Literary The MR Literary Club • Welcome, Information & General Discussion

[Bookworm_Girl]

Ok with me. I think we can keep it broad to allow for more options like books with the word stars in the title.

[sun surfer]

All right, then that's what it shall be!

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

The Zodiac sound fine to me - although, on the spur of the moment, the only two books I can think of are The Luminaries and the Ford Zodiac Workshop Manual (an English car in the past), neither of which I hope ever to have to read .

I'm interested in The Luminaries but duly noted so I won't nominate it, heh.

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Ok with me. I think we can keep it broad to allow for more options like books with the word stars in the title.

Yes, very broad sounds good, especially after AnotherCat pointed out the limited amount of books concerning the word zodiac or signs themselves in the title or plot. It might result in a very varied group but it'll be interesting to see what we come up with.


Also, besides zodiac signs of Aries, Scorpio, etc., or as Bookworm_Girl pointed out stars, sun, moon or other celestial bodies in the title, there's also the possibility of a title or plot using an animal or symbol associated with a zodiac sign (lion, ram, twins, virgin, maiden, scales, balance, archer, centaur, bull, crab, fish, goat, water bearer), or an animal associated with the Chinese zodiac (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, pig), or one of the zodiacal elements (fire, water, earth, air, metal, wood) or perhaps even a direction associated with Chinese zodiac signs (west, north, east, south) or the Chinese zodiac's yin or yang. A nomination could also instead concern a more enigmatic association, such as fortune telling or the heavens. So hopefully that'll give us a lot to work with in finding books.

[sun surfer]

It's time for choosing September's topic!

All ideas are appreciated; just post! We're very flexible with our monthly topic; it can be a topic, theme, category or whatever else. This can also be collaborative so any little kernel of an idea or direction is great.

So what ideas do you have?

[AnotherCat]

Freedom?

As in being free or not being free.

[sun surfer]

I like it! There's a variety of ways to interpret it and it's a unique scope. I'm wondering if we should call a topic like that simply Freedom or something else.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Sounds good to me.

[sun surfer]

I guess it was already clear, but to make it official, 'Freedom' it is for September! I'll get the nominations thread up now.

[sun surfer]

It's time for choosing October's topic!

All ideas are appreciated; just post! We're very flexible with our monthly topic; it can be a topic, theme, category or whatever else. This can also be collaborative so any little kernel of an idea or direction is great.

So what ideas do you have?

[sun surfer]

Oops, I just realised we hadn't settled on a topic for October yet! If anyone has any last minute ideas post them, and meanwhile I'll be thinking on some too.

[sun surfer]

My very quick initial idea is something tied to the time of year since I don't think we've ever done anything like that for this time of year.

Maybe a topic related to Halloween such as 'All Hallows' Eve' or 'Samhain'. This could be a book set around Halloween (or any of its prior incarnations or various culturual incarnations) or having to do with something related to Halloween, such as horror, magic, cemeteries, ancient rituals, witches, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, etc. While it may sound like a more directed topic, I could definitely see some interesting interpretations that go in varying directions.

If we wanted something more general but still about the time of year, maybe we could do 'Autumn' and have it related to the season. I do realise it's spring in the southern hemisphere though which could complicate things! We could do 'Autumn & Spring' (or 'Spring & Autumn'!) and have it be books related to one of the two seasons, and I think it still works as a cohesive topic since these two seasons are about change and movement. Alternately, if we are okay sticking closer to autumn, we could do 'The Fall' which would open up the topic to multiple other interpretations since 'fall' could mean so many things and 'the fall' in particular can conjure up ideas of someone or some group having a collapse in some way. Or maybe that's just fresh in my mind since I not too long ago finished up the television series of The Fall in which each episode's name is a line from Milton's Paradise Lost.

[Bookworm_Girl]

How did October sneak up on us like that?!?! I like your second idea of spring/fall and changes. It’s my favorite time of the year.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

How did October sneak up on us like that?!?! I like your second idea of spring/fall and changes. It’s my favorite time of the year.

Done! I think that will be a fun category, and now I think of it, both spring and fall have other meanings and connotations that could be used.

[AnotherCat]

Spring/fall sounds fine to me.

[sun surfer]

Fyi I was going to use 'Spring & Fall, Seasons of Change' as the topic title per:

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

spring/fall and changes

But, at the last second while previewing the post, I remembered we'd had another topic with the word 'change' in it. It would've been okay to use the word again but on the spur I went with a synonym instead. Which, now I think on it, is fitting to the topic since the title was, ahem, changed.

[astrangerhere]

Apparently the other book club has abruptly shut up shop, so I will recommend a few ideas that I had posted over there:

• Winter Wonderland for Dec/Jan - leaves it pretty open for a lot of things
• We Were Here First - books by indigenous or first nations authors