IDB Book Club

Our two favourite full time internet nerds who never go outside!
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lefthandedism
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:reading1: Welcome to the IDB Book Club :reading2:
This is the place for group discussions of phanfic! Each month, on the 1st and the 15th, a host will lead us in discussion of a fic they have chosen. Please join in the discussion or host an upcoming fic!

In the rest of this post there is an index of all the fics we've discussed, including pointers to the start of each discussion. At the bottom are the current fic and the next one.

Happy reading and discussing!

:reading1: First Fic for the IDB Book Club :reading2:
Fic: home is where the wifi connects automatically by oqua
Host: lefthandedism
Date: January 15th
Discussion begins: here

"home is where the wifi connects automatically" was written in September 2016 and was the winner of "Best Reality" in the 2016 Phanfic Awards. This fic is written in limited third person from Dan's point of view, and is a series of snapshots of Christmas from 2010 through 2015. Dan and Phil spend each Christmas apart, with their respective families. It's always a difficult time for Dan.

:reading1: Second Fic for the IDB Book Club :reading2:
FIc: RIght Where We Are by thatmistertoyou
Host: readingmama
Date: February 1st
Discussion begins: here

Right Where We Are is a series of 5 works written in 2015 in the reality genre. It was written by thatmistertoyou who has several other works in the phandom on ao3. Each one-shot in the series covers the lives of Dan & Phil as they navigate through various situations involving their relationships with each other, their families and their fans in the years 2013-2015.

:reading1: Third Fic for the IDB Book Club :reading2:

Fic: when i sing, you sing harmonies
Author: The_Blonde (AO3 | Tumblr)
Hosts: smartcookie & LtrllySusan
Date: February 15th
Discussion begins: here

"When i sing, you sing harmonies" is an unchaptered AU fic published in November 2017 as part of the Phandom Reverse Bang. Phil, a witch with the ability to see people's auras, runs a cake shop in which he sells magical pastries to humans. He meets Dan, an insecure music student, whose music and aura fascinates Phil and intrigues him. The fic was received very well and subsequently won three awards in the Phanfic Awards of 2017: Second place in "Best of the Best" and first place in both the "Best of the Best AU" and the "Originality" category.

:reading1: Fourth Fic for the IDB Book Club! :reading2:
Fic: Let The Salt Dry by hunterfics
Host: obsessivelymoody
Date: March 1st
Discussion begins: here

"Let The Salt Dry" is an unchaptered fic written in July 2016 that takes place in 2009 but Dan is a trans boy. It follows the timeline of 2009 closely and is written from Dan's point of view.

:reading1: Fifth Fic for the IDB Book Club! :reading2:
Fic: waiting outside the lines by dizzy
Host: captainspacecoat
Date: March 15th
Summary: A not-really-coffee-shop, not-really-uni au in which Phil is confused, Dan is cute, no one does Youtube, and there's still a happy ending.
Discussion begins: here

:reading1: Sixth Fic for the IDB Book Club! :reading2:
Fic: Dan and Phil: Lords of the Internet, Masters of Ambiguity by islet (requires ao3 account)
Host: @parallel
Date: April 1st
Summary: A version of this article appears in print on May 22, 2016, on page MM22 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: The Curious Case of Dan and Phil.
Discussion begins: here

:reading1: First Meta-Question for the IDB Book Club :reading2:
Question: What makes a written work a phanfic?
Host: lefthandedism
Date: April 19th
Discussion begins: here

:sparkle: :reading1: Second Meta-Question for the IDB Book Club :reading2: :sparkle:
Question: What role does characterization play in making a work a phanfic?
Host: lefthandedism
Date: May 20th
Discussion begins: here

:reading1: :reading2:

This is where we can discuss a particular fic in a more structured way. Suggestions for our first work for consideration?
Last edited by lefthandedism on Sun Mar 25, 2018 2:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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MythicalPinkTrashCan
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Can I make suggestion that we only do completed works in here? I know there are some AMAZING wips, but i feel like you can really really discuss it until it's all the way done?

Also... how long should we dedicate towards one fic? A week? Two weeks? A month? Varies depending on the length of the fic?
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MythicalPinkTrashCan wrote: Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:40 pm Can I make suggestion that we only do completed works in here? I know there are some AMAZING wips, but i feel like you can really really discuss it until it's all the way done?

Also... how long should we dedicate towards one fic? A week? Two weeks? A month? Varies depending on the length of the fic?
Oh yes, I reckon just completed works for here as we can use the other thread for WIPs :thumb:
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lefthandedism
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I agree that we'd want to try to stick to completed works on here. I'd also like to discuss shorter works (short-story length) too. We could obviously discuss them with much less lead time; another approach would be to pick 3-5 around a theme and consider them together. The theme could be anything that makes them similar: 2009, coffee shop, outsider pov, blank verse, unusual imagery--the phanfic writers are so talented there's definitely a bit of everything out there!

