The Keepin’ It Real Book Club is all about what we love about books. But enough of playing nice. What makes your skin crawl and your eyes roll? What would you never be caught dead reading? What do you HATE in your fictional universes? Do you avoid poets-turned-writers, Oprah-approved books, or tea cozy mysteries like the plague? Do child narrators, paranormal romances, or multi-generational family sagas give you a rash? Well, if we have it our way, that will happen no more! Be prepared to have your reading world turned upside down with KIRBC’s Reading Roulette!
No, it doesn’t require a trip to Vegas or reading at gunpoint, but it could be almost as risky, and just as sexy.
In the spirit of Keep Toronto Reading, we need your help to get this gambling party started. Here’s your mission should you choose to accept it:
1) Send us your literary pet peeve (and pretty picture) in 140 words or less. These will be shared with the world on the KIRBC site. But that just gets the party started . . .
2) Those eager to prove you wrong can step up to the plate and recommend a read that just might turn your loathing in loving. Recommenders can utilize any form they want anywhere on the world wide web: a blog post, a video, a webcomic, a sonnet, a song . . . whatever you think will persuade the hater to take a chance and reconsider. Stalking of blogs and Goodreads profiles to further determine your target’s tastes is encouraged.
3) Should the challenge be accepted, we enter the third, and most interesting, stage. Erin and I will try to hook up the reader with a copy of the recommended book. Then it’s up to them to read it and post a response (again, in any form they’d like, anywhere they’d like).
So what’s in it for you? Well, you could discover great new books where you least expect them or turn a hater of a genre into a true believer. Not enough? How ‘bout prizes? Reading Roulette will run from September 2nd to December 2nd, and every time you recommend or review in that time, you’ll be entered to win a fabulous prize pack of books. Erin and I will also award a jury prize to the best recommender and the best response (judged by our own highly subjective criteria).
We’ll post all the Reading Roulette challenges, recommendations, and responses here so you can follow everyone’s spin of the wheel here.
But we wouldn’t make you guys do it if we weren’t going to do it too. So to kick things off, here’s the list of grievances we’d nail to the library’s door:
Jen Knoch (@jen_knoch) will cross a bookstore to avoid Can lit pre-1970; action that is field-of-grain adjacent; and cover art involving half-naked modelesque types, shopping bags, wedding rings or stiletto shoes. On the other hand, she’s a sucker for a strong authorial voice, poetic prose, forbidden love, tear-provoking scenes, and satisfying endings.
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Erin Balser (@booksin140) is not a fan of historical fiction, especially those written in the epistolary form. When she’s not avoiding historical fiction, she dodges horror, fantasy and Harlequin romances. If it happened before she was born or it’s completely implausible, she doesn’t want to hear about it. Additionally, talking animals, precocious children, wizards, ladies-in-waiting, plagues, doomed romances, poor sentence structure and anything and everything that takes place in rural Canada need not apply. However, if you’re really well written, laugh out loud funny, trim and work every last word, borderline experimental and written by an author that’s on the verge, call me. Beach-ready guilty pleasures are open to apply for one night stands only.
Feelin’ lucky? Email me (j.k.knoch@gmail.com) your literary loves and hates. We’ll post our first round of challenges next week.
So go on . . . take your best shot.
I was really hoping that this project was going to involve me sitting in front of my computer wearing nothing but my cranberry colored smoking jacket and a lobster bib while viewing random video snippets of sassy, bubblegum-snapping readers living in rv lots in the mid-west like I used to do with Chat Roulette.
But, alas…
Sean, if you want your 140 words and/or recommendations to others to be done like that, there’s nothing we can do to stop you.
Haha! This is awesome! Unfortunately, I’m at work doing inventory and trying not to get caught reading this. Will have to answer later!
You guys are truly amazing. I’m trying to keep it together and you’re bringing on even more. And I notice my comments here are often full of exclamation points. I’m always so excited here!! :)
I have emailed Jen K!
I seem to have misplaced my lobster bib.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mike Cane, Erin Balser , Sarah Labrie, Julie Wilson, Julie Forrest and others. Julie Forrest said: RT @jen_knoch: A new #KIRBC project unveiled! @booksin140 and I dare you to take your chances with #ReadingRoulette http://ht.ly/2yGUr [...]
Email sent! :)
Erin and Jen, I think this whole idea is wonderful and I’ve sent you an e-mail with a recommendation for each of you. Can’t wait to see if you choose one of mine!
See, as a former bookseller and someone who strives to be fair-minded, I’ve already self-inflicted some of the books I most loathe. When Princess Daisy outsold the Bible, I read it. When Bridges of Madison County wasn’t released in paperback for a decade, I read it (altho I made sure I borrowed a friend’s copy so no royalties would be payable – I can be as mean as I am generous-hearted – I have many unlisten-to-able Neil Young CDs to prove it). Ditto Dan Brown’s – what was that oh-so-forgettable book called? I put in some time with John Grisham too. So I guess, if someone were to try to persuade me to change my mind about a style of writing they’d have to tackle those hideously dense writers who just begin to toss off words I have to look up rather than defining their terms at the outset – Roland Barthes, for instance? In fact, if anyone can make a case for Claude Levi-Strauss, I’d mend my oh-so-ignorant-of-structuralism-but-hostile-to-it-anyway ways. :)
Awesome Jeanne! Are you going to submit a description to be subjected to recommendations as well? You should! :-)
I just sent you an email JK. Yet another fun project around the KIRBC – LOVE IT! :)
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