Online book discussion forums

[Star555]

I'd like to find an active discussion forum for books, especially classics, where users can create threads like Mumsnet and actively discuss book details. E.g. there would be a thread on "Pride and Prejudice: Elizabeth and Mr Darcy's relationship" or "The Count of Monte Cristo: Does Edmond find true happiness?" or "Feminism in the Iliad and Odyssey" and so on. I've seen Goodreads and Booktalk.org but oftentimes the discussions there are shallow and limited to summary reviews, and not very active. Any other suggestions? Thanks!

Bumping this for you as I'd like that.

I'm a member a few big FB book groups and occasionally we get some good discussions but 95% is asking whether you prefer paperbacks over kindles, slagging off JKR and asking if audiobooks are "cheating" (I don't understand the question personally)

I tend to use Goodreads, but that's more reading reviews out of interest, rather than an actual discussion. Maybe we need to start a MN book club where we read one of those books and then chat about it - it may be there already if you search back far enough.

Anyway, once I've finished my current book (urgh, I HATE A Clockwork Orange but I decided on a no-buy-until-I've-re-read policy a year or ago so, and these are the times it trips me up) The Count Of Monte Christo is my next book, so I'd be happy to chat about that - it just may be Christmas before I get there!

This is an interesting question. Probably Mumsnet is the closest you'd get.

The best thing about Good Reads is that you'll generally find a review that completely agrees or disagrees with your point of you but that's it really. In my experience.

There's tons of book groups on facebook

How do you find them @1vandal2 ?

@tobee I am a member of a few on FB.

They are mostly good natured, friendly groups, but as with all large groups, there can be some argy bargy from time to time and some snarky people. The main issue I have, is with such big groups, the same questions get asked again and again. The most common one is "Do you prefer Kindle over 'real' books?" - cue 100s of smug people piling in with "Oh no I love a "real" book, looking at a screen isn't reading", then someone will ask "does it matter?" and common sense is restored. Happens about three times a day, more at the weekend. Next most common question is "Are audio books cheating?" - never really understand this question, but I think it has something to do with people very focused on GoodReads challenges. Next is the "Have you read Crawdads (2020), Eleanor Oliphant (2019, Normal People (2018) ... you get the idea.

If you can get past these annoyances.....

The Facebook Book Club has over 80k members and they come from all over the world, very active, popular group but so big you rarely run into the same person twice.

Lost in a Good Book is slightly smaller at about 30K membership, I think it has more British posters, but there are certainly people there from all over.

I like Women Reading Great Books. Large group, 70K+ members. Very active, lots of types of books being discussed. Lots of American readers and there has been some heavy moderation over the election, but it is calming down a bit now.

@BookShark I would love to chat about Count of Monte Cristo! Do let me know when you get to it, please. Maybe we can start a thread for it on Mumsnet if others are interested, but regardless I'm open to chatting via PMs as well. It's one of my all-time favourites and I re-read different parts of it very often; the entire book is massive but an enormously rewarding read!

You're on! But give me a week or so to finish Clockwork Orange and get started on The Count (so to speak!). I read it years ago and remember very little of it, so looking forward to it!

Thank you @BookWitch

@BookShark How is the reading going? :)

Hi @Star555, sorry for being slow to reply. Which is partly because my reading progress is also slow - I'd forgotten how long the Count is!

I'm about 1/4 of the way through - just met Caderousse again at the inn. Loving re-reading it, as I can't remember the story at all, so it's great rediscovering it. Yes, it's long, but so engaging that it doesn't feel like a chore at all - I just need to stay awake long enough to manage more than a couple of chapters each night!

I use Goodreads for other stuff but haven't really joined in a group read discussion. I prefer Librarything (www.librarything.com). Both are very US dominated but LT is smaller and there are people I've been talking to for nearly 12 years now and have met in real life.

When I first got the internet at home, I discovered some email list reading groups including a crime fiction group which had really good discussions, but I dropped out of the discussions after about 6 years, after I was pregnant with DS1. It's just struck me thinking about it that this is all now just over 20 years ago - wow!

The good groups have introduced me to some really interesting books I wouldn't otherwise have read, as well as people I wouldn't have met, on or offline.

I have read quite a few of the popular books lots of people are talking about (but probably becasue apart from this year when I only finished a handful of books between March and September, I normally read quite a few) but I seem to read some obscure ones occasionally too.

@BookShark no problem, and sorry for my late reply as well! It's indeed one of those huge but intensely engaging books that don't feel hard to get through. Let me know your thoughts about the ending (or other parts) if you've finished it by now.