Here is my suggestion as to how to set up an online book club here:
Initially we should just see how many would be interested, and then we could pick a first book, maybe by having a list and getting a vote on which book to start with. We could set July 1 as our start date, hopefully, and then let everyone who is interested read the book.
Discussion could begin on August 1, but by the last week of July, we should pick the second book. Just from talking with friends who are in other book clubs than mine, I know the members pick the books ahead of time and then look for a copy … at the library, borrowed or bought. Books should be available to all, and I don’t know what is in anyone else’s library!
This would all be open to any reader of course, and the only stipulation I could think of to start with would be not to discuss the book online before the start time so as to give the others a chance to read it.
So, if you are at all interested in an online book club here, please post in. If you have a specific book that you would like to share, list the title, author, year of publication and publisher.
We already have started a list with my column 'Summer Reading', so maybe our first book would be from that list, but you never know!
Forums
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Nancy Shamanna - Name: Nancy Shamanna
- Who do you know with myeloma?: Self and others too
- When were you/they diagnosed?: July 2009
Re: TMB Book Club - Organization & book suggestions
Great to see this idea moving forward, Nancy. Thanks for setting up this thread.
The key issues that need to be discussed are, as Nancy suggested,
1. How the book club will be organized.
Nancy already has made the suggestion that a book be chosen by the group, read, and then discussed starting at (but not before) a preset time.
Is everyone comfortable with that?
2. What should be the first and second books discussed?
Nancy has suggested that people interested in participating in the book club post their "nominations" here, which probably also is a good idea. Let's try to get the nominations in over the course of the next 3-5 days (is that okay with you, Nancy?).
Then, when we have the nominations, we can create a poll in this thread to allow people to vote for their top 2 or 3 favorites in the list. (Or should people only be able to vote for only one book per poll?)
As we said in a comment on Nancy's recent "Summer Reading" column, if the book club idea gets enough interest, we'll create a separate area of the forum dedicated to the book club -- just like there currently are separate areas for Introductions, Treatments & Side Effects, Smoldering Myeloma, etc.
Good luck!
The key issues that need to be discussed are, as Nancy suggested,
1. How the book club will be organized.
Nancy already has made the suggestion that a book be chosen by the group, read, and then discussed starting at (but not before) a preset time.
Is everyone comfortable with that?
2. What should be the first and second books discussed?
Nancy has suggested that people interested in participating in the book club post their "nominations" here, which probably also is a good idea. Let's try to get the nominations in over the course of the next 3-5 days (is that okay with you, Nancy?).
Then, when we have the nominations, we can create a poll in this thread to allow people to vote for their top 2 or 3 favorites in the list. (Or should people only be able to vote for only one book per poll?)
As we said in a comment on Nancy's recent "Summer Reading" column, if the book club idea gets enough interest, we'll create a separate area of the forum dedicated to the book club -- just like there currently are separate areas for Introductions, Treatments & Side Effects, Smoldering Myeloma, etc.
Good luck!
Re: TMB Book Club - Organization & book suggestions
That's good to get your comments too, Beacon Staff, and hopefully some readers might like to be involved in a book club!
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Nancy Shamanna - Name: Nancy Shamanna
- Who do you know with myeloma?: Self and others too
- When were you/they diagnosed?: July 2009
Re: TMB Book Club - Organization & book suggestions
I'll tentatively join.
I sometimes get into a reading frenzy, then a month will go by with no reading -- just Netflix before bed (too addicting).
If 50 Shades of Gray comes up, can I take a rain check?
I sometimes get into a reading frenzy, then a month will go by with no reading -- just Netflix before bed (too addicting).
If 50 Shades of Gray comes up, can I take a rain check?
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stann
Re: TMB Book Club - Organization & book suggestions
I like the idea of a book club. I think that we should have just one vote per selection to narrow down the number of options quickly.
Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Nancy in Phila
Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Nancy in Phila
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NStewart - Name: Nancy Stewart
- Who do you know with myeloma?: self
- When were you/they diagnosed?: 3/08
- Age at diagnosis: 60
Re: TMB Book Club - Organization & book suggestions
Hi Nancy and Stann, If we were working off the list from my column and the comments too, which were related to cancer, did you see a book that interested you the most? I have read quite a few of them, so don't think I should vote.
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Nancy Shamanna - Name: Nancy Shamanna
- Who do you know with myeloma?: Self and others too
- When were you/they diagnosed?: July 2009
Re: TMB Book Club - Organization & book suggestions
I think this is a good idea, even if I won't be able to join in (don't do enough reading on a regular basis to really justify it).
One issue that you may face as you try to get this off the ground is that some people may be interested in reading cancer- and myeloma-related books, and others may want to completely avoid those sorts of books but still be interested in reading books together with other people here in the forum.
I know that most of the books that have been mentioned so far are ones that are cancer-related. But I think that there's probably a group of people who would be interested in reading books together with others here, just not cancer-related books.
So you may want to consider either alternating the kinds of book read by the club together, or eventually split into two groups, one reading cancer-related books, and the other reading other books.
One issue that you may face as you try to get this off the ground is that some people may be interested in reading cancer- and myeloma-related books, and others may want to completely avoid those sorts of books but still be interested in reading books together with other people here in the forum.
I know that most of the books that have been mentioned so far are ones that are cancer-related. But I think that there's probably a group of people who would be interested in reading books together with others here, just not cancer-related books.
So you may want to consider either alternating the kinds of book read by the club together, or eventually split into two groups, one reading cancer-related books, and the other reading other books.
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Jonah
Re: TMB Book Club - Organization & book suggestions
Nancy,
When you get a chance, could you copy over to a posting in this thread the book suggestions that you made in your column as well as other suggestions that were made in the comments to your article?
Thanks!
When you get a chance, could you copy over to a posting in this thread the book suggestions that you made in your column as well as other suggestions that were made in the comments to your article?
Thanks!
Re: TMB Book Club - Organization & book suggestions
Hey all,
As I was out mowing grass Sunday afternoon I was mulling things over regarding' the possibility of a TMB book club and I guess the fundamental question that I continued to return to was, why did I suggest this idea of a TMB book club to begin with?
Seriously, the question that I have asked myself, and answered below, goes like this:
Q: What is going to make this book club any different then any other online book club...I mean why a book club at TMB?
A: Well...funny I should ask....(rim shot here).
All kidding aside, given we all have multiple myeloma in common, as patients or caregivers, I think any worthwhile book club at TMB should take the opportunity to read material that allows us to bring our individual "multiple myeloma Minds" to the fore, so to speak.
Sure, "Cancer doesn't define me!", is a commonly uttered refrain by cancer patients, which I understand, but if we're going to inspire ourselves and each other by sharing our "literary aesthetics" in a book club, then it seems to me, for what it's worth, that we all might benefit most if we read material, such as has already been suggested, that relates to the human condition, (ours, in fact) both physically and emotionally.
Three and 1/2 years ago when I read Dr. Mukherjee's Pulitzer Prize winning book, I would have LOVED to have had a place to discuss the book with others who UNDERSTOOD! And by "understand" I mean to understand from the LIFE CHANGING IMPACT of having been touched by cancer. But that would have been difficult to pull off with, The Emperor of All Maladies in just any book club. I mean, what do you think the response would've been had I suggested to your average book club members, real or virtual, "Hey, ya'll wanna get together sometime and talk about cancer?"
But here, at TMB, we have a chance to discuss books like Mukherjee's, or a Dr. Groopman book, or even a book like Dr. Sherwin Nuland's, How We Die, and to bring to those discussions the special insights that we've gained from living our lives under the challenging conditions that multiple myeloma inevitably brings. And it doesn't have to be a non-fiction work about cancer or even medicine, it could be fiction or poetry about almost anything.
Imho, the reading material should be of a sufficient quality that it stimulates the readers, and the discussions that follow, to find that "transcendent" (for lack of a better term) perspective that allows us to continue to seek out and perhaps find the inspiration we all need to keep on keeping on with this terminal illness (yeah...that's right...I said it....T E R M I N A L....deal with it!) in the most positive and healthy manner possible.