I'll mention two short fics (that don't particularly share a theme) that were probably my two favs from 2016. I think each is worth discussing on its own, or compared to other fics.

"Not your fault that they hover" by snsk (Nick Jonas outsider pov)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/8462962

"Home is where the wifi connects automatically" by oqua (family angst over the years)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/8108575
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alittledizzy
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Either for fics or just for themes, strawpolls could be useful - give people a few options and the chance to decide what they feel like doing most? Then let that discussion go for whatever period of time you decide.
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maybe what we can do is spend most of January ironing out how the club will work and collect suggestions? I'm not sure if monthly is too short for most people, but I'm guessing a lot of polls will be necessary for this thread haha

Edit: whoops apparently I was a second too late with the same idea as dizzy haha
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MythicalPinkTrashCan
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I'm all for reading Oqua's Family series, but let it be known that if we do, every time I post about it, I will be sobbing because that series hits something deep inside me.

I love the idea of a theme with a few fics. We could compare and contrast them, just have fun. Lots of fun
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Having two or more fics about the same theme/topic would be awesome we can compare so much stuff. oh god :happytears: yes please
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000dia000
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I'm loving that this is coming to be yay though if I was going to make a suggestion early on, is that people structure their discussions on works that make it easy to follow, just for the benefit of others who may want to read back/join in at any point
:cactus:
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alittledizzy
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Did this concept stall out? I loved the idea of it, I think it probably just needs a couple people to take point on organizing it.
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lefthandedism
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alittledizzy wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2018 2:37 pm Did this concept stall out? I loved the idea of it, I think it probably just needs a couple people to take point on organizing it.
Yes--I was just going to come back on here with a few suggestions! A rough outline:

* We discuss a new fic (set of fics) on the first day of each month.

* We choose the following fic via poll on the 25th of the preceding month.

* Someone "hosts" the discussion by making an initial post on the first of the month, with 5-10 questions/prompts to get things started. But it's all free form from there, until the discussion peters out of its own accord.

* The host would typically be the person who suggested the fic, but someone else could do it--the point is to have one person in charge of kicking things off.

Since that's probably blindingly unclear, here's an example.

Suppose we do oqua's "home is where the wifi connects automatically". We would discuss that beginning on February 1st. I would start discussion with a post that day, since I recommended it.

Meanwhile, people can suggest next fics (for March 1) in this thread (similar the the thread names suggestion thread); on January 25, someone will collect them and make a poll. The poll will close on Feb. 1, and the winner will be the March fic.

While I'm happy to host the first fic, I'm also happy not too! This is just a concrete suggestion to get things rolling and I'm sure there are plenty of good modifications to be made. For instance, I think we need a regular schedule, but I don't know if a month is the right length of time. (I've run book clubs IRL, so I have opinions, but I've never been in a book club on line, so this is exciting.)

Thoughts? :ribena:
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MythicalPinkTrashCan
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I'm all for LeftHandism hosting! Especially since you've doing them IRL. i've never been in anything like it, just dreamed of it.
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MythicalPinkTrashCan wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2018 5:37 pm I'm all for LeftHandism hosting! Especially since you've doing them IRL. i've never been in anything like it, just dreamed of it.
seconding that! it'd be good to get the ball rolling, and even better to have someone starting it with experience haha. tbh the only book club-type stuff i've personally ever done is sit quietly reading through various goodreads groups, so again having someone with experience doing that would be helpful
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I love this idea! I tend to not get around here enough so this would be a fun thing to be involved in. Excited for the first discussion~
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I am not sure if I'm brave enough to join the discussion but if I may make a suggestion as as a lurker: Given that most fics are shorter than books, would it also be an option to shorten the cycle to 2 weeks instead of a month? Alternatively you could discuss multiple fics or a series at the same time but that might be more confusing.

Your decision though! *fades back into the shadows*
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MythicalPinkTrashCan
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I like the idea of maybe two going? One shorter fic for two weeks and a longer fic for a month?
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alittledizzy
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If you go with themes in addition to fic then it could sort of be both, you could find a long fic and maybe take suggestions for shorter fics that fit the theme and then over the course of a month discuss all of them? You can also always adjust the time if it turns out that people only really talk about something for a few days and the thread sits unused the rest of the month.
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lefthandedism
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I think we are going to have to figure out our pacing--both for reading and for discussion--as we go along. On the one hand, we want to keep discussion going, and not see the thread die out between each fic; on the other hand, we want everyone to have a chance to read the fics we choose.

