From russell at coker.com.au Sun Dec 31 14:33:27 2023 From: russell at coker.com.au (Russell Coker) Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2023 14:33:27 +1100 Subject: [Flounder] FOSS related book club Message-ID: <1986790.8hb0ThOEGa@cupcakke> Some years ago we had a group read the book Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and meet up to discuss it. That went well and I think we should have more of the same but with meeting/discussion over the Internet which means no risk of Covid (which is still a thing) and avoids geographic constraints. My idea is to focus on near-future SciFi books that can correlate to free software development that we do (like Little Brother) and books that are less immediate but correspond to the big picture of why we support FOSS development (apart from it being fun that is). Also we can have meetings based around multiple short stories or novelettes that are noteworthy. My initial plan is to run it as part of Flounder because the scope of Flounder encompasses that sort of thing and because it's about virtual meetings. I'm thinking of Cory Doctorow, George Orwell, Vernor Vinge, Ann Leckie, and Ursula K. Le Guin as possible authors - or others who write with similar perspectives. I BCC'd Matt Cengia who chaired the Little Brother meeting in question. Matt you are welcome to chair such meetings if you have the time, you did a great job at the Little Brother meeting. https://doc.coker.com.au/fiction/free-short-stories/ The above page has links to short stories that I think are good, we could discuss them at book club meetings and also people who aren't interested in joining the club could just read them for fun. I think most people here would like those stories more than any anthology that they are likely to see in their local library. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/