Tarot Book Club?

kalliope

To make it easy, the poll is here. :)

I have heard that there are a lot of pitfalls that come up for Book Clubs and getting people to read the books is one of the main ones. I once read Tarot at a Book Club's Halloween party - they had read Pride & Prejudice and Zombies - and was surprised to learn that about a third of them had read the book.

Maaaaaybe breaking down the books into quarters and reading them one a week instead of the whole book in a month? I worry that the energy really goes out when it take longer than that.

Just saw this post from you, I somehow missed it. Re: the pitfalls you mentioned, I think that people get busy and fall behind, but still like the social aspects of the group so they show up anyhow without reading it!

I know that my own perspective is that I don't want to feel burdened by a leisure book club's assignment reading (even if it's a serious book or for study), or feel a dreadful obligation always hanging over my head. I want to discuss a book and its ideas with others, but I'm not the sort who has one focused interest area. I have several projects & topics & engagements to which I devote my time, so I can't give one book all of my free time or attention. I imagine that's true for at least a few others, or they may have hectic work or families and need to sneak in thoughtful reading only when they can.

So for me, breaking a longer book into quarters or sets of chapters would actually make me more energized because it would allow the whole thing to manageably fit into my schedule. If I were to fall too behind otherwise, I'd probably have to quit the club. Plus, since I'm sure many of the books have meaty enough chapters about specific ideas or techniques, there's no need for the book to be finished before discussion begins.

Smaller chunks start people discussing before they've finished an entire tome, which can get people even more excited to continue towards the end if the conversation is good! And if the conversation is good, it won't feel like the book is dragging on too long. :p
 

Barleywine

So for me, breaking a longer book into quarters or sets of chapters would actually make me more energized because it would allow the whole thing to manageably fit into my schedule. If I were to fall too behind otherwise, I'd probably have to quit the club. Plus, since I'm sure many of the books have meaty enough chapters about specific ideas or techniques, there's no need for the book to be finished before discussion begins.

Smaller chunks start people discussing before they've finished an entire tome, which can get people even more excited to continue towards the end if the conversation is good! And if the conversation is good, it won't feel like the book is dragging on too long. :p

This is an excellent idea! :thumbsup: My only concern would be reading too far ahead, so that I would have to keep notes in order to discuss it intelligently on-schedule.
 

staticfuzz

So for me, breaking a longer book into quarters or sets of chapters would actually make me more energized because it would allow the whole thing to manageably fit into my schedule. If I were to fall too behind otherwise, I'd probably have to quit the club. Plus, since I'm sure many of the books have meaty enough chapters about specific ideas or techniques, there's no need for the book to be finished before discussion begins.

Smaller chunks start people discussing before they've finished an entire tome, which can get people even more excited to continue towards the end if the conversation is good! And if the conversation is good, it won't feel like the book is dragging on too long. :p

I think breaking it into smaller chunks is a great idea. I got Holistic Tarot and I'm looking at it and I'm like, yeah I want to spent a few months with it. I could definitely finish it in under a month but I'm sure there's ideas I will want to let marinate.
 

Shade

I saw an online book club on Goodreads and liked their method. The book was broken up into relatively equal sections and a schedule was in place for when certain sections would be up for discussion. This lets people talk about the specifics of the chapters, allows you to catch up by just reading the next set of chapters, and gives folks a reasonable expectation about where they should be in the book.

What if the discussion here looked something like:

April 27 Discussion begins for
Chapter 1: Tarot Analytics: A Holistic Approach
Chapter 2: A Concise History of Tarot
Chapter 3: Allaying fears and offering theories
Pages: 24

May 4 Discussion begins for:
Chapter: Choosing Your Deck
Chapter 5: Anatomy of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot
Chapter 6: The Personal Journal
Chapter 7: Beginner Rote Learning
Chapter 8: Keywords
Pages 34

May 11 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 9: Cycolpedia of Card Meanings
151 Pages

May 18 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 10: Signifier Cards
Chapter 11: The First Operation
Chapter 12: Interpreting Court Cards
Pages 39

May 25 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 13: On Shuffling Drawing and Cutting
Chapter 14: The Fundamentals of Reading Spreads
Pages 139

June 1 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 15: Consideration of the Spread Landscape
Chapter 16: Devising Tarot Spreads
Chapter 17: Tarot Readings: A Step-by-Step Analytical Process

June 8 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 18: The Five Components of Circumstance 484
Chapter 19: Assuaging Seekers when a reading seems negative
Chapter 20: Reading for Yourself
Chapter 21: The Setting of a Tarot Reading and Energetic Supplements
Pages: 44

