RFF Book Club - interested?

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Rafael

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A few months back, a small group of us talked about starting an RFF book club. The idea was to set up a forum for in-depth discussions of particular photo books and books related to photography. Threads soliciting advice on photography-related reading are posted quite regularly on RFF. The book club was conceived as a complement to these threads. But the idea fizzled out and the book club never took off.

Nevertheless, I saw the book club as a great opportunity to expand my photographic horizons. There is such a wealth of knowledge and experience on this forum. And I was really looking forward to reading and looking through books that are new to me, being exposed to photographers whose work I do not know, or do not know well, and to participating in discussions about these books with the community here at RFF.

So, I am proposing that we try again. If you are interested in starting an RFF book club, please express your interest in a post in this thread. If we get a sufficient number of interested members (I would suggest 5 as a minimum number) we will go ahead.

The format that I have in mind for the book club is the following:

1) I will open a thread soliciting book suggestions. The books can be books of photography or books about photography. They can be obscure. They can be classics. Hopefully, we will get a mix of both. The thread will remain open for a set period of time (say 3-4 days).

2) As soon as the first thread is closed, I will open a second thread in which people will vote on the choices that were generated in the first thread. The voting thread will also remain open for a set period of time.

3) Once we have made our choice, we will give ourselves 2-3 weeks to get our hands on the chosen book and to read it. After that time has elapsed, I will open a third thread in which we can discuss the book. The discussion will run as long as we want it to or until it reaches its natural end.

If this idea takes off, I can see us discussing a new book every couple of months.

So, let me know what you think. This thread is really to float a trial balloon. So, if you have other suggestions on how we could run the book club, please feel free to express them.

OK, who's interested?
 
Sounds like a good approach and I'd be game. One note, some "obscure" photo books had short runs, are out of print, or are difficult to find via libraries. Some criteria on just how obscure or hard to find a book is may be helpful.

This issue may get sorted out in the voting process...
 
This is great, we have four so far.

Thanks for the link Paul. That looks to be a very interesting blog.

Gregg, I agree that we will need to ensure that the books we choose are readily available. I assume that some people will wish to borrow the books from the library and that others will wish to purchase them for their own library. But either way, it won't make any sense to choose rare books. As you say, I think that the voting process will take care of this issue.
 
I am definately interested.
Given that we are located in different parts of the world and may have different opportunities to visit RFF on a very regular basis I think it is important to allow people good time to read and comment.

Also, just having a forum to look into, suggesting books and over time gather a library so to say of books, links, good ideas etc would be great!

Personally I just bought the book about Nikon Rangefinders which I am reading now...

I am in!

Jon
 
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Jon, I agree entirely about ensuring that we allow enough time for members from all over the world to suggest books, to vote, and to comment. I had suggested 3-4 day windows both for proposing books and for choosing a selection. But we could easily extend each to a week (I wouldn't want to go any longer than that because we do want to get to the reading and discussing portion of the program!). But once we have chosen a book to discuss, I don't see any reason to set a time limit on the discussion. We can just allow the discussion to run its natural course.

Thus far, nine people have expressed their interest in joining. So we are definitely going to give this a go. I will let this thread run for another day or so in order to ensure that everyone has a chance to see it and to join if they wish. Then I will start a thread for posting book suggestions.
 
I'm in - I have the bad habit of buying books but often never getting round to reading them :(

Perhaps this will prod me into reading them! :)
 
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