Online Paranormal/UFO Book Club Idea

[Ron Collins]

Would anyone be interested in doing a paranormal/ufo book club here on the forum? We could choose a book, read the book, and then discuss it for one month or 2 weeks or something. It would give us all common ground to begin a talk and like a normal book club is actually kinda fun. I'm even up for a skype conference or net meeting of some kind. I think it would be fun and provide a chance for many of us to communicate more naturally.

Any takers? Suggestions?

In case the answer is yes, a couple of books I am reading currently are:
1 - UFOs The Great Debate (by J. Allen Danelek)
Amazon: Amazon.com: UFOs: The Great Debate: An Objective Look at Extraterrestrials, Government Cover-Ups, and the Prospect of First Contact (9780738713830): J. Allan Danelek: Books
ISBN: 073871383X

2 - Contactees: A History of Alien-human Interaction (by Nick Redfern)
Amazon: Amazon.com: Contactees: A History of Alien-human Interaction (9781601630964): Nick Redfern: Books
ISBN: 1601630964

If you have others put them up and we (assuming anyone is interested) can vote on which to read.

Please let me know what you think of the idea.

 

[Paul Kimball]

Would anyone be interested in doing a paranormal/ufo book club here on the forum? We could choose a book, read the book, and then discuss it for one month or 2 weeks or something. It would give us all common ground to begin a talk and like a normal book club is actually kinda fun. I'm even up for a skype conference or net meeting of some kind. I think it would be fun and provide a chance for many of us to communicate more naturally.

Any takers? Suggestions?

In case the answer is yes, a couple of books I am reading currently are:
1 - UFOs The Great Debate (by J. Allen Danelek)
Amazon: Amazon.com: UFOs: The Great Debate: An Objective Look at Extraterrestrials, Government Cover-Ups, and the Prospect of First Contact (9780738713830): J. Allan Danelek: Books
ISBN: 073871383X

2 - Contactees: A History of Alien-human Interaction (by Nick Redfern)
Amazon: Amazon.com: Contactees: A History of Alien-human Interaction (9781601630964): Nick Redfern: Books
ISBN: 1601630964

If you have others put them up and we (assuming anyone is interested) can vote on which to read.

Please let me know what you think of the idea.

I ordered Nick's book from Amazon the other day, so I'll chime in when it arrives, and I've read it.

I also suggest that folks pick up a copy of Mac Tonnies' The Cryptoterrestrials, which is now available. Gene is planning a roundtable with Greg, Nick and I after we've all had a chance to read it.

Paul

 

[dyingsun]

Would anyone be interested in doing a paranormal/ufo book club here on the forum? We could choose a book, read the book, and then discuss it for one month or 2 weeks or something. It would give us all common ground to begin a talk and like a normal book club is actually kinda fun. I'm even up for a skype conference or net meeting of some kind. I think it would be fun and provide a chance for many of us to communicate more naturally.

Any takers? Suggestions?

In case the answer is yes, a couple of books I am reading currently are:
1 - UFOs The Great Debate (by J. Allen Danelek)
Amazon: Amazon.com: UFOs: The Great Debate: An Objective Look at Extraterrestrials, Government Cover-Ups, and the Prospect of First Contact (9780738713830): J. Allan Danelek: Books
ISBN: 073871383X

2 - Contactees: A History of Alien-human Interaction (by Nick Redfern)
Amazon: Amazon.com: Contactees: A History of Alien-human Interaction (9781601630964): Nick Redfern: Books
ISBN: 1601630964

If you have others put them up and we (assuming anyone is interested) can vote on which to read.

Please let me know what you think of the idea.

I'm up for it, nice idea.

 

[trainedobserver]

I've read Nick Redfern's book and I'm reading Ed Walters UFO Abductions in Gulf Breeze at the moment. How would we handle spoilers or would we care?

 

[Schuyler]

I ordered Mac Tonnie's book today.

 

[bobheck]

Would anyone be interested in doing a paranormal/ufo book club here on the forum?

I kinda like that idea, Ron.

I just finished Stanton Friedman's Flying Saucers and Science and found it quite intriguing. Regardless of what some people think about Stanton's tunnel vision on the origin of true UFO's, he is a very engaging and thought provoking author. A very nice read, although he did hammer some points rather heavily and repeatedly.

 

[Ron Collins]

So here are my thoughts as they pertain to the book club idea. Please let me know if you like it or have other suggestions.

Book Selection - We create a thread in the GFWCC area for that month, unless Gene would like to give us a category for this on the forum. We nominate books and set a date for a vote. I figure we start the thread on the first of every month and vote one the 5th.

Book Club discussion - I think we have 3 options here.

Option 1 -- The Forum discussion book club
We open a thread about that book in the GFWCC and introduce a topic and it runs the course of normal threads. The problem I see is the eventual collapse of the intended subject into tangents and a choppy flow. The upside is that anyone can contribute at their leisure and availability.

Option 2 -- The live internet book club
Using some Skype, Net Meeting, dimdim, Vyew, or some other service we could do a web conference and talk, chat, video live at a scheduled date and time. I figure we can do this on the last Saturday or Sunday of the month and schedule it for 1 or 2 hours.

I am looking for this kind of service for my work and wouldn't mind paying the fee per month with no expectations of user contribution... other than participation! I would like to get an idea of how many people would be interested though so I can price out the options available.

Option 3 -- Both 1 and 2.
Really it is the best of both worlds. People can start talking about the book immediately and if interested can join the live discussion on the appointed day. I think this is a pretty flexible option for forum users and listeners.

Other Activity - I thin it would be really cool if some of us could take the discussions and write a quick review to post on the form. By no means does it have to be a unanimous opinion. I think it would be constructive to have multiple point of view in the review.

Let me know if this works for everyone. If it does, we can get started with a small book for the remainder of this month and then choose a new lengthier book for next month.

 

[trainedobserver]

I like Option 1.

 

[Poi]

I prefer Option 1 for the time and space it provides. Sometimes I have to read normal just to find some balance.

But I'll probably get interested in more books when I know what you guys have to say about them. So, good idea.

 

[dyingsun]

I'm for option 1 also, plainly because we all got different schedules to deal with.

 

[Ron Collins]

OK, lets go with forum post for the book club then. How about we start with a book many have already read for discussion and then vote on a new book to start reading. I want to Mac Tonnie's book but haven't ordered it yet. I will do a quick poll post to determine the first book for Discussion. Here is the current list, please let me know if you want to add or detract some.

Current Discussion
1 - Flying Saucers and Science (Friedman, ISBN: 1601630115)
2 - Witness to Roswell (Carey/Schmitt, ISBN: 1601630662)
3 - Dimensions, A Casebook of Alien Contact (Vallee, ISBN: 1933665289)

New Book Vote
1 - Contactees (Redfern, ISBN: 1601630964)
2 - The Cryptoterrestrials: A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us (Tonnies, ISBN: 1933665467)
3 - Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time (Shermer, ISBN: 0805070893)

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[xLordSummerislex]

That sounds like a plan, for sake of getting it running it makes good sense to kick off with something most people may have already or can get easily.

 

[coyote]

I kinda like that idea, Ron.

I just finished Stanton Friedman's Flying Saucers and Science and found it quite intriguing. Regardless of what some people think about Stanton's tunnel vision on the origin of true UFO's, he is a very engaging and thought provoking author. A very nice read, although he did hammer some points rather heavily and repeatedly.

Does he have anything to say about, noisy negativists?

LOL! I like Stanton.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

So it's the "Cosmic Watergate Book Club," with a special "Noisy Negativists" section for skeptical titles.