Thursday, April 12, 2012

Anipal Bookclubs - Proposal


Did you know that there is another anipal bookclub, #AnipalBC ? It was originally started by @Oz_the_Terrier and is now being coordinated by @theGObros. I believe that GO comes up with a title and the anipals read it. they don't have a regular meeting like #Readpawty, but discuss it on Twitter when there they bump into each other. I googled anipalBC and found twitter references, but no blog.

After the April #readpawty, there was interest from AnipalBC to merge with readpawty. I said that we look forward to our meetings to chat about books and would like to keep our format. It was proposed that we have 2 books, one of general interest and one related to anipals in some manner.

I can see this working. We keep our meeting, discuss whatever book(s)we want then on to have our book chat afterparty. Everyone is invited. We can also talk about whatever book(s)whenever we find each other on line. No pressure to get any book completed. The AnipalBC seems to have a lot of dogs while readpawty is mainly cats with occasional dogs popping in. This would be a great way to get more folks involved with a great interchange of ideas.

Let me know what you think. Leave a comment so we can all see or contact me privately if you would rather.

Maggie

4 comments:

  1. I think it's a great idea. We kind of do that now anyway! I know I talk about books at other times than #readpawty. If we merge, we'll have more participants, and I say, the more, the merrier!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Guys! It's Ollie and Griff here: @theGOBros & keeper of the #AnipalBC. Weese think it would be PAWSOME to somehow combine and have one Anipal Book Club (our old hash was the #AnipalBookClub, but it takes up a lot of characters!!) Oz started the #AnipalBookClub and we wos ones of the foundling members, along with some of you! His humans have been too busy for much tweeting time, so with his blessing, we took over coordinating #AnipalBookClub until he returns.

    Maggie is right: we don't have a blog for the #AnipalBC, we just chat through Twitter using the hash. There are about 35 of us, mainly dogs but some cats and humans too! Our members put forth suggestions for books they'd like to read, and we create and manage a poll where our members go online to vote for their next book selection. This way, members have a say in the book we read for the month. We keep a running list of titles, adding new ones that members are interested in and we let the poll speak for what's popular. We do however try to always choose a book available as an e-book, that is also affordable priced (under $10) and popular enough to be found at our local libraries for those who prefer getting a hard copy to paw.

    We host Tweetups via Twitter, approx. every 2-3 weeks, but they is much more informal than #readpawty. We tend to host a weekend meeting convenient for both our UK and North American members: 8:00pm UK/3:00pm EST. But we do recognize many of us so busy that often only a few can make it, so most of the time, we chat informally about the book any time by following and using the #AnipalBC hashtag.

    So...here's where we could get the best of BOTH worlds. Having new anipals read together is the goal of both clubs right?! Not much would have to change really. #Readpawty is usually in the EST evenings right? You could host your discussion and after pawty for all members who prefer the later time slot; we can host a earlier discussion for those who prefer an earlier time - just like the old #AnipalBookClub did when Oz was around. In addition, members could read and tweet about the books anytime using a hashtag, or post on the blog. We could have as many (or few) books on the go as desired, but combined into one hashtag. We'd be happy to run the voting program to keep track of book suggestions and to choose the top selections if desired (we don't know how you guys choose your books now :-p)

    Many of our readers breeze through their books in a week, so having several books would be great for them! Others (like us...) get distracted wiph @weemungo's and can work through only one a month:-p With more members, we have more people to discuss ideas and then, if you weren't interested or had already read the one book, you'd always have another to read instead!

    Ummm...ok. I dunno if we have more to say :-p

    ReplyDelete