Well, actually, here's the background on my idea: I've been buying books like there's no tomorrow for the past few years, because I've been blowing through them and have a real hard time with library due dates for some reason. This also makes it hard for me to move.
So, I think we should make a Hatrack "Book Circle." Here's how it works:
Everyone picks their favorite book (preferably one that's not notorious in these parts, not part of the general consciouness) and mails it to an appointed person. Everyone involved mails it to someone else, and they eventually come around to a circle. After a couple weeks, or whatever a resonable reading time is, we all mail again.
You'd have to use a copy that you wouldn't mind losing in the mail somewhere - maybe even buy an inexpensive used paperback that you can stand parting with.
This way, we get new books, and they pass the initial filter of being something well-beloved by a fellow Hatracker!
To avoid duplicates, we could require a sign-up email with the intended book title on a first-come, first-serve basis.
posted
Being required to read it within a certain span of time would put too much pressure on me -- I don't need another chore.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm always trying to find people to give my books away to. My only criteria is that they go to someone who will appreciate them. So yeah count me in! Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
That sounds cool, Adam. I was all up for being the ringleader, but was thinking of using my meager paper-and-pen organizational skills. If you've got wicked database skillz, all the better.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
What if you set it up so that the reader returns the book (when they finish it so there is no time constraint) to the person who bought it (who then sends it to another person)? Does that make it too weird and uneven? Could we request a specific book (to be sent to us)? Maybe people could opt to supply multiple books?
I guess that makes it more like Hatrack spiders than a Hatrack circle.
Oh yeah, I think this would be cool and want to try it.
posted
Here's my dilemma. I have like three tons of books that I have bought but not yet read. However, this sounds like way too much fun to pass up. I'm so torn! Maybe if we take ludosti's idea? Or modify it - when someone's finished, they could post/e-mail the group/whatever, and then pass their book along to another person who is done? That way if someone's got a full schedule one month, or if one of the books is a lot longer or shorter than the others, it won't be so much of a problem. Would that work?
Posts: 3214 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
I think two weeks would give us enough time to at least decide if we'd want to read the book in the future. If you aren't done in time, you can always just run to the local library and check it out if you were enjoying it. No pressure to finish quickly, just a nice way to try out lots of books!
posted
The modifications might work, Vana, but I kind of want to be able to have the book you get be entirely out of your control. I want to have to read something that I wouldn't have picked by myself.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh, I'm not suggesting we pick the book we get next! Just that it's looser on the times - whoever's done first can pass their books on first, and the slower/busier ones or people with longer/harder books still have time to finish. Maybe if we e-mailed you when we were done, instead of posting?
See, this makes sense in my head. Let me try to explain better.
Say A, B, C, D, and E are all in the circle. B finishes her book first, and e-mails you to say as much. The next day, E says that he's finished. So B would send her book to E. Soon C is done, and E sends his book to C. So you basically just send it to the next person in the line who's ready for a new book.
Is that a better explaination of what I'm thinking?
posted
That seems like a good idea... except most of my books are in Romanian!! Lemme see though... In English I have:
- Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" - Gregory Benford's "Timescape" - Card's "Children of the Mind", "Ender's Shadow", "Shadow of the Heggemon" & "Shadow Puppets" - Haldeman's "Forever War", "Forever Peace" & "Forever Free" - Clarke's "Rama II", "Gardens of Rama" & "Rama Revealed"
I also have some SF books in French ("Blade Runner 2" by K.W. Jeter comes to mind) and volumes 2 to 10 of Zelazny's "Amber" series also in French. Most of them are at home in Romania though. And I'd have to send them from Europe. Great... I don't know, I'd really like this idea to come to life, but I probably couldn't be a part of it for some time... Drat...
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
You could always see if you could find a cheap used version of one of your favorite books that's still at home, Corwin.
And that makes more sense now, Vana. I was reading all silly.