June 15 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 22: Immediate Ruminations and Practicum
Chapter 23: the Value of Meditation to Tarot Practice
Chapter 24: Inappropriate Questions
Chapter 25: Ethical Considerations of the Tarot
Chapter 26: Tarot and Love

June 22 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 27: Tarot and Professional Development
Chapter 28: Using Tarot to Build Resilience
Chapter 29: Depth Diagnostics
Chapter 30: The Opening of the key
Pages: 51

June 29 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 31: Tarot de Marseille and the Thoth
Chapter 32: The Professional Practice of Tarot
Chapter 33: A personal Essay: How I started
28 Pages

July 6 Discussion begins for:

Discussion of the book as a whole.

After writing all of that out my first thought was "Woah that's over two months, can we keep the energy up that long?" Are there chapters we should skip in order to condense things? Perhaps the 151 page long cyclopedia of readings?

What are other people's reactions to the above schedule?
 

kalliope

After writing all of that out my first thought was "Woah that's over two months, can we keep the energy up that long?" Are there chapters we should skip in order to condense things? Perhaps the 151 page long cyclopedia of readings?

What are other people's reactions to the above schedule?

I like this sort of outline, and think it's a really helpful start. All of your points about how it allows people to know what to expect, and how to catch up, are key. Thanks for hashing all of that out and posting it!

I agree that we may be able to cover more in a week in some places, depending on the topics involved. For instance, I think maybe the first two weeks might be able to be combined, since a lot of it is broad introductory material, and the chapters are short.

I'll take a closer look at the chapters and see if I have any thoughts on other places to condense things.

Anyone else??
 

Madrigal

I saw an online book club on Goodreads and liked their method. The book was broken up into relatively equal sections and a schedule was in place for when certain sections would be up for discussion. This lets people talk about the specifics of the chapters, allows you to catch up by just reading the next set of chapters, and gives folks a reasonable expectation about where they should be in the book.

What if the discussion here looked something like:

April 27 Discussion begins for
Chapter 1: Tarot Analytics: A Holistic Approach
Chapter 2: A Concise History of Tarot
Chapter 3: Allaying fears and offering theories
Pages: 24

May 4 Discussion begins for:
Chapter: Choosing Your Deck
Chapter 5: Anatomy of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot
Chapter 6: The Personal Journal
Chapter 7: Beginner Rote Learning
Chapter 8: Keywords
Pages 34

May 11 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 9: Cycolpedia of Card Meanings
151 Pages

May 18 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 10: Signifier Cards
Chapter 11: The First Operation
Chapter 12: Interpreting Court Cards
Pages 39

May 25 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 13: On Shuffling Drawing and Cutting
Chapter 14: The Fundamentals of Reading Spreads
Pages 139

June 1 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 15: Consideration of the Spread Landscape
Chapter 16: Devising Tarot Spreads
Chapter 17: Tarot Readings: A Step-by-Step Analytical Process

June 8 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 18: The Five Components of Circumstance 484
Chapter 19: Assuaging Seekers when a reading seems negative
Chapter 20: Reading for Yourself
Chapter 21: The Setting of a Tarot Reading and Energetic Supplements
Pages: 44

June 15 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 22: Immediate Ruminations and Practicum
Chapter 23: the Value of Meditation to Tarot Practice
Chapter 24: Inappropriate Questions
Chapter 25: Ethical Considerations of the Tarot
Chapter 26: Tarot and Love

June 22 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 27: Tarot and Professional Development
Chapter 28: Using Tarot to Build Resilience
Chapter 29: Depth Diagnostics
Chapter 30: The Opening of the key
Pages: 51

June 29 Discussion begins for:
Chapter 31: Tarot de Marseille and the Thoth
Chapter 32: The Professional Practice of Tarot
Chapter 33: A personal Essay: How I started
28 Pages

July 6 Discussion begins for:

Discussion of the book as a whole.

After writing all of that out my first thought was "Woah that's over two months, can we keep the energy up that long?" Are there chapters we should skip in order to condense things? Perhaps the 151 page long cyclopedia of readings?

What are other people's reactions to the above schedule?

This is really nicely laid out and very much in the stream of the focused approach the author uses. Thank you for putting all that energy into organizing it. From my experience on the other book club I'm part of the theme and chapters for the week will inspire lots of different rivers that can be very enlivening. I don't see any need to cull at this point. I think there is so much in the book that will then interface with our own personal experiences that the discussion will likely be rich and informative.