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Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2015-08-14 12:20 PM (#11131)
Subject: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Hi there! We're starting a book club to read and review the SF Masterworks series in order of publication by the imprint. We're doing one a month so this is going to be a lengthy endeavour, but we wanted to make sure that we were as inclusive as possible. If you'd like to join us, Google our Facebook group "Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club." We're starting with The Forever War in September. Thanks!

Edited by Sable Aradia 2015-08-14 12:21 PM
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pizzakarin
Posted 2015-08-14 1:13 PM (#11132 - in reply to #11131)
Subject: RE: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Is it a Facebook-only group?
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Administrator
Posted 2015-08-14 1:18 PM (#11134 - in reply to #11131)
Subject: RE: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Sable Aradia - 2015-08-14 12:20 PM Hi there! We're starting a book club to read and review the SF Masterworks series in order of publication by the imprint. We're doing one a month so this is going to be a lengthy endeavour, but we wanted to make sure that we were as inclusive as possible. If you'd like to join us, Google our Facebook group "Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club." We're starting with The Forever War in September. Thanks!

Hi Sable, thanks for the invite.  You've certainly bitten off a big slice of SF for your club!

You know, this sounds like a reading challenge to me.  You can certainly start up a RYO and use it to help your club members tag their books as they read 'em.   Book clubs were one of the reasons we started doing the challenges to begin with.  The only difference here is that your club members will be reading the same books at the same time rather than picking individual books to fit a theme.  You are also certainly welcome to use the WWEnd forums to host your discussions and share links to your reviews etc.  Let me know if you are interested or if you have any questions.  We'd like to help in any way that we can like blogging or tweeting about the club to help you attract members etc.

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Sable Aradia
Posted 2015-08-17 5:03 PM (#11158 - in reply to #11132)
Subject: RE: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Hi Karen! Well, so far yes, but I am also on Google+, Tumblr and Twitter and I'd be happy to take this discussions there if anyone was interested. Also, a few of our members have signed up for accounts here and if no one minds, I would be happy to carry on the discussion as a forum topic.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2015-08-17 5:14 PM (#11159 - in reply to #11134)
Subject: RE: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Administrator - 2015-08-14 11:18 AM

Hi Sable, thanks for the invite. You've certainly bitten off a big sliceof SF for your club!

You know,this sounds like a reading challenge to me. You can certainly start up a RYO and use it to help your club members tag their books as they read 'em. Book clubs were one of the reasons we started doing the challenges to begin with. The only difference here is that your club members will be reading the same books at the same time rather than picking individual books to fit a theme. You are also certainly welcome to use the WWEnd forums to host your discussions and share links to your reviewsetc. Let me know if you are interested or if you have any questions. We'd like to help in any way that we can like blogging or tweeting about the club to help you attract members etc.



Hi Admin! Love your avatar. Thank you, that would be great! I am brand new to this forum so may require some help, but it looks a lot like the technicals work similarly to a couple other forums I'm on (RPG based, mostly) so I'm sure I won't be completely lost. But I am clueless on some things that are completely obvious to others I'm sure; such as: what is a RYO, and how do I use it?

I would be delighted if you'd care to spread the word any way at all; blog, Tweet, etc. If you want places to connect to for that I am @SableAradia on Twitter and I am on Wordpress as http://geekqueenblog.wordpress.com. I'm also on Goodreads. Thank you so much for being so welcoming and supportive!
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Administrator
Posted 2015-08-17 9:31 PM (#11160 - in reply to #11159)
Subject: RE: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Sable Aradia - 2015-08-17 5:14 PM
Administrator - 2015-08-14 11:18 AM  Hi Admin! Love your avatar. Thank you, that would be great! I am brand new to this forum so may require some help, but it looks a lot like the technicals work similarly to a couple other forums I'm on (RPG based, mostly) so I'm sure I won't be completely lost. But I am clueless on some things that are completely obvious to others I'm sure; such as: what is a RYO, and how do I use it? I would be delighted if you'd care to spread the word any way at all; blog, Tweet, etc. If you want places to connect to for that I am @SableAradia on Twitter and I am on Wordpress as http://geekqueenblog.wordpress.com. I'm also on Goodreads. Thank you so much for being so welcoming and supportive!

