<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1430342494969_3038" dir="ltr"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1430342494969_3207">Well, make a suggestion and we'll go from there, Rob. I don't pick the books, I just facilitate. We choose books by mutual consent. All I ask is that we alternate between female and male authors each month.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1430342494969_3038" dir="ltr"><span><br></span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1430342494969_3038" dir="ltr"><span>M. S. </span></div> <br><div class="qtdSeparateBR"><br><br></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" style="display: block;"> <div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> On Wednesday, April 29, 2015 3:43 PM, R. Luoma <malkin8244@pobox.com> wrote:<br> </font> </div> <br><br> <div class="y_msg_container"><br clear="none">At one point in my life, I decided to read every winning novel<br clear="none">of either the Hugo and/or the Nebula. I did so.<br clear="none">I have tried to keep up the Hugo winners,<br clear="none">though I may have missed a Nebula winner or two.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Several of my suggestions were nominated for the Hugo,<br clear="none">though I intentionally avoided the winners<br clear="none">because I would strongly prefer reading something new to me.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">While I realize that I will have to put up with a certain<br clear="none">amount of rehashing, if my already-read fraction gets too high,<br clear="none">I would be inclined to stop attending out of boredom.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">On Wed, 29 Apr 2015 12:24:50 +0000 (UTC)<br clear="none">M M via reading-group <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:reading-group@lists.nesfa.org" href="mailto:reading-group@lists.nesfa.org">reading-group@lists.nesfa.org</a>> wrote:<br clear="none"><br clear="none">> I'd like to suggest that our focus for this group should be<br clear="none">> Hugo nominated (or winning) novels;<br clear="none"><br clear="none">(see my Hugo comments above)<br clear="none"><br clear="none">> authors who may attend Boskone;<br clear="none"><br clear="none">fair enough, though I wish that I had earlier warning<br clear="none">about the Brust/White bookclub selection for the recent Boskone.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">> books published by NESFA Press,<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Many of the books are short story collections<br clear="none">and I find it difficult to discuss collections<br clear="none">unless certain key stories are agreed upon beforehand<br clear="none">for the discussion.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">> and more recent raves.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">As I mentioned before, I attend other SF/F book groups<br clear="none">that tend to focus on such recent raves. I am writing<br clear="none">this email to try to pull the NESFA reading group<br clear="none">away from that direction.<div class="yqt3381780059" id="yqtfd51984"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">> There's a ton of sf/f out there (literally!) to read,<br clear="none">> and only so much time to read it each month.<br clear="none">> The best of the best is a good goal to shoot for, IMHO.</div><br clear="none"><br clear="none">For me, the problem with most "best" lists is that I have<br clear="none">often read most of the books on such lists.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Most of my recommendations have been on somebody's<br clear="none">"best" list, though M. John Harrison has declared "Centauri Device"<br clear="none">as his worst novel and Clive Staples Lewis hated "Star Maker"<br clear="none">by Stapledon (in a curious way, this makes me more interested<br clear="none">in reading "Star Maker").<br clear="none"><br clear="none">While it is valid to point out that I can read my list on my own,<br clear="none">I also only have a finite amount of time for reading<br clear="none">and, if the NESFA group's selections diverge too wildly from<br clear="none">my own interests, I would be inclined to discontinue<br clear="none">my participation in the group.<div class="yqt3381780059" id="yqtfd07881"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"></div><br><br></div> </div> </div> </div></div></body></html>