Parliament of Fools

Welcome! We fools are a mish-mash of lovers of the English language. Pull up a computer chair, and imagine with us that you're sitting by the fire in a local cafe. Sip your cyber-cappucino and discuss with us your thoughts on our latest reading assignment. Hopefully we'll experience all the joy of reading together, without the cost of Starbucks.

Monday, August 01, 2005

What is a Parliament of Fools?

That's what this first post intends to define. When asked to join this blog (he couldn't) a friend suggested that to break the ice we post what our 5 favorite books of all time are, or post our 5 favorite books of this year. That's a good way to get the ball rolling, and tomorrow I intend to do so.

But right now I think it's important that we discover the vision for this blog. I thought of it on a whim after running into my old Chaucerian professor in town, and so there wasn't any more thought put into this than, "I miss reading in a group setting. I want to read with adults again." And so I emailed people that I thought would be particularly interested in the English language, and the art of using it.

Now we just need to make the rules. Since the Blog-World is particularly democratic, I thought it would be best that we all include our input, and then make the rules. Beside we all have different levels of time availability, and interest, and taste in literature. Oh yeah, we also all have different amounts of money with which to invest in books to read (I am at the bottom level in that regard).

Some questions that need to be answered are as follows:

  • How much time can we devote to reading? Should we limit our subjects to short stories and novels, or should we be more daring and read through longer works?
  • How many books should we aim for in a month?
  • How graphic can our selections be? Tolkien is rated pg to pg-13, for example, and Salinger would be rated R. How much language, violence, and raciness is acceptable?
  • How do we determine what we will read next?
  • Do we leave all conversation to the comments box? Or would it be better if we each started a new blog post with our thoughts, and left to comments box to answers less than 2 paragraphs and for the comments of visitors?
  • Is there anything I forgot to ask?
So to get started we should all answer the questions asked above in your own post, and then also answer the "5 books" question. You can do it all at once, or in two separate posts, I'll leave that up to your discretion.

Lastly, I'm really excited for this. It should be a lot of fun, and very stimulating to my stay-at-home-mom mind. Happy reading!

4 Comments:

  • At 6:22 AM, Blogger Devona said…

    I'll answer the questions myself after I see what most of you are thinking about the answers.

    That way I'll be able to get a feel for what everyone else is thinking, and my vision won't cloud your vision.

     
  • At 12:53 PM, Blogger Queen of Carrots said…

    I clearly need to get me a wild hat picture, too.

    I will think about the questions when D1 decides to take her nap. Since this book is a fiction blog, should our five favorites be of fiction only? And what does favorites mean anyway--most influential on us, ones we most enjoyed reading, or what? (OK, now I'm getting too lawyery.)

     
  • At 1:03 PM, Blogger Devona said…

    Silly hats are a requirement.

    As to the 5 books question. It's vague on purpose, so Ha! Answer however you deem fit. Fiction is good, but I know sometimes there's non-fiction that is so good you can't help but love it more than any story you've ever read.

     
  • At 5:25 AM, Blogger Mutti said…

    OOOOhhhh I am so excited! This is a great idea!

     

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