Welcome to the Tao Bums Book Club

[doc benway]

Welcome everyone. Thanks to Sean, we're going to start an online Book Club here on the Tao Bums forum. Sean has asked that I take a shot at moderating this forum. I'll do my best - I'm a virgin moderator so please be gentle!

 

In an effort to make this a rewarding and balanced experience for everyone, we've decided to establish some basic guidelines. Please let me know if you have any problems or suggestions.

 

I. New topics will only be created by the moderator. This is important in an effort to maintain organization and coherence. For now, all other new topics will be closed or moved to prevent confusion and distraction. Sean and I appreciate your cooperation on this point.

 

II. I'll try to limit new topics to one of three varieties

1. Book Decision Topic - My intention is to ask for reading recommendations in this type of thread. Please make one suggestion and add a very brief description of why you think the book is appropriate. I would ask that suggested books have some relevance to what interests us here - Daoism Buddhism, Zen, Eastern Philosophy, Eastern History, Martial Arts, Cultivation, Meditation, and so on. Non-fiction will probably predominate but there's no reason why we can't explore works of fiction or poetry that lean in these directions.

Assuming we achieve an easy consensus, we have our next selection. Otherwise, please see below.

 

2. Book Poll Topic - If we don't reach an easy consensus on a book selection, I will create a poll and we will select a book by vote. If we have a tie or some other stand off (or no suggestions), the moderator will make a decision.

 

3. Book Discussion Topic - This will be the general discussion thread for the book. I will try and limit this to a finite amount of time. I will also try and interject a bit of structure to the discussion to keep things on track, relevant, and mutually respectful.

 

4. I'll keep the very first topic, Book Club Anyone?, open for small talk. This is where to brainstorm, share what you're currently reading, general chit chat, and so on. Let's try and keep it separate from the selection, poll, and discussion threads for clarity, please.

 

III. To begin, let's try one book per month. Here is more or less how I'll try to lay things out

We start reading book A at the beginning of this month and select book B to be read next month.

Next month we begin discussing A, begin reading B, and select C.

And so it goes....

I'll leave book discussions open indefinitely as long as it doesn't get too distracting or confusing.

 

Please remember to try and keep an open mind. This is intended to be a way to open us all up to new ideas and perspectives. My intention is to try and moderate this forum, including book selection in a fair and unbiased manner. I'm hoping we will find it valuable and fun. I'm always open to suggestions

Thanks for your interest and participation,

Steve

Edited February 7, 2008 by xuesheng

[Trunk]

Welcome everyone. Thanks to Sean, we're going to start an online Book Club here on the Tao Bums forum. Sean has asked that I take a shot at moderating this forum. ...

Thanks for your interest and participation,

Steve

 

Wooo-hoooo!

Well done!, good start!

[doc benway]

Updated guidelines:

 

We're going to open this subforum up to all the members who would like to post a discussion topic on the book of their choice. Please follow these simple guidelines:

1. Post the title of the book and author as the topic title. Feel free to abbreviate if the title is long but try to make it clear what is being discussed.

2. In the first post in your book topic, lead off with the full title, the author's full name, and a link to the book on a retail site if possible, to facilitate others getting the book.

3. In the first post, also include a brief summary of why you chose the book, what it's about, and when you would like to begin the discussion.

4. We'll leave these topics ongoing so that people can dig up old threads and continue discussions as they read books that might interest the group.

Many thanks to Adeha for the idea.

[Lozen]

Can I put a vote in for Ramana's 40 Verses on Reality?

[Protector]

SOMEBODY GIVE ME A BOOK NOW!!!