FAQ: feat. How2Join?

[Redag]

FAQ for the chicago-sf.org Close Reading Group

ToC
1.1 I am ready to join this group! What do I do?
1.2 The reading I nominated won! Now what?
1.3 Close reading? What's that?
1.4 Sometimes you do novels, and other months short fiction. What's the deal?
1.5 What have you read to date?
1.6 Your times don't work for me! What can I do?

1.1
Q: I am ready to join this group! What do I do?

A: Great! Sign up on the forum if you haven't already and let us know you're coming! You can also message Redag and have him add you to the forum group to make sure you can vote in our selection polls if we ever need to ensure that only participants are voting.

1.2
Q: The reading I nominated won! Now what?

A: Post a NEW TOPIC. In this topic include the information on the reading including links to a canonical vendor, and any online availability. State the date, time and place of meeting clearly. Lay out any pre-spoiler discussion points you wish to make, and link to any further reading resources you would like to have. Do this within two days of winning the nomination. You can use my [Redag's] prior posts as examples. Please use passable grammar.

1.3
Q: Close reading? What's that?

A: The intent of this group is to engage technique and theme, and the fundamental merits of the text as literature and as speculative fiction. Nominated texts should support such scrutiny, and the nominator should have some plan for the discussion. Don't fret too much, this can be condensed as "we don't very simplistic fiction."

1.4
Q: Sometimes you do novels, and other months short fiction, still others you may be doing non-fiction. What's the deal?

A: Presently the group does not have a schedule for when we read in what mode. Maybe we will again in the future.

1.5
Q: What have you read to date?

A: Here's a list:
August 2006: The Sparrow Mary Doria Russell
September 2006: Houston, Houston, Do You Read?, James Tiptree Jr.; Stories for Men, John Kessel
October 2006: Lady of Mazes, Karl Schroeder
November 2006: Midnight at the Well of Souls, Jack L. Chalker
December 2006: Subterranean #4, the John Scalzi cliche issue
January 2007: Catalyst, Nina Kiriki Hoffman
February 2007: The Time Traveller's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
March 2007: Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
April 2007: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
May 2007: The Fifth Head of Cerberus: Three Novellas, Gene Wolfe
June 2007: Ammonite, Nicola Griffith
July 2007: Little, Big, John Crowley
August 2007: The Raw Shark Texts, Steven Hall
September 2007: Brasyl, Ian McDonald
October 2007: The Execution Channel, Ken MacLeod
November 2007: Stamping Butterflies, Jon Courtenay Grinwood
December 2007: Light, M. John Harrison
January 2008: Neuromancer, William Gibson
February 2008: World War Z, Max Brooks
March 2008: Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
April 2008: The Darkness That Comes Before, R. Scott Bakker
May 2008: Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner
June 2008: The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson
July 2008: Generation Loss, Elizabeth Hand
August 2008: Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
September 2008: Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
October 2008: Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang
November 2008: Soldier of the Mist, Gene Wolfe
December 2008: Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory
January 2009: Watchmen, writing: Alan Moore; art: Dave Gibbons; color: John Higgins
February 2009: The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, Ursula K. Le Guin
March 2009: The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway
April 2009: Getting To Know You: Stories, David Marusek
May 2009: Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
June 2009: Cyberabad Days, Ian McDonald
July 2009: Troll: A Love Story, Johanna Sinisalo
August 2009: Starfish, Peter Watts
September 2009: Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, James Tiptree Jr.
October 2009: Against The Day, Thomas Pynchon
November 2009: The Difference Engine, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
December 2009: Fledgling, Octavia Butler
January 2010: Use of Weapons, Iain M. Banks
February 2010: Halting State, Charles Stross
March 2010: Natural History, Justina Robson
April 2010: James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, Julie Phillips
May 2010: Absolute Sandman Volume One, Neil Gaiman
June 2010: The World at the End of Time, Fred Pohl
July 2010: The City and the City, China Mieville
August 2010: Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
September 2010: Incandescence, Greg Egan

1.6
Q: Your times don't work for me, what can I do?
A: Consider discussing your thoughts on the book in this forum. Mention that the time doesn't work for you, and if enough people have a problem with it, we can see about finding one that is better. You could also try one of the Chicago-area speculative fiction reading groups catalogued in chicago-sf.org's meta-FAQ of such groups.