So, in short, let me just summarize it this way. This summer's best-selling beach reads? Not interested. I could, if so disposed, do that kind of book club pretty much anywhere. Or conversely, reading philosophy and/or about any of the world's Great Wisdom Books? Not interested. Again, I could engage those subjects in any number of book clubs. For me to want to participate in a book club at TMB it would need to be a book club wherein the members were interested in leveraging our collective knowledge about multiple myeloma to assist us in gaining a better sense of who we are as individuals, along with our wants and needs, in this, our ever-changing search for our individual "new normals".
Just saying....
As I was out mowing grass Sunday afternoon I was mulling things over regarding' the possibility of a TMB book club and I guess the fundamental question that I continued to return to was, why did I suggest this idea of a TMB book club to begin with?
Seriously, the question that I have asked myself, and answered below, goes like this:
Q: What is going to make this book club any different then any other online book club...I mean why a book club at TMB?
A: Well...funny I should ask....(rim shot here).
All kidding aside, given we all have multiple myeloma in common, as patients or caregivers, I think any worthwhile book club at TMB should take the opportunity to read material that allows us to bring our individual "multiple myeloma Minds" to the fore, so to speak.
Sure, "Cancer doesn't define me!", is a commonly uttered refrain by cancer patients, which I understand, but if we're going to inspire ourselves and each other by sharing our "literary aesthetics" in a book club, then it seems to me, for what it's worth, that we all might benefit most if we read material, such as has already been suggested, that relates to the human condition, (ours, in fact) both physically and emotionally.
Three and 1/2 years ago when I read Dr. Mukherjee's Pulitzer Prize winning book, I would have LOVED to have had a place to discuss the book with others who UNDERSTOOD! And by "understand" I mean to understand from the LIFE CHANGING IMPACT of having been touched by cancer. But that would have been difficult to pull off with, The Emperor of All Maladies in just any book club. I mean, what do you think the response would've been had I suggested to your average book club members, real or virtual, "Hey, ya'll wanna get together sometime and talk about cancer?"
But here, at TMB, we have a chance to discuss books like Mukherjee's, or a Dr. Groopman book, or even a book like Dr. Sherwin Nuland's, How We Die, and to bring to those discussions the special insights that we've gained from living our lives under the challenging conditions that multiple myeloma inevitably brings. And it doesn't have to be a non-fiction work about cancer or even medicine, it could be fiction or poetry about almost anything.
Imho, the reading material should be of a sufficient quality that it stimulates the readers, and the discussions that follow, to find that "transcendent" (for lack of a better term) perspective that allows us to continue to seek out and perhaps find the inspiration we all need to keep on keeping on with this terminal illness (yeah...that's right...I said it....T E R M I N A L....deal with it!) in the most positive and healthy manner possible.
So, in short, let me just summarize it this way. This summer's best-selling beach reads? Not interested. I could, if so disposed, do that kind of book club pretty much anywhere. Or conversely, reading philosophy and/or about any of the world's Great Wisdom Books? Not interested. Again, I could engage those subjects in any number of book clubs. For me to want to participate in a book club at TMB it would need to be a book club wherein the members were interested in leveraging our collective knowledge about multiple myeloma to assist us in gaining a better sense of who we are as individuals, along with our wants and needs, in this, our ever-changing search for our individual "new normals".
Just saying....
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Steve - Name: Steve
- Who do you know with myeloma?: myself
- When were you/they diagnosed?: December 2009
- Age at diagnosis: 55
Re: TMB Book Club - Organization & book suggestions
These are interesting comments! Thanks for chiming in Steve, since it WAS your idea to start a book club. I will cut and paste all of the suggestions so far over to here.
I was wondering too if what I said about the books being 'cancer related' was too narrow a focus. In my book club we read a wide ranging variety actually, but I like science books and history of science so I enjoy those sorts of books anyways.
