****Making 2014 Theme Reads EVEN Better -- Your Ideas

Now that we're well into the fourth quarter, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on this year's theme reads and think about how we can make them even better for next year. I have a variety of questions which I'll post below, but I welcome everyone's thoughts about what worked well, what didn't, and what you'd like to see next year.

First, a big thank you to DieFledermaus, wandering_star, Rise, banjo, Sassy Lassy and Steven for leading and helping with our theme reads this year. You all did a fabulous job and really raised the bar with your photos and book lists. Thank you!

I'm starting this a little later than last year but that schedule seemed to work well so I'm going to try to adapt to it. We can have this discussion into the beginning of November and then I'll start a thread asking for ideas for next year's theme reads, and after a couple of weeks we'll vote, so we can know what the 2014 theme reads will be early in December. (This was requested by people who were thinking about their holiday wish lists!)

Last year's requests for improvement ideas didn't yield a lot of responses, so this is what I posted as our direction for coming up with ideas. Your thoughts on these are welcome!

1. We should continue having four quarterly theme reads in 2012, possibly with a year-long theme too. We didn't come up with a year-long theme after all.
2. We should try to narrow the focus of each read, e.g., Regions in Conflict - Africa or Regions in Conflict -20th Century, rather than just Regions in Conflict. One poster thought we did better when we focused specifically on a region.
3. We should encourage theme read leaders to pick 3-5 recommended reads offering differing perspectives on the theme, preferably some of which the leader will read himself or herself. Participants interested in being able to discuss specific books with others could then choose from among these recommended reads, but everyone would be able to read any book that fits the theme. Some of the theme read leaders did this, but I'm not sure how well the following along worked.
4. We should encourage people to discuss the books they read in the context of the theme rather than simply posting reviews. The perennial problem!

Here are my questions, but please comment on whatever seems important to you. These are designed to stimulate conversation.

1. What did you enjoy most about the 2013 theme reads? What would encourage you to participate more in 2014? What didn't work as well for you and what thoughts do you have about how to improve it?

2.Did the idea of theme read leaders recommending reads and identifying the books they plan to read work out for you? Do you think it helped stimulate discussion?

3. And the perennial question: How can we generate more discussion on the theme read threads as opposed to just lists of what you've read or posts of reviews? (I plead guilty here too.)

Discussion and other ideas ENCOURAGED!

No ideas at all?????? Next week I'll be starting a thread asking for suggestions for our quarterly themes, so this is your chance to give us your thoughts on anything that could improve the 2014 theme reads!

I wanted to wait before posting thoughts and ideas but I'll post a whimsical idea I just had right now.

What about exploring an old theme we had in the past (either a rather unvisited theme, or a really popular theme) and see how people's views on the themes have changed. Those who have continued reading works; those who are revisiting past read works; those who are reading the books as newbies can all talk about how the theme speaks to them now.

Just a thought.

That's an interesting idea, lilisin. Some of the early themes were very broad (like "War and Conflict" or "Immigration") so there would be room to either revisit them or narrow them down.

Just as an outsider... The reason I am not participating in this group very much is that it requires too much thinking.

Themes such as "War and Conflict" or "Immigration" are so vague that I cannot choose books. Perhaps it might work if I could directly access LT Tags, so that the LT system makes suggestions (but I haven't tried that).

Since the over-arching theme of this group is "geography", I would suggest exploring themes such as anniversaries of bi-lateral relations, country groupings, such as EU, Commonwealth or ASEAN, etc, or focus on countries which are experiencing conflict or disaster, eg. read books from / about Syria, Egypt, etc

I just came up with another idea.

How about travelogues? Those can be fantastic and it'd be a new way for us to explore countries. I know I have a few on my TBR list that look awesome. It's not the typical fiction we do but that could be good as it could lead to some discussion instead of just the posting of reviews (which is a frustrating thing when you're trying to lead a group read).

Edwin, more recently we have narrowed down the themes, and this year they were all geographical. We've had 20th and 21st Century Eastern and Central European literature, Southeast Asian literature, Literature from Francophone countries (excluding European ones), and now South American literature. Are these still too vague for you?

lilisin, the challenge IS always to generated some discussion -- any suggestions anyone has along those lines would be great!

I like the idea of literary travel writing for a quarterly theme. Lots of people have been reading people like Patrick Leigh Fermor and Gertrude Bell and writing positively about them. Some of it, by authors such as Graham Greene, could also be incorporated into edwin's idea of countries in the news.

I like edwin's idea too of having the reading relate to specific real world events or anniversaries. Looking back, 2014 is the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the War on Poverty, the Gulf of Tonkin and that's just the US. Doing a sort of "where does it stand now?" through fiction and non fiction could certainly generate some discussion. Throw in other years and other countries and maybe there could be four quarterly reads. 1914 was the year Europe changed irrevocably and that might also be a good themed read. Maybe there is a way to incorporate lilisin's idea of revisiting a past theme into some of these events.

