Book Group on Fanfare?

August 20, 2014 4:28 AM

Books on Fanfare has been discussed, but in a theoretical way. The thread on The Stand makes me want to re-read it, and makes me want to be able to discuss it with MeFites. May I shoehorn it into Fanfare?

Not a particular fan of taking it to MetaChat or Goodreads. It could be in a discussion of the miniseries.

posted by theora55 to Etiquette/Policy at 4:28 AM (25 comments total)

Yeah, that would be fun; I decided to read The Stand, too, after seeing the post! But Matt will need to weigh in on what our projection is for books on FanFare, and we do have some summer holiday and/or travel time being smooshed into the super tight mod/admin schedule which might make things tougher to wrangle at the moment.
posted by taz (staff) at 4:32 AM on August 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

The unedited version is an atrocity. The edited one is an ok book by King standards.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:43 AM on August 20, 2014

It could be in a discussion of the miniseries.

Do this, and flag it as "Books Included," and you have your venue for discussion, no shoehorning necessary.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:03 AM on August 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

From my point of view, this probably shouldn't become A Thing To Do (you want to have a book club post, so you find a good book with an associated movie/TV series, and post that), but I think this makes sense for an occasional event.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:04 AM on August 20, 2014

I like books, and FanFare, but I don't want book clubs in fanfare. It's just too messy and frankly covered really well by many other sites. This is just my O.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:16 AM on August 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

We're still in a non-specific "that's in the future" place on the Books angle of FanFare, per that recent metatalk in your "discussed" link in the post, so the short answer is no for now.

If folks did want to have a miniseries-and-book "Books Included" discussion, that's okay, though I'd really prefer that be something that happens only specifically if there's a lot of actual interest in viewing the TV miniseries and having that be a substantial chunk of the discussion; just using it as a figleaf for what's actually primarily a book-oriented discussion with a wink and a nod isn't in the spirit of the thing so let's not go down that road.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:49 AM on August 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

I would participate in a reread and discussion of the book, but I have zero interest in discussing the miniseries. I feel like the miniseries ruined the book for me, because now I have those actors in my head when I think of the characters, and that really makes me angry. I don't know how to get my imagination characters back.
posted by MsVader at 9:51 AM on August 20, 2014 [6 favorites]

MsVader, I'm so glad you are talking about your Imagination Characters. I've had people look at me like I'm crazy for refusing to watch a movie because it might ruin my mental image of a book I really like.
posted by Night_owl at 10:15 AM on August 20, 2014 [7 favorites]

Out of curiosity, what's the argument against using FanFare for book discussions?

I can see that you might want to leave it until FanFare is hooked up to, say, goodreads, (or whatever the de facto "IMDB for books" is, so you can pull down book covers the same way you do movie posters. Or is it more about establishing a community (as opposed to a technology) that is obviously focused on doing one thing really well? Er, or other stuff that I haven't thought of?
posted by metaBugs at 10:20 AM on August 20, 2014

I'm wondering why our OP isn't interested in doing this on Goodreads, which has a a big group of MeFis and has been a good forum in the past for book discussion.
posted by bearwife at 10:23 AM on August 20, 2014

(To be clear, my question above stems from simple curiosity; I'm not demanding your reasons in the hope that I can use ANGRY LOGIC to bully you into speeding things along.)
posted by metaBugs at 10:25 AM on August 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Metabugs, there's no argument against using FanFare for book discussions; it's intended to be part of the picture, but we started with TV and then film as the beta phase, and we're still in that phase, as well as working on other site issues – and we don't have unlimited man hours and only one hardworked pb, so it's simply a matter of "can't do everything at once."
posted by taz (staff) at 10:45 AM on August 20, 2014 [4 favorites]

Yeah, what she said. It's not a "books are a bad fit for FanFare" thing, it's a "we literally have not built the Books part of FanFare yet" thing. To the extant that there's an argument against, it's the same thing as the argument against using the front page of Metafilter to post about your own music before Mefi Music existed: the place where it goes just didn't exist yet.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:51 AM on August 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

Whoops. Should have checked MetaTalk before emailing y'all about sporting events on FanFare.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:10 AM on August 20, 2014

Someone just needs to make a really good NFL post on the blue every two weeks or so. >_>
posted by Night_owl at 11:27 AM on August 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Interesting, thanks! So it's more about keeping things in their right templates/categories, rather than cluttering up the TV or Film stuff with shoehorned book threads?
posted by metaBugs at 12:09 PM on August 20, 2014

For what it's worth, I've been jonesing to find a great group to discuss the new book Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. It's very much the sort of thing I think my mefite comrades would love, but I have no idea how to shoehorn that into Fanfare without everyone reading it first. The thing about using other options is I'd really prefer to restrict the discussion to this community, and that's not easy to do using just any platform. So one more vote for "hope you figure it out" but also sympathy for the "how would it work, structurally" challenge.

No really, check that book out. You'll really enjoy it.
posted by Toekneesan at 3:25 PM on August 20, 2014

Night_owl: "I've had people look at me like I'm crazy for refusing to watch a movie because it might ruin my mental image of a book I really like."

Also certain audiobook narrators. (Grover Gardner and the Vorkosigan saga, I'm looking at you.)
posted by Lexica at 8:41 PM on August 20, 2014

Adding books to Fanfare would be a good opportunity to also tab/section the hell out of Fanfare, and try to bring some semblance of order to the place.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:25 AM on August 21, 2014

now I have those actors in my head when I think of the characters, and that really makes me angry. I don't know how to get my imagination characters back.

I've had people look at me like I'm crazy for refusing to watch a movie because it might ruin my mental image of a book I really like.

I am right there with you. I have a lot of regrets about watching, e.g., Jackson's Lord of the Rings for that reason, and I don't think LotR is a bad adaptation, it's just not what played in my head when I read those books (over and over again) as a child. This is a real thing and don't let 'em tell you otherwise.
posted by gauche at 6:27 AM on August 21, 2014

The Stand mini series was horrible. I didn't make it through. I tried.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:29 AM on August 21, 2014

I've had people look at me like I'm crazy for refusing to watch a movie because it might ruin my mental image of a book I really like.

Hell, I've refused to watch a movie because I was afraid it would ruin my reaction to the soundtrack.

(Peter Gabriel's Passion. It came out about the same time as the movie. I got that first and then avoided the movie for 20 years because the music was just that awesome.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:17 PM on August 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

I don't regularly use goodreads and I'm already familiar with MeFi. Also, there was the previous discussion suggesting that books will be added to fanfare. I'll comment in the thread asking what others think. Thanks.
posted by theora55 at 7:48 PM on August 21, 2014

EmpressCallipygos -- I trust you also got a hold of Passion Sources back in the day? :)
posted by Celsius1414 at 9:46 PM on August 21, 2014

cjorgensen: "The unedited version is an atrocity. The edited one is an ok book by King standards."

Exactly. King can be pretty good, when ruthlessly edited.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:43 PM on August 24, 2014