Update [2005-7-17 2:49:22 by dKos Reading Club]: The reading for next month will be Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy by Frederick Clarkson, a member of the DailyKos community who will also participate in the discussion! (Very cool.) Read his post for instructions on how to order it if you have trouble finding it.
I look forward to next month's discussion on August 15! Hint if you subscribe to diaries by "dKos Reading Club" (by clicking the "Subscribe" link just above this update), then whenever we're discussing a book or voting it will show up in your hotlist. Please email me (address in the "dKos Reading Club" account profile) if you want to be the discussant.
As a few of you might have noticed,
yesterday we had our first installment of the new dKos Reading Club. And while I can't say that I was overwhelmed at the participation (no disrespect meant to those who did), I think I'm going to try to keep it going for at least one more month.
Having decided that, we now need to pick next month's reading. Below the fold is a table of readings that have been suggested in the past:
Title | Author/Editor | First suggested by | Date First Suggested |
Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy | Frederick Clarkson | shock | June 6, 2005 |
The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twentieth Century | Robert McChesney | shock | June 6, 2005 |
When God Was a Woman | Merlin Stone | shock | June 6, 2005 |
Manifesto for a New World Order | George Monbiot | shock | June 6, 2005 |
The Consumer Trap: Big Business Marketing in American Life (The History of Communication) | Michael Dawson | shock | June 6, 2005 |
Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy: A Book of History & Strategies | Dean Ritz | shock | June 6, 2005 |
God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It | Jim Wallis | Maryscott OConnor | June 6, 2005 |
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report On the Banality of Evil | Hannah Arendt | Maryscott OConnor | June 6, 2005 |
(anything!) | Hannah Arendt | Maryscott OConnor | June 6, 2005 |
Crusade: Chronicles of and Unjust War | James Carroll | greycat | June 6, 2005 |
They thought they were free: The Germans 1933-45 | Milton Mayer | greycat | June 6, 2005 |
The Corruption of American Politics: What went wrong and why | Elizabeth Drew | Margot | June 6, 2005 |
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason | Sam Harris | bumblebums | June 6, 2005 |
Uncle Tom's Cabin | Harriet Beecher Stowe | LM 38 | June 6, 2005 |
On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society | Lt. Col. Dave Grossman | Tirge Caps | June 6, 2005 |
Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community | David Niewert | Carl Ballard | June 6, 2005 |
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements | Eric Hoffer | Dallasdoc | June 6, 2005 |
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fall or Succeed | Jared Diamond | lukyluke | June 6, 2005 |
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War | Tony Horwitz | khowell | June 7, 2005 |
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life In Three Acts | Zora Neale Hurston & Langston Hughes | Alice Burro | June 7, 2005 |
(anything!) | Toni Morrison | Alice Burro | June 7, 2005 |
A Short History of Progress | Ronald Wright | bumblebums | June 7, 2005 |
Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate | George Lakoff | Slgalt | June 7, 2005 |
Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire | Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri | shock | June 8, 2005 |
Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit | Vandana Shiva | xanthe | July 16, 2005 |
The Last Hurrah: Soft Money and Issue Advocacy in the 2002 Congressional Elections | David B. Magleby (Ed.) | xanthe | July 16, 2005 |
Excellent Women | Barbara Pym | xanthe | July 16, 2005 |
The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy | David Brock | Dump Terry McAuliffe | July 16, 2005 |
(Note, you can click on the date to see the comment in which the suggestion occurred for context.)
It was also suggested by jzso that we might repeat the first month's reading (The Spiral Staircase: My climb out of darkness by Karen Armstrong) given that more people expressed interest in that book than participated in the discussion, and given the number of Karen Armstrong fans here at DailyKos.
Below is a poll containing all of these items. Please vote for the one that you would be most likely to read in the next month. Then, in the comments section, please list your top three choices in order of preference. (Not all of them have to appear in the poll.)
I will update this diary later tonight with the results and the official reading assignment for next month. Whatever it is, it will be due August 15, 2005.
(Also, for more background about the club, and a list of proposed procedures, see this diary.)
Update [2005-7-16 12:40:58 by dKos Reading Club]: Not all of the items in the table fit in the poll. So, I used my personal bias to pick the subset for the poll. I guess this is one of the perks of being the moderator! But of course, you can vote for other things in the comments. Honestly, everything from the table above appeals to me.
Update [2005-7-16 12:46:6 by dKos Reading Club]: The poll will be active until 11PM (CST) tonight. I shouuld post the update with the winner by midnight.