Very cool.  RYO is short for Roll-Your-Own which is our multi-theme reading challenge.  The way it works is you look at the available themes, 35 different ones right now, and if you find one you like you join that challenge.  If you don't like any existing challenges or just have an idea you want to try, then you roll-your-own challenge where you determine the theme and the rules.

In your case, you simply create a RYO that is built around the Masterworks list.  In your description you tell everyone the rules and link over to your blog etc.  You can create your own banner for the challenge or I can help you make one.  Your club members can use the banner on their blogs and link over to the challenge page were everyone can see how everyone else is doing.  Every month you let folks know what the next book is in the forum and they'll go tag that book as "currently reading" and it will show on the shelf with a faded cover.  When you're done with that book they tag it as completed and it shows full color.

You can add up to 4 different reading levels but for this one it's open ended so you may want to bypass that option.  There are 144 Masterworks so far which is a bit too much to put in there all at once so I would recommend you just set the challenge to 12 for now.  When you get close to completing 12 books you can update the challenge requirements to 24 to get a second row to start filling in for year 2.  That will keep the challenge page from getting ridiculously long with all those blanks.

Of course, you could just do yearly challenges for 12 books at a time so that the 2015 SF Masterworks Reading Challenge is the first 12 books in order.  The 2016 SFMRC would be for the second dozen in order and so on.  That might be a little less daunting for folks that look at 12 books a year rather than 144, a gross amount of books to some.

Take a look at the RYO page for more details and to get familiar with how other folks have structured their challenges.  If you like we can have a Skype call and talk about it if you want more clarification on anything.  I'm rather excited by the prospect of a club using the RYO to track their progress so I can't wait to see how it works out.  It might give us some ideas for improving the RYO overall.

 

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Sable Aradia
Posted 2015-08-22 2:30 PM (#11183 - in reply to #11131)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Okay, I went ahead and created the challenge: https://www.worldswithoutend.com/rollyourown.asp?ryo_id=100. And I joined the Space Opera one. Limping through figuring out how to add the books and add reviews. Would welcome suggestions. Thanks!
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Administrator
Posted 2015-08-22 6:39 PM (#11194 - in reply to #11183)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Sable Aradia - 2015-08-22 2:30 PM Okay, I went ahead and created the challenge: https://www.worldswithoutend.com/rollyourown.asp?ryo_id=100. And I joined the Space Opera one. Limping through figuring out how to add the books and add reviews. Would welcome suggestions. Thanks!

Your challenge looks good and I really like your banner.  Well done.

Since you've set your start date for September 1st you challenge won't show on the RYO page until then.  You won't be able to add any books to your challenge until the start date either.  Once the 1st gets here the challenge will be visible on the RYO page and the option to add books to your list will show on the novel page.  Since everyone in the challenge will be reading the same book at the same time I suggest you only put the current assigned book on your list.  That way you can fill in the list in order.

For the Space Opera challenge you can add books by clicking on the empty sots on the challenge page.  That will take you to the search page.  You can also check the box for the challenge on any novel page where it shows up.  In this case the option will only show on books tagged as SF on the site because it's an SF only challenge.  More detailed instructions are on the main RYO page.  Look for the tab that says "Click Here for Challenge Details".  Let me know if you have any trouble.

 

