CI5 hq

One of my favourite forms of fiction, so I'll definitely volunteer to do a letter or diary one if I can. Of the initial list of four, I know two (My Beautiful Laundrette and No Unicorns), am off to read Private Lives, and would love to get my hands on Classified. Surely there must be more.

*goes to look*

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There are definitely more, those were just the ones that came to my rushed mind soonest! *g* And yeay - would you like to choose a Thursday in November? (hmmn, how many are left, I wonder?)

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heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com

Two more come to mind, but I'm rubbish and can't remember authors or titles (you didn't do an epistolatory, did you bsl?)

One where it's all an exchange of text messages (while Bodie is on his way home, I think). One where they're off in some cottage on the coast (for Doyle to recuperate - after Mayli, possibly) and they've been told (by Ross, I think) to try keeping diaries. Or Ray was told to, and Bodie does one too to sort of keep him company with it. Ring any bells with anyone?

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Yes -

angel_ci5's brilliant iLads! I think a few other people did something similar after that one, too - PFL, for one.

My very first fic was a terribly wee epistolatory thing, actually, which I suppose could go in the list, though I might blush a bit at it now (I've not re-read it for ages, actually!)

ETA - hmmn, just re-read it, I'm not sure it counts for the theme, though technically it is Bodie writing a letter to Doyle... I'll leave it up, but take it off depending on what anyone else might think... *g*

And yes - the story you're describing is the one I've got above by Alexandra! Great minds... *g*

Edited Date: 2011-11-07 11:34 pm (UTC)

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'iLads'! Came up in the Older Lads Reading Room, too! Linky to discussion in June 2011 (http://ci5hq.livejournal.com/171079.html).

That reminds me of one about a series of phone calls or answerphone messages. I think it's possible there's something about a broken leg and/or very cold weather - but I know there is at least one other story which also involves jogging in snow, which is not the one I am thinking of. Argh.

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Yes, I think the other jogging in the snow one is the PFL one, but I know I don't have time to go searching for it just now, so I shall have to hope that someone else can...

And yeah, iLads is brill, but it has been discussed before, so if someone offered to do it I'd gently point them in the direction of our last discussion, just for the sake of variety and especially since it wasn't that long ago.

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taverymate.livejournal.com

As always, the Hatstand Archive story lists (http://hatstand.slashcity.net/lists.html) prove helpful. Do be sure to drop Pen a note with the new ones that you find to help keep the list updated - I know that she'll appreciate it.

Here's a few you don't have listed yet:

Career Girl by Alice (Unprofessional Conduct 11)

1. For Your Eyes Only by Sarina (Proslib)
2. You Only Live Twice by Sarina (Proslib)

One-to-One Correspondence by Jan and Irene (Roses and Lavender 1)

Unsaid by James
Hatstand: http://hatstand.slashcity.net/james/unsaid.html
Circuit Archives: http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/2/unsaid.html

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Yes, the Hatstand lists are great - I didn't have time, this morning, to go and see if there was one for letters/diaries, though I had a vague feeling I'd seen one there... I'll certainly drop Pen a line if I can, but I'm even more erratic than ever right now, down here in Australia, so hopefully she'll be watching this too, and pick up what she'd like... *g*

Thank you!

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murphybabe

*deep breath* I can do this Thursday, if I can have My Beautiful Laundrette? Only because I know this one and have some thoughts on it anyway.

I've never done a review before, and it might be hard to get the balance right between saying enough to explain my thoughts and creating spoilers, so apologies in advance if it goes a bit wrong.

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You certainly can have both this Thursday and "My Beautiful Laundrette" - thank you!

And don't worry about spoilers, there's no such thing as spoilers in a review, as long as they're all written under the cut. So ideally you would write a brief non-spoiler-y introduction to what you're going to review, and then write the rest of the review, as spoiler-y as you like, under the cut.

The whole point of a review and discussion and the Reading Room is to talk about stories once they've been read. Anyone looking under the cut should know that there might be spoilers there, simply because it's a review! It's polite not to put the full discussion/spoilers out in the open, though - hence using an lj-cut. *g*

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Yay. I'm glad someone's going to do this one.

I worried about the spoiler thing the first time I did this, too, but on reflection, I am a lot more laid back about it: it's the Reading Room after all. I do not like spoilers as a result of story warnings at the start of a story which I haven't read before. But these are discussions by people who have read it, or who want to know what other people think, which I don't think is the same.

I am a member of a couple of reading groups in 'real life', and have had the experience of discussion going seriously awry because members asked not to be told the ending. Initially, I was fairly forgiving about that, but these days my attitude is 'you have had a month at minimum to read it, and you don't have to come to the group if you haven't read it,' because I do feel we lost interesting discussion as a result.

I cheerfully went to read last week's about Traitor's Fate without having read the fic, and actually, siskiou's summary (including much plot) made me decide to give it a go!

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I'll do a review later in the month (i.e. not tomorrow but I think you've got that covered)- I'll read whatever it is you tell me to but only if it's online (as you know, I haven't got the CD yet). The only one I already know, of these, is iLads (love it). I don't mind doing a review for something I don't like - as a teacher I used to get students to review everything they read and say it was OK to hate something provided they could explain why...

