FAQ: feat. How2Join?

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!

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. Please include an RSVP poll in the topic. The poll tab is present beneath the message window when posting. 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
October 2010: Boneshaker, Cherie Priest
November 2010: A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare
December 2010: Startide Rising, David Brin
January 2011: City of Saints and Madmen, Jeff VanderMeer
February 2011: Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor
March 2011: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, Harlan Ellison
April 2011: A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
May 2011: Black Projects, White Knights: The Company Dossiers, Kage Baker
June 2011: Time Enough for Love, Robert A. Heinlein
July 2011: Surface Detail, Iain M. Banks
August 2011: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin
September 2011: The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester and Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
October 2011: Between the Rivers, Harry Turtledove

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.

... continuing the list of selections that we have discussed to date:


November 2011: American Gods, Neil Gaiman
December 2011: At the Mountains of Madness, H. P. Lovecraft
January 2012: Selected short stories --

"Spacetime for Springers" by Fritz Leiber,
"A Game of Rat and Dragon" by Cordwainer Smith, and
"The Ballad of Lost C'Mell," by Cordwainer Smith

February 2012: Feed, Mira Grant
March 2012: A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge
April 2012: Rule 34, Charles Stross
May 2012: Deadline, Mira Grant
June 2012: Embassytown, China Miéville
July 2012: Leviathan Wakes, James S.A. Corey
August 2012: Among Others, Jo Walton
September 2012: Double Star, Robert Heinlein
October 2012: Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
November 2012: The Newsflesh Trilogy, including Blackout, Mira Grant
December 2012: Pathfinder, Orson Scott Card
February 2012: Blindsight, Peter Watts

Please note the Rule Change for nominations -

For the past couple of years we've agreed that before nominating a book, the person nominating must have already read it. (This is to ensure that at least one person enjoys it.) (And yes, before we had this rule, there was that one time when no one liked the selection.)

However, it's also quite likely that people who go to the reading group will also be eligible to cast votes for the Hugo Awards, and that requires quite a lot of reading in addition to whatever the selection for the month may be. Since a Hugo nomination ensures that a lot of people out there enjoyed the book, we've decided to take their word for it.

Therefore, in the months leading up to the Hugo Awards, we'll be choosing a book (or collection of short stories) (or group of novellas) that has been nominated for a Hugo, regardless of whether or not any of us has read it before nominating it.

You could also try one of the Chicago-area speculative fiction reading groups catalogued in chicago-sf.org's meta-FAQ of such groups.

This link no longer works. Do we have that list somewhere else? I was looking for a link to the Phandemonium Book Club.

http://www.phandemonium.org/phandemonium/bookclub.htm, although this page is quire seriously out of date -- there's a link to the forums that may give the real information.

The Phandemonium Bookclub, like the chicago-sf book discussion group, will be having a discussion at Capricon. You might get in touch with them there.

Try http://www.chicago-sf.org/readingfaq.php instead of .html and it should work.