[LMB] HH discussion

[Nancy L. Barber]

At 9:39 AM -0700 9/8/06, sekhmet wrote:
>The in-depth discussions are more like trying to get a
>cat to run a marathon. They're my favorite part of
>this list, but while the chapter-by-chapter approach
>lets us discuss at a very detailed level, it does drag
>on for months.

I definitely see this as one of the problems--if we have
a couple of *very* active participants in a chapter-by-
chapter read, it can be sustained.  But too often that
doesn't work. Life happens.

I've been mentally contrasting group reads here with
those over on LordPeter, the list devoted to Sayers'
mysteries. Group reads there are much more structured
(though they used to be less so), but the critical thing, I
think, is thatLordPeter does a book a month, so things
*must* move along at a much faster clip.  Having
designated discussion leaders who agree to seed the list
with questions and points to ponder help, yes, but the pace
is a major thing.  It also helps that group reads are
the foundation of that list, so everyone there expects
it--when we've read through all the books, we generally
just start over.

I'm not advocating that this list work like LordPeter--
two quite different communities, indeed.  But I do
think we might try a group read with a time frame
more like a month to 6 weeks total, and see if that
can sustain a discussion a little better.

>We also need a critical mass of people to make a
>discussion. I think lots of people are interested in
>reading the posts, but can't/won't/don't participate.

And I'm an offender here.  I'm just not an analytical
reader, though I love reading the posts by those of
you who are and who can show me all these lovely
themes and resonances that went right by me.  I
generally only will post on factual items--where'd
this event happen, what color was his hair, stuff
like that.

     Nancy Barber