Reviews/spoilers/etc. Maybe we should be using different terminology? Reviews for a discussion, whether here or in a more general reading group of course assume prior knowldge of the text and only a cut is needed to protect people who haven't actually got round to it yet or who happen to be scrolling through the comm posts. The confusion arises because reviewers who write for 'publication' on or offline are trying to persuade people to read the text (or not, in the case of a bad review) and spoilers are definitely not on the agenda. I sometimes do reviews for an online zine, and my approach is very very different from what we do here!! I also sometimes read some review blogs and get quite angry with the ones that include spoilers. One of my friends wrote a brilliant novel that has a total surprise at its heart and one such reviewer gave it away on her blog and excused herself by saying it might still get people to buy the book. Hmm, yes, but the surprise element, a real OMG! moment, was lost.

The preview button gave out on me in Portugal and I blamed PT who must be one of the world's worst ISPs but now I think it's part of the current crop of varying LJ glitches that are hitting most of my f'list one way or another. I'd move lock, stock and barrel to Dreamwidth but the comms aren't fully established there yet!!

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Would you like to review Private Lives by Alexandra, then, as it's an online one?

As far as I'm concerned, "spoilers" are simply solved. Don't spoil things above a cut (which includes with so-called "warnings"), but a discussion group is for discussion, so if you don't want to be spoiled, don't come to the discussion group! Harsh perhaps, but logical... *g*

I'd be sorry to lose you if you move to DreamWidth - I really don't have the time or inclination to be faffing with feeds or open IDs, or any more multiple forums than I already have. I also don't find lj's "glitches" any more irritating than the things I don't like about DreamWidth, so it all evens out. And right now I actively want to support lj, which is standing up for open internet access etc in Russia. I couldn't stand reading the various posts suggesting there should be a separate American and Russian lj, so that Americans weren't inconvenienced by the fact that lj was making a stand in Russia - so much for "fighting for freedom" and "free speech" and so on, it clearly only goes Hollywood-deep for some people... grrr. /rant. *g*

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Will certainly do the Alexandra one - and you can give me any date other than tomorrow.

I won't actually leave LJ unless it disappears - I have a permanent membership. And if I drifted over I would cross post. More than half my f'list are on Dreamwidth and I have an account but only to read and respond. What don't you like about it? It seems to me to be very much in line with the AO3/OTW philosophy (which is dear to my heart) and is very approachable when there are problems. But maybe that's while it's still small! There's a ci5 comm there...

I didn't know about the posts suggesting separate LJs!!! Presumably mostly from Americans???

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(Resurrecting old thread here...)

Not sure who else is reading this now it's slipped off most people's friends lists (after a whole four days!), but I'll reply here in case people come and check back.

So you're going to do the Alexandra one, and I said I'd do one, and that takes us to the end of the month. So we can wrangle dates between us, perhaps.

I am actually hellishly pushed for time, so if someone else wants to step in and do one instead of me, they should please feel absolutely free!

I was going to offer to do No Unicorns, but as luck would have it, the Roses and Lavender zine has arrived on my doorstep this morning, and it contains One-to-One Correspondence. So I am in a quandary. I suppose I could do that one. But it is about 22 pages long, so I need a chance to sit down and read it before I decide.

So with all that, would you be happy to take the earlier of the two slots? And then I can do something in time for the later one?

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I'm going to put you down for "No Unicorns" cos you're quandrying and it's online so more accessible for more people, and for the last Thursday - thank you! But if you get stuck I should be able to step in by then, too!

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I'll happily take this coming Thursday (17th). I'm already half way through reading and reviewing the story. Actually, it suits me better because we have visitors the following week and whilst it wouldn't stop me posting this schedule is good!

Regard this as my reply to your other comment in this week's RR.

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Thought I'd replied asking you to choose a day, apparently in all my chaos here I didn't, though. If you'd like it assigned too though, I shall put you down for next Thursday!

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Sorted - but I never got this notif - LJ has been horrendous for me this week. Fortunately I tracked the actual RR post that murphysbabe did and moonlight mead thought to alert me via that!!

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Reviews/spoilers/etc. Maybe we should be using different terminology? - Actually, the terminology that throws me every time is the use of 'rec'. No-one has ever actually specifically said, but I presume that it is short for 'recommendation'. Entirely suitable for the crack_van and people's lists of favourite fics - but I'm not sure that 'rec' and 'review' overlap every time.

There are fics I really don't like, and others which I strongly suspect I would dislike strongly. But some of them would be really good topics for future Reading Rooms.

This is of course the point you were making, but I thought I would agree anyway!

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Yes - agreed! I think we get 'lazy' about the terminology we use, sometimes! Maybe we use 'rec' in the sense of 'I recommend you read this story so that you can join in the discussion'.*g*

I have loved some of the Reading Room discussions even or perhaps especially when I have disliked or felt neutral about the story - we can learn so much from other people's opinions. Sometimes stories I don't like make the best topics - a masterclass in 'how not to' or lots of information about the early days of fandom!

Well, basically, I just love the Reading Room...

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murphybabe

Okay then - Thursday is My Beautiful Laundrette, as much under a cut as I can manage with LJ's eccentricities.

I also read the review of Traitor's Fate and then read the fic, so the intent of the reading room worked. I then went to read more of Meg Lewtan to see if I liked other stuff. Yay! It all takes my mind of the boring, dreary business of packing and reviewing reports.

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