Book club for MeFi

October 5, 2023 11:13 AM

I suggested a book club in the "How will we care for our elderly" post on the blue and want to follow up and make this happen. Mods, should I put this book club in Projects? Meetups? Chat? All three? It will be virtual of course, and probably mostly asynchronous, but I imagine adding in an every other month or every three months Zoom chat.

Right now I'm wondering if a pdf annotation platform would be a good way to have the asynchronous book discussion. There are book club platforms but I don't know if they have the functionality this book club would need. Actually I don't know what functionality would be good. A co-host or co-hosts would be great, but I would be happy with someone to bounce ideas off at first and then I can do the coordinating afterwards.

p.s. I still want the MeFi Can I Eat This Cookbook. I would be excited to co-coordinate this, but definitely don't have the email reply bandwidth for recipe sharers.

posted by spamandkimchi to MetaFilter-Related at 11:13 AM (16 comments total)

Hey there, it’s your friendly mefi geriatrics nurse with Opinions, I would like to join this book club.
posted by I am a Sock, I am an Island at 12:58 PM on October 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Is there a reason not to use FanFare?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:25 PM on October 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Totally missed that thread but I would like to join this book club, too.
posted by Jess the Mess at 6:57 AM on October 6, 2023

I'm in the thick of eldercare + increasing responsibility at work (which is welcomed and wanted) so I don't really have time to read more books. Would I be welcome as a non-participant to simply read the discussion and occasionally add to the conversation if I have applicable things to add?
posted by cooker girl at 7:53 AM on October 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

I feel like Fanfare is the perfect spot. I'd be much more likely to participate if I didn't have to use a different platform.
posted by donnagirl at 9:19 AM on October 6, 2023

Interested!
posted by AnyUsernameWillDo at 7:09 PM on October 6, 2023

Ah! FanFare! That makes lots of sense.

And cooker girl, I think it is completely fine to participate without having read the book. Maybe we can alternate between books and essays/articles, in consideration of folks who don't have the bandwidth to read something long but might be able to read something short?

I'll share this MetaTalk in the original thread so people there can also weigh in.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:11 AM on October 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

I am interested in a book club. I like fiction and some non-fiction. if it's asynchronous could we use fanfare? There's also chat, and we could meet.
posted by theora55 at 6:27 PM on October 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

MeFi book club? Count me in! I'm happy to help, too, I've been running book clubs for the past year and a half, so not a ton of experience, but some.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:09 AM on October 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I saw your original suggestion in the carers' thread and am still interested in this. Whether in practice I would be able to contribute I don't know - if most of us participating do have caring responsibilities, it may be difficult to get much contribution (I know you said maybe best for those not yet too involved in care). Not sure I am up for anything too dark either (probably no to the Ira Rosofsky book, but interested in the Anne Basting). All of which caveats really amount to, I hope you give it a go and I will follow along if I can.

You ask in the original thread for suggestions. I have been considering reading Labours of Love: The Crisis of Care by Madeleine Bunting, though that has a UK focus which may not engage people in other countries. A friend read and liked An Extra Pair of Hands: A Story of Caring, Ageing and Everyday Acts of Love by Kate Mosse; not one I'm interested in reading, but others may be.
posted by paduasoy at 11:35 AM on October 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

And I meant to say, I think FanFare would be a good medium to use.
posted by paduasoy at 11:38 AM on October 11, 2023

I think an IRL post (virtual) with info on the book selected and a rough timeline. Then using Fanfare to 'host' the discussion.
posted by hydra77 at 12:47 PM on October 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have never used a collaborative pdf markup program for a book club but that sounds really fantastic to me.
posted by rebent at 9:08 AM on October 12, 2023

FanFare for the book club is now set up! Anne Basting's Creative Care is the first reading, a podcast episode is linked in the FanFare post. One example of creative care for people with dementia are the "Beautiful Questions".
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:32 AM on October 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

I am keeping an eye on this because while both my parents are now gone, and my mother-in-law is gone, I still feel for all y'all going through this and want to support my husband when he has to pick up part of the slack for his dad.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 3:44 PM on October 15, 2023

If anybody wants to read Robert Sapolsky's Determined, also the subject of a post, I'd love to read and discuss it with a group
posted by theora55 at 6:28 PM on October 20, 2023