h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Has anyone started a reading group on H2G2?
If so, where can I join?
If not, what are we waiting for? Let's do it right here (or on My Space).

That is a seriously good idea. Sign me up for it, now. What are you reading, Andy, we can kick one off anyway.

a reader called Ben

When i first came here (ie to H2G2) i joined in at the Book Nook - but no-one goes there now.

It would be nice to have somewhere to talk about what we read, but a poper reading group, where we all go out and read the same book, chapter by chapter together, and discuss it would be great.

That would be great! It's what I miss most about my uni days.

Add me to the roster.

I suggest no hitch-hiker books, because there is enough discussion of them here already.

A few positive suggestions though:

The Eyre Affair - Justin Fford
Games People Play - Eric Berne
The Way we Live Now - Anthony Trollope
Old Gods - Terry Prathett
Dangerous Driving - can't remember the author off the top of my head
Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson

I think we should come up with more suggestions, and agree two books, one for Feb and one for March, and agree a list of other suggestions to chose from for the rest of the year.

Personally, I think the ratio should be two fiction to one non-fiction, with a scattering of books about the Internet and Society.

Ben

Could i suggest we have a price and length limit - some of us have limited time, some of us have limited budgets.

No book over £8 (or that cannot be easily bought 2nd hand) perhaps - though this would limit any non-fiction severly i realise.

And no book over 400 pages. I know that length is no way to measure literature, but we want to read it together, and get to the end and disguss it. If we take too long reading it we won't get a turn over of books and we won't get new blood in (ie we'll become exclusive).

Can we do polls anywhere on H2G2? We could all suggest some books we'd like to read and the most popular suggestion at the begining of one month will be the title for the following month.

I think a reading group is a idea. Sign me up!

Though I can't guarantee to ready every book every month, I will certainly do my best to find the time.

Seeing as it's King Arthur week on the front page, and everyone is going Tolkien bonkers at the moment, and seeing as i said something short, and seeing as it's something a bit different, and seeing as i've not read it before -

How about we take as out first text Tolkien's modern english translation of "Gawain and the Green Knight".

There's a guide entry on it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A532270

It's a classic: A good start for our reading groups credentials.
It's in verse: Again good for the groups literary cv.
It was origonally written in Middle English (like Chaucer but a bit more regional)-but Tolkien translales this lively story into Modern English (Origonally for a BBC radio production in fact - another nice H2G2 link)

The modern translation used to be published by Unwin - i guess it still is along with a couple of shorter translations "Pearl" and "Sir Orfeo".

Tolkien's first proper book to be published was his edition of the poem in Middle English - this i do have and have read (hard going for me, not fluent in middle english) - and that's published by OUP. Don't get them confused.

With it being a poem, it's quite short too - but full of stuff to discuss i'm sure.

Ben: I'm reading 'Moab is my Washpot' by Stephen Fry at the moment, which is non-fiction and very funny - especially when he's describing his musical abilities. After that I've got The Truth (Pratchett) lined up.

How about something 'classic' like The Time Machine, Flatland or Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde. These have the benefit of being extremely cheap (available from the Gutenburg Project for nothing) and quotable without worrying about copyright.

Perhaps we should make a concious effort to be different each month - each book must be a different century, genre and format to the previous two months. Just to keep the spice in there.

I like the idea of reading something different every month, and personally I'd prefer to read books that are a little off the beaten path. I can't think of anything specific at the moment, though.

Yesterday I picked up Alice Walker's 'Possessing The Secret of Joy' and John Updike's 'Brazil'. Decisions, decisions.... which one shall I read first? (happily looking forward to an upcoming 4 day weekend and hoping for some good beach weather to laze and read)

Well, all of the suggestions seem good to me, including Autist's suggestion of maximum price and maximum length.

Since it is Andy's suggestion, he should have the glory! Why not set up a page (with an outline of how we choose the books), with a thread hanging off it for suggestions, and other threads - one per month - for each book we read?

Tell Shazz, I am sure the Post would give us some publicity.

I am up for any of the books suggested so far. I love all the Stephen Fry I have read. Have you read 'Making History'?.

a (rather bossy) reader called Ben

Okay count me in.

I read a lot, but my taste in books has become rather pedestrian. I have tried to rectify this but keep slipping back into old habits.

A reading group sounds like a good idea.

I like flinch's suggestions. They sound like a good way to keep things moving. The only additional suggestion I would make would be to have no author repeated within 1 year.

The big hurdle will be choosing the first book.

Any suggestions on how?

I'll sign up, too, though I probably won't be able to get hold of all the books, I'd love to join in if it just so happens I can...

As it happens I've just finished reading a book called 'no logo', (Naomi Klein) about the rise of branding and the opposition to it, which was interesting, so that's my suggestion. But feel free to ignore it as it is quite political and probably highhly contentious post september I'm happy with the other suggestions too and shall keep my eye out for the books mentioned...

No1 son, who has almost completed a BA in English with Philosophy, after his first term he was perusing my bookcase and dismissed my books as a 'Mumsy Collection'!

Well, I thought my taste was fairly eclectic, a mixture of: classics, biographies, novels, historical, medical and the odd art book. But obviously not!

As reading time is precious, I think limiting the length of books is a good idea. However if there is a book that we all agree is worth a read over the limit, how about extending it to two months?

Of course, there's no point in being Stalinist about this, i suggested a few guidelines rather than 'rules'. If we all seem to want to read something, we can bend the rules. I was just thinking that Rememberance of Things Past or The Brothers Karamasov might be beyond the pockets of some, the time limits of others and would stop other researchers from joining half way through a 'big' book.

I presume that we won't limit ourselves to fiction/novels.

What about plays, essays, poetry, biography, fact....

Right. I'm off to re-register under some suitably bookish name so we have an exclusive bit of space.
Ever the democrat, I'll administer it; but if anyone objects and wants to do it, just let me know and the reins are yours.
Also, it may look appalling until I get the hang of GuideML...

Andy

Forgot to mention: I have read Making History awhile ago thought it was great. However, I've just finished The Stars' Tennis Balls. I stayed up until 3am to finish it, even though I had to work at 7am - it was that good.

Use MaW's GuidePost - a dandy little utility, and there is a link about 2/3rds of the way down my user space.

Ben