Inaugural Post

Hello Explorers!

So my general design for this blog is pretty free-form. Once I get all of your informations I will make you authors so you can post as needed instead of being limited to just commenting. Generally, I think we can manage at least 1-2 books a month depending on our schedules, and since we have varying schedules among us I think it's best that we communicate if we're too busy to read a certain week or can't be Picker so that we can keep the blog rolling as much as possible--I tried this before and the cannonball that killed us was because people got busy and were still reading but weren't reading "fast enough" and got nervous about posting.

We're all friends here!

And, if we breeze through 1-2 books a month, then we can do more! But I think we'll probably be around that number as we begin.

So let's begin! As we've talked about before on Facebook, we have a number of different interests in books between us which I think will actually turn into something really fun! This is a judge-free zone, and by that I mean you can dislike the book the Picker picked without hating on the Picker! We're all friends, and we're all adults of course, but I know that sometimes sarcasm doesn't read well over the internet so I don't want feelings to get hurt--someone's favorite book could be someone else's Twilight (none of us like Twilight, right? Kidding!).

Ideally, we will have an introductory post by the Picker with 2-4 books of their choice--each with a synopsis or reason why they want to read the book--where in the comments section the other participants will "vote" or "rate" the books in order of what they'd like to read the most to least. The idea behind this is to make sure we read books that no one else in the group has already read, or if they've already read see if they're willing to read again or able to participate in the discussion thread without re-reading. So for my son this would look like:

"Hop on Pop" by Dr. Seuss -- Heard this book is really good for phonics and word recognition skills! Also, who doesn't want to read a book about jumping on your dada's belly?!

"Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney -- This is your typical modern-day psychological suspense thriller. How much does Mama Bunny love her baby?! What does that mean for us as a larger social conscious? I'm looking forward to finding out the answers to these questions and more!

"The Future of the Mind" by Michio Kaku -- This one will be a doozy for sure, but I think we can handle it! Who doesn't love neuroscience?!

...

Baby Shark commented:
1. The Future of the Mind
2. Guess How Much I Love You
Already read Hop on Pop, you might as well skip it, there isn't as much as you would expect about jumping on your dad.

Polar Bear commented:
1. Guess How Much I Love You
2. Hop on Pop
3. The Future of the Mind

---And then Jarec would choose his book and they'd all read (they being his stuffed animals he bosses around) and then they would post their comments on a separate discussion post. So to summarize, we'd have an introductory post by the Picker where we vote on the book, then the Picker can announce in the comments which book they have chosen or make a separate post if they wish to add some additional background or jumpstart the conversation (for instance, if we're reading a dystopian novel and you really, really want to talk about a particular character's development, an event or literary element) and then a dedicated discussion post where we can comment and reply to each other as we read through the novel. Does that make sense? I promise it's not too complicated, and I'll get it started so you can see how it will work out!

For now, though, I will need your most-reachable email address so I can add you as authors and we'll go from there!