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Well I'm going to give this a try. We're going to have a poll that will last until next week Friday from this post, a little over a week, of about 5 books that have been suggested so far (picked pretty randomly from among them all). The winner is the one we'll read, and we'll read it through the end of August. If you want some kind of pacing to get you to read it at all or something ask me, I can help (it sometimes helps get through the book if you have some kind of deadline) but otherwise just have fun. If you don't have time for reading right now don't worry, we'll have another poll at the end of August for the next book, so keep suggesting books! Anyway, feel free to start posting here about ideas, thoughts, comments, suggestions, ranting, rambling, anything you want about how this will work, or even if you're going to participate or not, I want to know who all is in and stuff. We'll plan a meeting in Gaia towns at the end of August to discuss things "in person" and we'll take thoughts and questions on the book we choose in this thread. If that works for everyone. I'm doing July-August because we're kinda starting in the middle of July, and I want to make sure there's plenty of time. If you think we need more/less time for reading/discussing please let me know, preferably here in this thread. I check every day unless my computer's down for some reason (and even then, I probably get on somewhere else) so I'll try to answer questions quickly if I can.

Ok, unless there's an influx of votes, it looks like we're doing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Now there's 2 ways I can think of to do this. We could set aside a certain number of chapters a week to try to read, and discuss weekly, or we could set a date in August to finish the whole book, and discuss then. Anyone have any ideas/opinions on this?

If you can't I'm sure I can figure out how to mail it to you... the people at the Postal Annex are quite nice about helping me figure out customs forms...

I never could get the hang of Thursdays. And as it's the last Thursday in August, this seems as good a time as any to ask, has anyone read the book other than me? (I just finished it, if you forgot and haven't read it yet, or are almost done, feel free to inform of that as well). I'm not sure where to start a discussion, so I'll just say I really enjoy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Have enjoyed it every time I read it too (I just did the first book, not the whole 5 book series, by the way). I love Adams's writing style, the dry wit and sarcastic humor really plays well with my own. Terry Pratchett is another author who writes a lot like Adams. Fun stuff.
If anyone asked what my favorite part of the book is, and noone has, but I'm telling you anyway, it would have to be the part in the very beginning when Arthur argues with Mr. Prosser about the council's plans to demolish Arthur's house. The plans were on display, in the cellar with no lights and no stairs, in a cabinet behind a locked bathroom door with a sign saying "beware of leopard" on it. Love that part. Although I only say it's my favorite because it's one of the parts I remember best from reading to reading (this is the third time I've read the book) as I enjoy just about the whole thing very thoroughly. So there we go, there's my first post about the book, anyone else who read it (or even if you've read it in the past) feel free to post some stuff, and we can talk about it ^^ Meantime, if anyone wants to try another book or instead just start random threads about other books, feel free to do so.

Yeah, the descriptions of the bulldozers, and most other similar descriptions, are loaded with a dry humor and sort of sarcasm that I just love.
Why don't you like the characters? Please feel free to go on about that ^^