Since we had a total of 5 people commenting on the theme thread, and 3 of them ok'd it, I'm thinking we should make January's book "The Wisdom of Insecurity" by Alan Watts.  http://shrinkster.com/l0n    Thanks to psydney for the suggestion.

If anyone would like to disagree with me and remind me it's not my club...well...you're right, but I'm going to read it anyway.

Who's with me!?!

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Travis Merkel

Microsoft Code Monkey and Head Chef
Redmond, WA

Alan Watts is a very good choice. I see him as the Richard Feynman of Philosophy and Spirituality. I'm with you.

Sounds like a plan.

Any word from above? (i.e. Rory.) I don't think it's official until the Blythster rubber stamps it.

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The one, the only, the undisputed king of the world.

well if we all unofficially read it, and unoffically discuss it, then it unofficially doesn't matter if Rory officially thinks it's a bad idea.

The worst case scenario is Rory says, no read this book, and then we read two.

so I'm in.

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something very clever and just a little cheeky.

We shall defy Rory by reading the forbidden book!  It will be anew form of rebellion...wait...no, it's been done before.  But the people who did it learned a lot...I think.  So...yeah.  Unoriginal rebellion for all!

Plus.  This is the Book Club of Disruptive Ideas.  So by going against Rory's idea of what book to read we are thus choosing the "Disruptive Idea".  It fits.

On a side note.  I just read Rory's post on eating cats.  A good idea.  Another good idea was laid out in "A Modest Proposal".  Maybe we should read that in the future

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Travis Merkel

Microsoft Code Monkey and Head Chef
Redmond, WA

you know why cats lick themselves?

Because they're delicious!

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something very clever and just a little cheeky.

Duly ordered from a mysterious bookseller via Amazon. Count me in.

I'm in too, I just need to get a copy from somewhere.

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The one, the only, the undisputed king of the world.

I just bought the book from Amazon.  It should arrive in two days.  Seems like an interesting read.  We shall see.

So how do we work this thing?  Since we have the luxury of not actually having to meet do we just post as we read?  Should we set a date to have finished reading and all start posting then?

I think personally I'd prefer a post as you go, but with some sort of limit.  Something along the lines of

Week 1 - Read

Week 2 - Read, post on first 1/4 of book

Week 3 - Read, post on first 1/2 of book

Week 4 - Read, post on first 3/4 of book

Week 5 - Free for all on posting

I think that way we'd get to write about stuff as it's fresh in our minds, while still mitigating the confusion that would come from one person reading the whole book in 2 days and then trying to talk to everyone else about everything.

Anyone like/hate that idea?  Any others?  I'm happy to read anywhere from really fast to the whole month, so it would be good to see what the consensus is.

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Travis Merkel

Microsoft Code Monkey and Head Chef
Redmond, WA

My copy's on hold at the library so not sure how long til I get my eager little hands on it. I like the idea of it being fresh in our minds. Weren't we supposed to have a theme? When I read said book, what am I filtering it through? Are we looking at it from a certain viewpoint, or is it a "free-for-all" I think this-athon? Has anyone actually started to read/read it yet?

I like Travis' idea for posting. That's a good point about everyone reading at different speeds... I predict I'll be in the slow category!

I got my copy from Amazon today. I guess we should wait until everyone has a copy and has had a chance to do some reading before we determine when week 2 starts if we go with Travis' suggestion.

I'm just questioning my use of the apostrophe in my previous post - I think it should be Travis's rather than Travis'. I bet Travis knows. Good thing this is a reading club, not a writing club. ;)

We could start a writing club too if you want.

Every month one or two victims have to write a discourse on a certain subject.

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The one, the only, the undisputed king of the world.

Has Rory abandoned the club already? 


I'll put in an order for that book with Amazon Books and get started as soon as the order gets in.


I'll put down my current book "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins or maybe continue to read it at the same time.  Is anyone interested in that one?  Maybe some ways down the road?

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The mind plays tricks on you. You play tricks back! It's like you're unraveling a big cable-knit sweater that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting...