July selection: Let's vote!

Hey Bookworms!  Thanks to everyone who came to the meeting today - it was a really great discussion!

Some great ideas also came up in discussion for possibilities for future meetings.  There was talk about acting out a dinner mystery (the kind that's like a board game) for a month when mystery is our genre, as well as talk about potentially having a meeting with a local author (someone suggested Patricia McCarthy, who apparently writes vampire novels set in Ottawa).  If you can build on these ideas or have any other suggestions, feel free to comment or email us!

At the meeting, we had a lot of novel suggestions as well, so we decided to skip the genre vote and go straight to voting for some of the suggested books.  There's a really great variety, so take a look at the summaries on the sites provided to get a feel for the subject matter:

• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1202.Freakonomics)
• Watchmen by Alan Moore (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472331.Watchmen)
• 20 000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12856474-20-000-leagues-under-the-sea)
• The Children of Men by P.D. James (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41913.The_Children_of_Men)
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/168668.Catch_22)

Polls are up for both the book selection and the meeting date / time.  Please head on over to the blog and make sure to vote for all the times that you are available, and for all the books you're interested in!  Both polls will close at 11:59PM on Thursday, July 12 and we'll announce the winners on Friday.

Happy voting!

Meeting location update for July 8

Hi Bookworms,

I've just received confirmation that we can use the room UCU 207 for this month's meeting.  It's located on the top floor of the University Center - if you're in the overpass with the Tim Horton's that connects the library to Montpetit building, UCU 207 is on the right just before you reach Montpetit.

This is actually a pretty nice room with lots of windows, so I'm thinking that we'll just meet there.  If it's nice outside, we should be able to enjoy the sun through the windows anyway!

So I'll see you all in UCU207 at 1PM this Sunday!  Bring any genre suggestions or book recommendations you might have!

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Bonus Materials

Hello Bookworms!

I hope that you had a fabulous June filled with dark secrets, magical artwork and mysterious deaths - in our novel, of course!

I'm still waiting to get confirmation on the room location, so similar to last month, our Plan A will be to meet outside on the lawn between Morisset Library and Fauteux (outside the cafeteria), and our Plan B will be to meet wherever they decide to let us hold our meeting indoors! I'll update you as soon as I know the location.

I'd like to post next month's genre poll right after the meeting on Sunday to make sure we get the ball rolling as quickly as possible for next month. Bring your genre suggestions to the meeting, or submit them as a comment on this post or an email to uottawabookworms@gmail.com. Additionally, if you have a preference for meeting times, please let me know so that I can include those in our next meeting vote.

Now for the fun stuff! I've compiled some goodies about this month's book, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde! The subject matter was... dark, to say the least, so I'm afraid the bonus materials aren't exactly pick-me-ups, but they're interesting nonetheless! Feel free to check out these links:

• An interesting 8-minute animated adaptation of the novel: http://vimeo.com/26229857
• Analysis of themes, motifs and symbols: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/doriangray/themes.html
• Important quotations explained: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/doriangray/quotes.html
• Quotable quotes from the novel (didn't Lord Henry Wotton have some spectacular lines?): http://classiclit.about.com/od/pictureofdoriangray/a/aa_picturequote.htm
• Film adaptations: 
• 2009: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235124/
• 2007: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435669/
• 1945: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037988/
• A bit about the scandalous Oscar Wilde: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde

I'll post again in a few days with the meeting location, and I'm excited to see you all at the meeting this Sunday, July 8 at 1PM!

June: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Well, Bookworms, it looks like we'll be going wild in June - Oscar Wilde that is!  This month's winning selection is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Thank you to everyone who voted, and we hope to see you all at the meeting on Sunday, July 8 at 1PM.  We'll post a location closer to the date.

See you then!

Victoriana: Let's pick a book!

We had a couple of ties this month, so here are the results:

For the meeting time, there was a tie between Sat, June 30 at 1PM and Sun July 8 at 1PM.  Since last month's meeting was on a Saturday, we figured we'd do this month's on a Sunday!  So this month's meeting will be on Sunday, July 8th at 1PM.

There was also a 3-way tie for the genre, so we removed our votes (we figured it would be more fair to take our votes out to break the tie than to vote twice!) and that means that the winner is Victoriana!

The poll is up now for the five books in the Victoriana genre - it's pretty cool because they're all "classics"!  Here's some info about each of the options:

• The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5297.The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray)
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10210.Jane_Eyre)
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1953.A_Tale_of_Two_Cities)
• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14935.Sense_and_Sensibility)
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/288830.The_Strange_Case_of_Dr_Jekyll_and_Mr_Hyde)

Please keep in mind that some of these novels are rather lengthy, so let that be a factor in your book decision!  You can see the number of pages if you click on the links.

Vote for any that you're interested in!  The poll will close on Wednesday, June 13th at 11:59PM and we'll announce the winning book on Thursday.

Happy voting!

June: Genre and Meeting Time

Hey Bookworms!

Thanks to those of you who came to our meeting on Saturday!  Now it's time to make some decisions about our next meeting.

You can vote now for a genre and for a meeting time - just check out the polls on the right side of the website!  Vote for as many genres as you're interested in.

For the meeting date and time, vote for any time slots that work for you.  We realize that the weekend of June 30 is the Canada Day long weekend, so we've put time slots for both the long weekend and the weekend after, so keep that in mind!

Both of these polls will close on Friday, June 8th at 11:59pm, and we'll announce the results on Saturday and set up a poll for a book.

If you have any suggestions for any of the genres, please email us or leave it as a comment on this post.  Then we can include it in the options once we set up a book poll!  This month's genre options are:

• Victoriana (think Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen)
• Biography or autobiography
• Thriller (this was last month's runner up, so we thought we would include it again!)

If you have any suggestions, let us know, and make sure to get your votes in by Friday!

The Weather has spoken...

Hey this is just a quick update about the meeting. Looking ahead at the forecast we see rain, therefore the meeting will be held indoors in UCU 205. See you then!