Would anybody be interested in collectively reading a book over a period of a month (well, you can read it at any pace you want, but discussion would take place after the end of that month; that way people can read whatever else they want to read, apart from the book chosen)? We would choose a book, give a couple of weeks for everybody to get a copy (whether for free or by buying it), and then take a month to read it individually, and then come back and discuss.
I tried this over at shelfari, but with my group of two people obviously I did not get too far, lol.
I think that is a great idea. The problem is choosing a book. If it could be narrowed down to a handful then we could use the poll feature to have the Book Club members vote on the book for the month. So do you have any ideas about how to choose a book?
Since we have an indefinite amount of time, perhaps we can go by “topic of the month”? That is, choose a specific area in which the book can be categorized into, and choose (say) five of the major books on that topic (the topics can be something like IP, banking, et cetera). I was going to throw out a topic to see how this would end up working itself out, but I want to ask whether or not we should choose from books sold exclusively by Mises.org (or exclusively in the literature area and available for free, alternatively) or are people OK with choosing books outside of Mises.org?
Well the store has ‘collections’ which encompass many of the works they sell in a whole collection. We could do a collection month such as:
December - Gold Standard collection
January - History of Thought collection
February - War Collection
March - Libertarian collection
From these collections we can just have a random selection of works within them and then we can vote on what to read. When we get to the end of collection we can just revert to the beginning. For books not in Mises but still ‘liberty-oriented’ I think someone could present the title in the forums and then we could vote or perhaps gather a collection of non-Mises titles and vote.
I’m interested in joining the discussion group. I like the idea of having the discussion group vote on the book; the books would be from within the same collection (as LM suggested).
Here are some possible/basic discussion we could consider:
What did you find surprising about the facts introduced in this book?
How has reading this book changed your opinion of a certain person or topic?
Does the author present information in a way that is interesting and insightful, and if so, how does he or she achieve this?
If the author is writing on a debatable issue, does he or she give proper consideration to all sides the debate? Does he or she seem to have a bias?
How has the book increased your interest in the subject matter?
That’s fine with me. I’m always up for discussion and reading. I’d personally like to keep the selections on mises.org because of financial considerations, but other than that I’m okay with just about anything.
This post is closing in on a year old. I say we should do a book of the month club. We’re all reading other things, we can finish a book for the club in a month.
Here’s my ideas: We’ll vote on what book we’ll read. Voters will be anyone who’s interested in posting on here at first. We can switch to a poll feature after we all get started.
After at least five people profess an interest in this we’ll set a date that suggestions will have to be in by. A week afterward voting will end.
Suggestions will be Libertarian/Anarchist in nature. Generally anti-collectivist, though. And for this Club, we will NOT limit it to non-fiction. Novels are ok. Novels are one of the best things we can use to recruit.
Lot’s of good suggestions! Quick note: i will post all the choices and we will vote on Wednesday. That way we’ll have a few days to tally and then we can start first thing August! Keep them coming guys and gals, and don’t be shy about suggesting classics that you’ve read already. This is a way for us to teach and challenge each other, so working knowledge of the material is ok. Don’'t be self conscious about any ideas. Even if you want to suggest a comic book. Whatever. Just keep the ideas coming, you guys are doing great.