Babalugats speaking:
Welcome to The Solute Book Club! Each month one Soluter will introduce a new book and lead a discussion of it. This will include a short piece at the start of the month, and a longer essay at the end of the month. The style, content, shape, size, and tone of these pieces will be totally up to the discussion leader. They can be in-depth thoroughly researched analytical essays, personal experiences of your relationship and connection with the book, critical thrashings, gooey praise, or a few brief discussion prompts. When you’ve got the floor, it’s your show. If you want to take part in the club, but do not want to be a discussion leader, that’s also perfectly fine.
The first introduction piece will be due one week after Movie Gifts, Friday July 16th, and the first discussion on Thursday August 12th, with the next introduction the following day, and so on each month. Additional time will be added around Holidays or other goings-on, but the upcoming schedule will always be posted with the most recent introduction piece.
****
The people have spoken, and they say NO to Democracy! We will be working off a curated list that we will begin to set today, and will have locked in place by next week.
The following are options for lists to cover. You may suggest a different option, and your wise and benevolent leaders shall take it under just consideration.
1) My choice would be a selection of Philip K Dick novels. He is easy to read but thematically dense, and I think he will make for compelling conversation. There is also a pronounced arc to his career and mental health struggles, and I think going through his works chronologically will be interesting. It’s also widely known that all true Soluters love Dick and can’t get enough.
2) A second option would be a curated list of crime fiction (and possibly nonfiction). We have quite a few experts here, and so I’d like to build our own list rather than find one online.
3) We could also follow a more official canon, say Time or BBC’s 100 greatest novels, or something from a more academic source. I will be disappointed if we go this route, but it would provide a bit more variety than the previous options.
4) And finally, what seems to be the budding consensus, we could have everyone recommend one book, and we not worry about theme at all. This would give us a lot of variety and would be a bit more personal.
****
I’ll drop a comment thread for each of these options and you can voice your support and/or disgust, or make other suggestions. I’ll make the final determination on which list we follow and what is included, but will do my best to choose the option that has the most support. Please do not be shy about voicing your preferences.