A lot of fics are surprisingly long--much longer than they may seem when you're scrolling on your phone. For example, the two WIPs we are discussion on the other thread are--as of today--88k words (amaaf) and 60k words (dru). For comparison, the first Harry Potter book is about 300 pages--and about 77k words! (See this page for more interesting word counts.)

All that being said, I think the main thing is to plan fics enough ahead of time and have enough in the pipeline to give everyone ample time to read them, bearing in mind that people have other things going on like work, school, phandom excitement, and other reading. I think a month is enough time for most fics.

I also agree than scheduling twice a month rather than once is a good idea--say the 1st and the 15th. The pedant in me wants to say the 16th, but that's harder to remember! We're still pretty early in January, so if we pick a longer fic for February 1st this weekend, there should be enough time.

So here's a proposal: we can plunge in with "home is where the wifi connects automatically" (which is about 8k words) on January 15th (hosted by me), and someone can do the next fic on February 1st. Does someone want to step up for that? Once we have the first two locked in, we can start setting up polls for recommendations so we are always at least a month ahead.

And I want to emphasize that while I think having a structure to keep things rolling is important, it's just as important for the discussion to go in whatever directions people want, including pulling in additional related fics or anything else that inspires the passionate posts IDB is known for :ribena:.

If this sounds like a good place to start, I'll formally claim the first fic and kick off the discussion on January 15th!
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LeftHandedism wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 4:40 pm So here's a proposal: we can plunge in with "home is where the wifi connects automatically" (which is about 8k words) on January 15th (hosted by me), and someone can do the next fic on February 1st. Does someone want to step up for that? Once we have the first two locked in, we can start setting up polls for recommendations so we are always at least a month ahead.
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lefthandedism
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:reading1: First Fic for the IDB Book Club :reading2:

Fic: home is where the wifi connects automatically by oqua
Host: LeftHandedism
Date discussion begins: January 15th, with kickoff post by host
Next fic: Can someone pick a moderately-sized fic (less than 100k words) for us to discuss on February 1st?

On January 15th, I'll drop a post with a few thoughts and some possible discussion questions, then it's a free-for-all as long as anyone wants to talk about the fic, related fics, or anything else that comes up.

Note: among her many other talents, oqua is an Admin here on IDB!
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Oh my god how did I miss this thread, this is an amazing idea! I've been sharing all my favorite fanfictions to my newbie phandom friends and I've reread a lot of oldie but goldie so I'd love to participate <3
Will probably never be over the BONCAS and the beauty of Phil Lester.

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i have no idea how i missed this thread either! what an awesome idea (and thank you LeftHandedism for running the first one!) - i'm looking forward to having a good discussion about oqua's beautiful writing.

(i always wanted to join a book club irl because i imagined it would involve lots of tea and cake/wine and then writing discussions, which are pretty much all my favourite things, so i'm looking forward to this :D )
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lefthandedism
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The_Blonde wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 8:30 pm i have no idea how i missed this thread either! what an awesome idea (and thank you LeftHandedism for running the first one!) - i'm looking forward to having a good discussion about oqua's beautiful writing.

(i always wanted to join a book club irl because i imagined it would involve lots of tea and cake/wine and then writing discussions, which are pretty much all my favourite things, so i'm looking forward to this :D )
I'm in a book club IRL where we have lots of chocolate, cheese, and wine, and it's lovely. Here, we'll make do with ribena! :ribena:
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lefthandedism
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LeftHandedism wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 4:02 pm :reading1: First Fic for the IDB Book Club :reading2:

Fic: home is where the wifi connects automatically by oqua
Host: LeftHandedism
Date discussion begins: January 15th, with kickoff post by host
Next fic: Can someone pick a moderately-sized fic (less than 100k words) for us to discuss on February 1st?

On January 15th, I'll drop a post with a few thoughts and some possible discussion questions, then it's a free-for-all as long as anyone wants to talk about the fic, related fics, or anything else that comes up.

Note: among her many other talents, oqua is an Admin here on IDB!
So....does someone want to pick a fic to discuss on February 1st? Multiple suggestions and a poll works too!
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I have never been part of a book club before but its something that I have always wanted to do so this is awesome!

I have a thought on a series that might be fun to discuss:

Right Where We Are- http://archiveofourown.org/series/270268:

It is a series of 5 works about 38k word count total. Its a bit older but has a few different, topical themes. I don't know if the setup of a series versus a chaptered story or longer one-shot would work but kinda of sticks with the themes of reality and family.

There are lots of fics out there that would be great to explore so this is just a suggestion and I'd love to hear more ideas!
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