Good Morning friends! I know I promised a beekeeping and class update but I woke up this morning thinking about a book group. I mean, at 5AM when the littlest kitty starts meowing for food because he doesn’t understand time change, you have plenty of time for ideas. I got up, walked Anna for her morning rounds, and then fed the critters. Then I crawled back into bed with a cup of coffee and started thinking. Thinking about starting a book group. Finally.
I’ve been thinking about starting a book group for a long time. I mentioned it in my stories over on Instagram. I mean, I’m a librarian by trade so it makes sense. And I want to motivate myself to read more homesteading books. So here’s what I’m thinking. We’ll read a homesteading related book every 6 weeks or so. We’ll cover topics such as beekeeping, soap making, gardening, animals, etc. etc. We’ll throw in some first hand accounts of things for good measure. You might recall that I read One Hundred and Four Horses, which isn’t necessarily a homesteading book, but it is about the love of animals. I also read Flat Broke with Two Goats about losing everything and starting over homesteading. So we’ll cover some books like that as well. I’m open to suggested books if you have one you love. And we’ll do some guest posts as well. If you are a master soap maker, please consider leading a discussion here on the blog. We’ll also reach out to the authors of the books (or some books) and see if they would be interested in joining us.
Let’s call ourselves the “Chicken Librarian Reads Book Group”, although I’m open to more creative names. So throw some ideas out there and let’s name ourselves and get started!
We’ll start with this book first. I’ll give everyone two weeks to get their hands on the book. I suggest you start with your local library to see if you can borrow the book before adding it to your collection. However, if you like buying books, then go to your local bookstore or use one of the many online retailers. I don’t have an Amazon Associate account anymore so there are no affiliate links here. Just me trying to get books into your hands! Although if I do the Amazon Associates account again I will let you know.
So our first discussion will be on November 18th. We’ll read the intro and chapters 1-5 in case you want to get started. It’s about 72 pages. I hope that’s manageable for the group, especially with everyone gearing up for the holidays. I’ll post a blog post with the first few chapters and questions on the 18th. Then over the course of two weeks we’ll discuss using the comments on that particular blog post while continuing our reading. Then on the next scheduled date, I’ll post questions for the next round. I hope this makes sense! Here’s our rough outline schedule:
November 18th: intro-Chapter 5
December 2nd: Chapters 6-10
December 16th: Chapters 11-15
December 30th: Appendixes and wrap up, next book and schedule.
Sound good? So, get your hands on the book, leave me a comment here if you will be joining me. And let’s get started! I’ll be back later in the week to give you the beekeeping update that I’ve been promising. Until then, have a good week friends!
Melinda
I’m laughing at the rambunctious kitty and the brain that just looks for any excuse to think (I’m pretty familiar with that type, lol). This is completely unrelated to books, but I’m just wondering why you don’t have an Amazon Associates account anymore? I had one too, but this was when I was just starting out and never got the requisite sales…so they dumped me. I figure I’ll go back someday when I have a much larger amount of subscribers, otherwise it just seems like a waste of time. Anyway, good luck with the book club! The only reading I have time for nowadays is of the spiritual variety, but I hope it goes really well for you! xoxo
chickenlibrarian
Some of my best ideas are in the early mornings! I don’t use Amazon Associates for the exact reason you just stated. I’ve tried several times only to not sell anything and then have to go back and change all those links on my blog when I reapplied for a new Associates account. I’m with you…maybe once I have a steady stream of readers I’ll try again.
Tracy
Funny you should mention Amazon Associates, I just added those links to my site on Nov. 2. (I was actually going to drop you a line about that… but that’s for another time.)
Mr. Gordon and I used to run a small book club years ago (fiction, not online) and it was fun. He’s switched to only reading non-fiction now, so I will let him know about your club. He might be interested in the first book in particular because he is curious about bee-keeping. I’m not for it on our property, to be honest, because we just do not have a safe space for the bees. Any “appropriate” space is right on the property line next to a neighbor, so I don’t see that as possible. Still, I think Mr. Gordon might be interested in the book, maybe participating in the book club. I’ll send him the link to your post!
Oh, and:
CLUCKERs
Chicken
Librarian
Unites
Curious &
Knowledgeable
Readers
CLUCKERs 😀
Just think of the interesting Chicken Librarian I’m a CLUCKER logo/graphic you could get participants to put on their blogs! 😀 (I’m killing me over here…) Happy Monday!
chickenlibrarian
I LOVE it! CLUCKERS. It’s perfect. And the “I’m a CLUCKER” logo/graphic is priceless. I can just picture it. You are totally killin’ it.
And tell Mr. Gordon he’s welcome to join us. We’ll be discussing all kinds of topics and you don’t have to own any of the animals, etc. or even participate with any hands-on activities (I’m thinking we’ll discussing baking, canning, gardening, chickens, etc. etc).
As for Amazon Associates, I stopped because I wasn’t making any sales. After their allotted time period, if you don’t make any sales, they ‘kick’ you off that program and you have to reapply. It’s not a hard process except they assign you a new identity or whatever and then you have to change all those links on your blog. I figured it wasn’t worth it until I have more readers. If that ever happens, I’ll reconsider it. I say go for it though. You never know until you try!
Diane Frances
I have the book, I’m in. Looking forward to your questions and to pondering and sharing answers and experiences. My big one about beekeeping in general – why? We have so so many native bees on our not certified but definitely organic regenerative farm, they happily pollinate all our vegetables, helping our market garden be very productive. A couple of years ago a beekeeping friend put a human honey bee hive in our garden, thoughts were to harvest honey as well as add pollination capacity. We have spent so much money on housing, feeding, bear fencing etc etc etc and have not harvested any honey because they don’t seem to make enough even for themselves to over winter (we actually have to feed them in the fall). And I worry so much about the conventional dairy farms all around us who use GMO corn and soy and Round-up which is documented to affect bee biome (never mind ours) that it just doesn’t seem to make sense to raise honey bees at all. Nature, as always, does it best!
chickenlibrarian
YAY! I’m glad you will be joining us Diane! And I can already tell you are going to add a lot to our discussions. I do believe one of our first questions will be “Why keep bees?” among other questions. That should start our conversation off. I am interested in your point of view on things, along with everyone else’s point of view. It should be fun and educational all in one!
Shugunna Alexander
This sounds like a good idea, some of my best post ideas have formed at 5 or 6 in the morning, love it. Good luck with blog book club my friend.
chickenlibrarian
thanks! It’s funny how it just pops into your brain sometimes!