By the way, >5 edwinbcn:, edwin, you write some of the most thoughtful reviews going, so I will take that as a joke!

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Sure Rebecca, the regional themes were very clear. I actually bought a book for the East European litt, but did not find time to read it (it was a monstrously thick book, Parallel Stories by Péter Nádas.) I thought I had some francophone stuff, but then discovered I hadn't, and I haven't come round to reading Lat-Am, yet.

My response was in answer to the suggestion made above to go back to the themes.

I tried a search on LT with the themes mentioned above, and it seems a workable way. So, yeah, go ahead.

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Nice idea, Lilisin. Travelogues, or writing about a place such as Colm Tóibín's Homage to Barcelona.

Since we are all on more or less the same groups, it might also be interesting to bring some non-fiction into this group.

Great idea, SassyLassy, I hadn't even thought of that. Anniversaries of historical events, I don't think there's even any other group on LT doing that. And it is still very different from the Literary Centennials group (I had actually expected to see more of your reading there, Sassy.)

I know my comment above sounds extremely duh. What I meant to say, is, that when reading 150 - 180 books a year, and 80 - 90% falls into the category "away from home" I would have to post that many messages all over the board. The grid is very fine, and lacking any type of logic, for instance, why is Europe divided into 8 groups, etc. It just gives me a headache of having to find out where to post my review.

However, I do enjoy participating in any threads, depending on my available time.

Rebecca, thanks for getting this discussion started--sorry to be slow to respond.

I have enjoyed this year's reads; but I never seem to have enough time for them. Would people consider 3 - 4 month themes?

I agree with all the suggestions from last year, but not sure that they are practical. It seems like most of us want to read what we want to read. I am the same. I fit my already planned reading into these themes; which makes it hard for us all to read the same book. But I do think there would be advantages to a group read of the same book--maybe as an auxiliary to the theme read?

I like the idea of re-visiting old themes--especially since this was my first year and so there's a lot that I have missed.

Personally, I find that the best way for me to learn about a region is to concentrate geographically, and to combine fiction and non-fiction.

Confession: not a huge fan of travel writing. But I think it would be great to include travel writing about the regions as we visit them.

What do the rest of you think of banjo's idea of having three theme reads that run for four months each?

I am probably going to post a thread asking for ideas for theme reads tomorrow, because I'm going to have a very busy week, so if you have any more ideas about how to organize the reads, now is the time!

I'm not against doing three versus four theme reads but since I'm not a ready participant, perhaps it's best to ask those who are. Perhaps when people start (hopefully) getting theme read ideas, you can get a better idea as to what seems the more appropriate timeline.

Not wading in too much yet as I've not participated at all this year, so far. Had a very hectic start to the year - travel, moving home, new job, all very close together between January and March, and didn't really claw back the reading time. Also, the theme reads didn't massively appeal to me this year, but I accept that that is bound to happen to some folks in some years. You can't please everyone and that's ok.... (Though I am hoping very much to get into the Lat-Am read before it's too late...)

This is one of the reasons why I would be against changing from 4 reads to 3. That would reduce the variety of the theme reads by a high percentage, and I think that usually 3 months is long enough for most themes. If a discussion is or isn't going to happen I don't think that the extra month is what would make the difference. In any case some of the themes do overspill and that's a good thing too - nothing to stop somebody posting further comments in a 'closed' theme read right?

Very much like the idea of commemorating historic anniversaries somehow in the theme selections, and also like the idea of including literary travelogues. On the other hand I don't have a problem with non-fiction being included in general, but am happy to exclude it in the main if most prefer to focus on fiction. ...I'm thinking along the lines of how Daunt Books in London arrange their shelves - by country - fiction, non-fiction, guides and maps all displayed close to each other...

I think I ended up wading...

I've posted the thread for suggesting themes for next year. Let's hear everybody's ideas!

I went back to the thread when I hosted the Japan theme which was considered one of the more successful theme threads and I was trying to look at it to see why that is.

I noticed that I had posted questions to look at while reading the books and posted themes for people to look for. People still ended up posting reviews but they did also answer some of the theme questions that I had posted.

But then, when I read the reviews and looked at the themes, I would pick out a few key phrases or ideas and would elaborate on them which in turn ended up causing discussion and caused people to start to compare and contrast what they were reading with what I just picked out. Eventually, I was able to become less of a moderating presence as people were discussing amongst themselves. Only when I saw potential dispute did I step back in to lead the conversation in a more "polite" direction.

So I think what I'm saying is that it's important that those who volunteer to lead a group read don't just stop their job once they set up a thread. Now, Japanese literature is my passion so it was easy for me to moderate and come up with discussion points, so this might be difficult to do for some of the more obscure threads.

But that might be where us, the participants, should start picking out discussion points to lead conversations instead of just coming in, dropping off a review, and then heading out again.