Not all the books associated with the column are science books though, so maybe there would be enough to choose from for an initial selection. Then after that people could put in more suggestions for subsequent books. But if there is another relevant book that anyone would like to suggest, you should do that!
I think that because this book club would be on a Beacon Forum, we should read books that are relevant to the MB.
These books were from my column, that I have read:
Treatment of Multiple Myeloma and Related Disorders’ by S. Vincent Rajkumar and Robert A. Kyle (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
‘Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail’ by Cheryl Strayed (Vintage Books, New York, 2012).
‘Up and Down’ by Terry Fallis (McClellan and Stewart, Toronto, 2012)
‘Blood Letting and Miraculous Cures’ by Dr. Vincent Lam (Anchor Canada, 2005)
‘Splendid Solution – Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio’ by Jeffrey Kluger (Penguin Books, 2004)
‘Dr. Folkman’s War’ by Robert Cooke (Random House, 2001)
‘What A Difference a Dog Makes’ by Dana Jennings (Doubleday, 2010).
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The following are some reader's suggestions. I have also read some of them:
'The Fault in our Stars' by John Green - a YA book (suggested by Joyce E.)
'The Emperor of All Maladies' by Siddhartha Mukherjee,
'The Anatomy of Hope - How to Prevail in the Face of Illness' by Jerome Groopman.
'How Doctors Think' by Jerome Groopman,
'Your Medical Mind - How to Decide What is Right for You' by Jerome Groopman,
'It’s Not About the Bike' by Lance Armstrong (suggestions from Dr. Arnold Goodman, although he now has second thoughts about the Armstrong book)
'The End of Your Life Book Club' by Will Schwalbe (suggested by April Nelson)
'East of the Mountains' by David Guterson, a fictional account of a physician’s life journey after being diagnosed with advanced colon cancer (suggested by Gary Faust)
Lots of good books to choose from!
I was wondering too if what I said about the books being 'cancer related' was too narrow a focus. In my book club we read a wide ranging variety actually, but I like science books and history of science so I enjoy those sorts of books anyways.
Not all the books associated with the column are science books though, so maybe there would be enough to choose from for an initial selection. Then after that people could put in more suggestions for subsequent books. But if there is another relevant book that anyone would like to suggest, you should do that!
I think that because this book club would be on a Beacon Forum, we should read books that are relevant to the MB.
These books were from my column, that I have read:
Treatment of Multiple Myeloma and Related Disorders’ by S. Vincent Rajkumar and Robert A. Kyle (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
‘Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail’ by Cheryl Strayed (Vintage Books, New York, 2012).
‘Up and Down’ by Terry Fallis (McClellan and Stewart, Toronto, 2012)
‘Blood Letting and Miraculous Cures’ by Dr. Vincent Lam (Anchor Canada, 2005)
‘Splendid Solution – Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio’ by Jeffrey Kluger (Penguin Books, 2004)
‘Dr. Folkman’s War’ by Robert Cooke (Random House, 2001)
‘What A Difference a Dog Makes’ by Dana Jennings (Doubleday, 2010).
──────────────────────────────────
The following are some reader's suggestions. I have also read some of them:
'The Fault in our Stars' by John Green - a YA book (suggested by Joyce E.)
'The Emperor of All Maladies' by Siddhartha Mukherjee,
'The Anatomy of Hope - How to Prevail in the Face of Illness' by Jerome Groopman.
'How Doctors Think' by Jerome Groopman,
'Your Medical Mind - How to Decide What is Right for You' by Jerome Groopman,
'It’s Not About the Bike' by Lance Armstrong (suggestions from Dr. Arnold Goodman, although he now has second thoughts about the Armstrong book)
'The End of Your Life Book Club' by Will Schwalbe (suggested by April Nelson)
'East of the Mountains' by David Guterson, a fictional account of a physician’s life journey after being diagnosed with advanced colon cancer (suggested by Gary Faust)
Lots of good books to choose from!
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Nancy Shamanna - Name: Nancy Shamanna
- Who do you know with myeloma?: Self and others too
- When were you/they diagnosed?: July 2009
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