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Sable Aradia
Posted 2015-08-22 8:51 PM (#11196 - in reply to #11131)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Thank you so much for your help! I was wondering what was going on there, why I couldn't add the books yet. Okay, great, we're ready to go! Who wants to come and play?
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pauljames
Posted 2015-10-04 7:20 AM (#11444 - in reply to #11196)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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I started reading this list a few years ago and have now completed ten. I won't join however as I read from so many genres and mix and match so much in general that I will not be able to read them in order or in the timeframe. Great challenge though and I look forward to reviews/comments and will add my own.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-10-24 7:51 AM (#11561 - in reply to #11444)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Great challenge,some of my best reads this year came from that list,my 2016 reads are already pretty much sorted. I have read 61 off the list, 7/12 of your 2016 challenge,and so doing them in order would involve quite a few rereads,and I have a host of books already pencilled in. Its a very impressive list. Occasionally I dislike a book,but still find it striking or important. And many stay in the mind and haunt me. Excellent list
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2015-10-29 5:45 PM (#11597 - in reply to #11131)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Hey, I understand. I've read more than a few myself already, but it's cool catching up on the ones I have missed out on! And I did it in this format to encourage discussion, is all. By all means offer your thoughts; so far we've done The Forever War and I Am Legend this year.
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devilinlaw
Posted 2015-11-03 5:27 PM (#11701 - in reply to #11131)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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I'm really excited to be a part of this challenge since I have not read many of the 12 books in this challenge! It will be interesting to read so many classics of the genre that I have not been exposed to before.
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devilinlaw
Posted 2015-11-17 5:17 PM (#11859 - in reply to #11701)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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I've gotten through the first two books of the Cities in Flight series by James Blish. Interesting world building. Waiting to see where Blish takes his ideas.
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devilinlaw
Posted 2015-11-22 7:08 PM (#11887 - in reply to #11859)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Finished the entire series and was really impressed with the final book, The Triumph of Time.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2015-11-22 7:18 PM (#11888 - in reply to #11887)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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I'm just finishing Earthman, Come Home so don't spoil it for me yet! But loved this book. What a neat universe Blish has created. I love the ordinariness of his characters. They are delightfully human, with all a human's flaws as well as merits. I think the key to the stories he's telling is how ordinary people react to this extraordinary situation. Awesome stuff; the essence of what makes sci-fi great!
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devilinlaw
Posted 2015-11-22 7:24 PM (#11889 - in reply to #11888)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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I agree that Earthman, Come Home is a fantastic book! I loved The Triumph of Time but only because I read Earthman, Come Home first.

Earthman, Come Home had the feel of a pulp serial, each chapter a new adventure for Mayor John Amalfi and his crew aboard the Okie city of New York. I really like that aspect. Blish kept the action rolling right along the entire time.

Edited by devilinlaw 2015-11-22 7:28 PM
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-01-22 9:11 PM (#12465 - in reply to #11131)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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It's been a while since we opened dialogue here! How did people do with "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and "The Stars My Destination?"
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spectru
Posted 2016-02-06 7:28 PM (#12615 - in reply to #11131)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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So, I joined you on goodreads. The book for February, Babel-17, is the first on the list I hadn't already read, so I guess that was good timing. Here at WWEnd I signed up for the challenge and listed the three SF Masterworks I've read so far this year.

Edited by spectru 2016-02-06 7:29 PM
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pauljames
Posted 2016-02-07 4:26 AM (#12622 - in reply to #12615)
Subject: Re: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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I loved The Stars My Destination. So action-packed and inventive. Not sure I fully understood everything which is ok as it only means I need to re-read in the future.
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CDR_Bill
Posted 2016-03-14 6:48 PM (#12990 - in reply to #11131)
Subject: RE: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Some of my reviews aren't showing in my list. Is there a problem with the site?
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Administrator
Posted 2016-03-14 11:14 PM (#12994 - in reply to #12990)
Subject: RE: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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CDR_Bill - 2016-03-14 6:48 PM Some of my reviews aren't showing in my list. Is there a problem with the site?

Give me a novel ID where you submitted a review and it's not showing on your list and we'll check it out tomorrow -- time permitting of course.  Thanks.

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Sable Aradia
Posted 2016-03-31 11:06 PM (#13115 - in reply to #12990)
Subject: RE: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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Did you make sure to click the box that changes the review from "private" (the default) to "public?" I made that mistake at first and it took me a while to figure it out.

How goes the reading? I loved Babel-17 (though I know it's not for everybody) and I also loved Lord of Light (which I realize some people don't get). Am now drumming my fingers, waiting for my Amazon shipment of The Fifth Head of Cerberus, so I expect I won't be starting that one until mid-month or so.
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CDR_Bill
Posted 2016-04-30 4:48 PM (#13419 - in reply to #13115)
Subject: RE: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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That did it! The reviews not showing were all set for the "private" default.

It took me a bit to get in to both Babel-17 and Lord of Light. Actually had to re-read parts of both to make the right connections. However, The Fifth Head of Cerberus just wasn't for me.
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CDR_Bill
Posted 2016-04-30 4:50 PM (#13420 - in reply to #12994)
Subject: RE: Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club
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It was a simple fix. The reviews not showing I had forgot to mark public. Thanks for the help!
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