The Great Book Challenge

[Bladicus]

So we have MoTW and movie trivia why not have a similar contest/thread here in my fav forum The Leaky Pen.

What I propose is to have a on going thread. Where a person posts a book that they found interesting in some way or another. Then the first person to read the book and post a review of it then chooses the next book for our faithful followers to read and review.

The only rules besides that you must have found the book interesting and recently read it. Is the at the person who posts the follow up have actually read the book in the last month or so so that they're review is accurate and fresh. Also if the book happens to a book that expresses possibly offensive views to some please post so. So that people that may not want to read about it have some inkling may avoid it. Post a brief synopsis of the title plus author wether its fact or fiction and the length of the title.

I think this would be a great way to broaden peoples views and reading lists. I know I am always looking for a new author or subject to read about.

What do ya'll think ?

I will start with:

The Godfather by Mario Puzo
450 pgs

The novel is about the life and times of the Corleone family and the criminal underworld that they live in.
The novel encompasses basically The Godfather I and the story of Vito Corleone from part II. It also fleshes out alot of the story left untold in the movies.

[Arctic]

great idea Bladicus!

i've been trying to think of something along these lines for awhile now, the main difficulty being one of participation. this way though, people can participate at their own leisure, but they also have the incentive of being able to pick the next book to be reviewed/discussed if they do participate. ingenious! :D

i would only suggest making a new thread for each book, in case by some miracle 100 people decide to read and post the first review for the selected book. This also leaves room for people to respond to the reviewer's review if they want. whoever gets their review in first though gets to choose the new book and start a new thread, entitled something like "The Great Book Challenge: The Godfather".

sound fair?

[Bladicus]

Sounds great this idea should continue to evolve till we get what we consider as the ideal set up.

[Arctic]

ok so i've been thinking on this a great deal more and here's what i've come up with:



I suggest having a larger pool of books to choose from for reviewing. this will give people more options in what they read, and improve chances of participation.

-First, everyone makes up a review wishlist (a list of books they want reviewed). A wishlist becomes 'active' when the owner posts a book review. Initially, everyone's wishlist will be active.

-People choose a book that they are interested in reviewing from an active wishlist. Once the reviews start coming in, then only the people who wrote the reviews will have active wishlists. For an wishlist to remain active, the owner must keep reviewing books.

-Reviewers can review books on their own lists or on other's lists. Reviewers that review a book from a wishlist other than their own will get twice the amount of active wishlist time (i.e. the wishlist will remain active until 2 books, rather than 1, have been reviewed from it).

-Books on the wishlists can be new or old, read or unread, but all must be widely available and accessible. Each wishlist should always have at least one older book that can be found at a library. This way people are not obligated to purchase the books they review.

-The wishlists will be posted in a Wishlist thread, and can be editted at any time. The first post in the Wishlist thread will be a list of the currently active wishlists, with the number of reviews owed to each wishlist owner. (For example: You review three books from other lists and one from your own. Your wishlist will then be listed as active with the number 7 by it.)

-Another thread will be started containing a list of all the books reviewed to date with links to the review threads.

-If a book is removed from a wishlist/reviewed by someone else before you get to review or finish it, your review, if posted, will still activate your wishlist.

-If you know a book expresses possibly offensive views, please post so in your wishlist or review. Try to list as much book info with your books as you can, give a short explanation as to why the book is on your wishlist, *or* link to someplace like Amazon.com to give a book description. When possible, also include this introductory info in your reviews.

-The book shouldn't have to be freshly read for a review, though that's definitely preferred. Regardless, the review has to be fairly informative, detailed, thoughtful, and preferably well written in order to count (as judged by moi, your moderator, mwuh hah hah haaaaaaaaa...) none of this "i really liked this book. it rocked." why was it good, and what did it make you think about?? would you recommend it to your best friend, or rather consider using it as a coaster?




questions, comments, suggestions? did i miss anything?

if no one has anything to add or dispute, i'll start up a wishlist thread at the end of this week.

[Ranthium]

Sounds interesting. I'll keep my eyes open for this new game. :D