I've gotta run for a couple hours, but email me if you're interested so I can start to work out logistics Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
It is a great idea, Annie, but i am terrible about sending things. I just sent people stuff i told them about five or six months ago. If i could do it on a no-pressure basis, it would be great.
Edit: A friend of mine and I did a book exchange, and I still have a box of books I never returned. Ten years. (hangs head in shame)
[ January 13, 2005, 04:30 PM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
Yeah, didn't think of that! The thing is that I have to locate a used book store that has English versions, which isn't very easy here... There are a lot of "independent" book sellers every Sunday along the Rhone, but I think all the books are in French. I'll give it a try though, if not this weekend then the next.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
Olde Towne Books. (I think, I will have to ask my dad.) The owner is an ASU history professor and one of our dearest family friends. Funny, I was thinking about telling you to go and meet him when i saw you live in Tempe.
He is more into really old and rare books, but you should go anyway. Please.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Shigosei- There's a place called Changing Hands. It's on the corner of McClintock & Guadalupe in Tempe. To get there on the bus, you would go to the bus stop on College and take the 81 southbound. The bookstore is in the same shopping center as Trader Joe's.
Posts: 4569 | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Or you could just send all your French books to me, I'll swap them out for English ones and keep the French ones. Wait... that doesn't do much for limiting my stockpile of books, does it?
*has fond memories of shopping in Lyon along the Rhone*
*has fonder memories of eating in Lyon*
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh, I forgot you were in Tempe, Shigosei. My very very best friend just left to be a missionary there. If you ever by chance meet a female Mormon missionary named Sister Cronkhite, stop and talk to her for hours. She's fabulous.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Elizabeth and Derrell: excellent. I'll try to make it out to those places sometime. Thanks for the tip.
Annie, I don't really see missionaries around here. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be allowed to knock on dorm room doors. But if I do happen to meet her, I'll stop and chat.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Old Town Books (I was right!) 518 South Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85282, 480-968-9881, Used, out-of-print, old, and interesting books, including books on Arizona, Western Americana, and sporting books, are available at this book store .
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
This sounds awesome. I haven't read the thread carefully enough (we have 6-year-old twin boys staying with us) - who is going to organize this? I have tons of books that I would love people to read.
I'll read the rules more carefully later, but put my name on the list.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
I'm also wondering, I don't have a ton of books at college with me and what I have that I could send consists of some really random stuff I haven't gotten around to reading yet. Would it be ok to send that? The books sound interesting, but right now when I'm in the mood to read I don't want to read something that requires thought. So I don't actually know if they're any good. I think hatrackers would at least enjoy looking them over, though.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
My $0.02 - I think that the best way to do it would be the spider route, where we send the books back to their owners after finishing them.
Posts: 3420 | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, one would be the brain of a bunny. The other would be like a hairshirt, but in your head.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Usage Note: The first use of harebrained dates to 1548. The spelling hairbrained also has a long history, going back to the 1500s when hair was a variant spelling of hare. The hair variant was preserved in Scotland into the 18th century, and as a result it is impossible to tell exactly when people began writing hairbrained in the belief that the word means “having a hair-sized brain” rather than “with no more sense than a hare.” While hairbrained continues to be used and confused, it should be avoided in favor of harebrained which has been established as the correct spelling.
I sent you email, rivka.
Posts: 1423 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think I like the idea, but I don't like the idea of writting an essay. What if we get a book that we can't read (because of images that get put in our head) or for other reasons?
Posts: 747 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
Everyone who wants to sign up, send your name and mailing address to me at blueroosterdesign AT googlemail-without-the-oogle DOT com. You have until Wednesday Feb. 2 to sign up - after I have all the participants listed, I will organize and give further instructions.
(thanks for the bump!)
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
Lemme see though... In English I have:![[Kiss]](graemlins/kiss.gif)
Corwin![[Blushing]](graemlins/blushing.gif)
