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[jmtorres]

Follow-up questions re a group reading!

Poll showed preference for chronological by publishing date:
Jhereg
Yendi
Teckla
Taltos
Phoenix
Athyra
Orca
Dragon
Issola
Dzur
Jhegaala
Iorich
Tiassa (due March 29, 2011)

Preference for time per book seemed pretty evenly split in 2-4 week range; I would suggest splitting down the middle at 3 weeks per book except for: when Tiassa's due out. Does anyone who wanted longer think it would be worthwhile to trim it down to 2 weeks a book (+/- a week here and there for Major Holidays(/School Finals), whatever ones we find most relevant distractions in our lives) to be ready jump on Tiassa when it comes out?

appended question: What times of year should we allow more time for our group reading on account of great business? I am personally tempted to throw out most of December due to finals/Hanukah/Yuletide/Christmas; they all overlap and most of December looks pretty overwhelming.

vaguely related question: What do you think the spoiler policy should be for this community? Most recent book goes behind spoiler cut? Everything goes behind spoiler cut out of deference to those of our members who haven't read everything? Everything from a certain year on? I mean, I still refer to The Orca Spoiler and it's been--holy crap--14 years.

separate question: Those of you who want to do a reread of the Paarfi books together, do you want to run that concurrent to the Vlad reread, or after?

Comments

[existence]

In regards to dates, I am for throwing all of December (save perhaps the first week, depending on how the schedule falls from here on out) and giving it a go for the two week range because I would love to be able to do Tiassa soon after it came out. Also I nominate Parfi after Vlad, but bias, there. (Also partially because it just takes me longer to do a Parfi book versus a Vlad book.)

Also, another question: are we going to read Brokedown Palace too? It seems that for a complete reread, we're pretty much only missing that, and it was republished in the last few years, so that with enough time, I'm pretty sure that copies could be found.

Regarding, spoilers, maybe we can do the everything in that book, spoiler cut, and future books in comments in subthreads with appropriate thread subjects. IE, in Taltos, we could talk about That Orca Spoiler if we put it into our comment subjects?

[jmtorres]

save perhaps the first week

That would be when Hanukah falls this year; if that is relevant to any of our members, which I won't know unless people tell me.

(Also partially because it just takes me longer to do a Parfi book versus a Vlad book.)

Yeah, I lean toward something like a month on Paarfi.

Also, another question: are we going to read Brokedown Palace too?

I'm for it; where should we put it in the sequence? chronological in the Vlad books (between Yendi and Teckla)? Or read it after Vlad, before Paarfi, or... at some other time?

Spoilers--I suppose in theory the reread will catch everyone up; but I was thinking in terms of having a general spoiler policy for the community, less related to the reread. I mean, when we get to Iorich or Tiassa, are we still going to be posting without cut because That's Where We Are Now? Or should we have a spoiler policy that covers the most recent book or most recent few?

[existence]

Ah, I had entirely forgot. If the spacing simply works better to do it in three week sweeps (I really wouldn't do four on my own, but I have always read like a jackrabbit with no regrets and am thusly biased) or whatever. I do like the idea of doing Tiassa out of sequence. if only for the quote on what he's doing with it. ( I have noticed that, with each of the last several books, I have pissed off some percentage of Vlad fans, and this makes me sad. So, with this book, I’m hoping to piss off all of them. I hate half measures. bless your trolldom, mssr. brust.)

I am for either reading it chronologically or as a break between Vlad and Parfi, but that's just me. As to spoilers, I don't know. I err on the side of letting people be their own best sense usually, which I acknowledge can be a clumsy, awkward thing. How about, mmm. Some sort of last three books innacut thing? ...actually, are there going to be any new readers, is another question?

[jmtorres]

There is at least one person reading this comm who has only read the first five books! So s/he'll be a new reader after, what, Phoenix? (Wow, The Orca Spoiler might still be relevant.)

[existence]

hah oh man. The Orca spoiler is still relevant!

I maintain that the policy of doing the last 3 books as spoilers should hold and you can put up a more precise policy on the relevant discussion posts. But, up to you.

[ambyr]

I'm usually pretty "whatever" about spoilers, but I'm in favor of warning/cutting for the Orca spoiler forever, because I never want to be responsible for ruining that single shining moment of "OMGWTFBBQ ::hastily flipping back through every page in the series ever::" for a new fan.

True story: I once spent an hour doing nothing but sitting and watching a friend read Orca just so I could see his expression when he hit that page for the first time.

[matt_doyle]

Throwing out December, two weeks a book, and spoiler tags sound fine to me, as do throwing in all Dragaera books; but really I'm fine with whatever arrangement the majority likes best.

[ambyr]

I'm actually more concerned about November (NaNo, Thanksgiving, when I do the bulk of Yuletide) than December. I think the best strategy might be to lean towards the longer end of things (3 or 4 weeks per book) and just go steadily through rather than try to single out what times of the year are going to be busy. If we do 2 weeks per book I'll still try to participate in discussions, but it's going to be mostly from memory, because I don't think I can read them that fast.

I don't mind being behind on Tiassa, or even just doing it out of order.

[jmtorres]

even just doing it out of order.

I suppose that is traditional. Heh.

(NaNo, Thanksgiving, when I do the bulk of Yuletide)

I had forgotten about Nano! Whoops.

For the record, re Yuletide I was referring to the Solstice, because I am a fruity pagan, but, heh, I do most of my writing for the Yuletide challenge about halfway into December.