep up." I always have the best of intentions when it comes to reading the book each month, but more often than not I don't follow through.
I'd love to see the club continue, but I also think adjusting its cadence might be necessary.
Also, rotating hosts has worked really well for CGA, so I think it could work well here too.
On the other hand, given the number of people saying that they're already busy, I can also see the utility of just having some pre-determined questions that apply to any book that we put in the topic text, that way each month becomes a copy/paste (or even potentially automated) job. It's already a big ask for many of us to even read the book in the first place, so maybe reducing the hosting workload as much as possible is a good optimization?
Regrettably, I have been a spectator for over a year since going back to work full time. Much as I wish for it to continue, I can't realistically commit to participating regularly or hosting. (◡_◡)
I'm in a pretty similar position, though different life changes than going back to work full time. I think the last book I read specifically for Tildes book club was the poison one
Is it possible to set up automated posting like the weekly threads, but with customed titles and body text preplanned ahead of time? I imagine once a schedule is decided the rest can be automated.
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I enjoy the book club and have read all of the books each month, as well as the discussion threads. I do not often comment in those threads, which is my own fault and not due to the way they are organized or to the quality of the conversation. So if we do keep the book club going (and I'd be in favor of that) I will try and do better and leave a comment or three :)
I like the monthly cadence but can understand if that's too busy for folks. I've also appreciated the varied nature of the books, even if I haven't always enjoyed the books (looking at you People's Future of the US) because it's gotten me to read things I might not have otherwise. I'd also be happy to host a discussion thread if needed.
All that to say that I have enjoyed the structure of the book club much as it is, but can be flexible if that's what's needed to keep as many folks as possible involved. Thanks to all those who've put in the work to keep it going up until now :)
I'll admit, I've mostly stepped away from the book club. A combination of being busy with life and often feeling more interested in my own reading backlog than the selections. Even when I participated more actively in the bookclub I'd say I was fairly sporatic; I found the monthly cadence to be a bit quick so sometimes relied later than most activity, and I often skipped books either out of interest or availability. I also found I'd read others' responses that mirrored my own opinion but more eloquently than I felt I could express, so I'd 'like' comments and move on rather than participate.
All that to say, I've gotten a lot out of the book club, but I've found I've gone from occasional to nearly-absent participant. If the more active participants today do choose to continue, I'd still keep an eye on selected titles to see if any struck my fancy but wouldn't count on participating much.
I have really enjoyed the majority of books that were selected across this last cycle, but discussion has been hit or miss for me. I’d definitely like the selection portion and scheduling to continue, as I’ve now read a few things I’d have never considered otherwise (as I practically only look in the sci-fi section).
I’d also be okay with semi-automating the discussion prompts into maybe 3 more generic questions that can be discussion starters for any of us who might already want to come and say something. I feel bad about rich questions being left unresponded to, but not bad enough to try to answer :P
I will say that the book club motivated me to get back into reading. Now, I have drifted away from reading the book club books into a long backlog that I personally have.
That being said, I feel positively about hosting for a year. Mostly since I likely wouldn’t have started reading again without this club, and now I have. Based on other sentiment here, I would lean towards a less frequent cadence of novels, since I only finish the official book every other month or so. But that’s really up to the club as a whole.
I would love for it to continue, even if it's just a scheduled set of books with minimal structure in terms of questions / prompts in the discussion threads.
I've read/listened to about half of the books, and really appreciate the books that I never would have picked up. I haven't ended up participating much due to moving and some other stuff, but would like to see it continue. Thank you for all the effort you put in @boxer_dogs_dance!