Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
Since we’re kicking this around....
I guess what I’d like to see in a classics club would be one where I haven’t read most of the selections already, or at least not in decades. Like Jon, I wouldn’t want an Austen novel, but for the reason that they’re all quite clear in my memory. And I think any Top-100 list will lean heavily on favorites, that is, the ones that people will tend to have read.
With a small group, I would hope it wouldn’t be that hard to settle on what would be only a handful of suggestions in the course of a year, while at the same time allowing for singularities rather than the standards. No reason why any individual couldn’t use such lists as a jumping off point in any case.
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Just thinking out loud. The lists are useful for refreshing one's memory, I think, plus the synopses they provide are helpful. So start there, add other suggestions. The main thing I'd like is to decide all the choices initially, not bother with repeated monthly polls and the requirement to read a book because you voted in a monthly poll.
So if
Pride and Prejudice was one of the monthly choices, and you didn't want to read it again (or ever), fine; no guilt.
After the initial setup and choices, I would hope for a fluid group, with participants coming and going based on the monthly choice and their level of interest. I think this is feasible for a classics-oriented book club; I wouldn't necessarily want to reread a familiar classic, but I might still be interested in joining a discussion.