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Rock Chalk Book Talk Planning Committee Meeting

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A few of you expressed interest in an off-season book club a few weeks ago. I thought we could try it out and see what happened. I'm open to suggestions on how to run it.

I'd like to use the comments section here to decide on a list of books, a general timeline, and a list of people willing to be in charge of leading discussion on a book. I suppose that would mostly consist of an introductory post to pique interest prior to reading, and another post giving a few discussion-generating questions or topics to officially start the "meeting." But again, I'm still thinking through the format.

I figure I can take the lead on the first book. I've got four books in mind right now, and would appreciate guidance on what people would like to read.

  1. I really like "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky if we're going classics, but I know Russian Lit is pretty divisive, so that may be a bad first choice.
  2. I'm currently reading "The Man in the High Castle" by Phillip K. Dick, so that's another option.
  3. "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neal Hurston is pretty heavy, but that would be a little more traditional book-clubby book that I feel familiar enough with to lead.
  4. "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is another book clubby book, but not one I've read yet. It envisions the Underground Railroad as an . . . actual railroad, which sounds kinda neat. It's on my list to read, and I wouldn't mind bumping it to the top.
Please comment below if you're interested in reading along with me this off-season and/or leading a discussion, give some book suggestions, tell me if you like any or none of my four possible books, and give me some format tips.