M&D: Reading and rereading - no spoilers

[Alan Westrope]

On Wed, 7 May 97 15:07 BST, andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk wrote:

>Which leads me to wonder if maybe a slow group reading like the one
>for GR would not be a bad thing to embark upon. A pace of about 15
>pages per fortnight should ensure that the group read does not run
>ahead of any individual lister's current high water mark. And a
>thorough treatment of such small blocks should unearth lots of little
>gems whilst at the same time allowing larger themes to emerge. As per
>the GRGR we should be able to minimise inconvenience to listers who do
>not wish to participate by suitable labelling of our postings.

>So, the question is does anyone want to set sail on the S******* with
>Capt G****?  I would be happy to divide the book up and take
>responsibility for discussion of at least some of the resulting
>sections, posting a list of comments, questions and answers to kick
>off discussion. If others want to join in the debate or even take
>control for the odd fortnight or two please respond. If there is
>enough interest we will go for it.

I'm with those who would prefer to wait a bit.  (FWIW, I'm on p. 340.)
I would also suggest a more modest approach -- perhaps the first section,
roughly 250 pages, ala the GRGR.  After all, even that 177-page endeavour
pretty much deliquesced around Advent, largely due to the Academic Calendar,
IMO.  A-and I think it might be worthwhile to wait until we have one or
more South Africans on the list again before embarking.  I like the idea,
though, and would be interested in others' thoughts.

While I'm writing, let me echo the recommendation of Judith St. George's
_Mason & Dixon's Line of Fire_, which I just grabbed at the library.  It's
supposed to be a kid's book, but the level of scholarship is quite good;
it appears to have an excellent bibliography, good maps and illustrations,
etc.  I'm thoroughly impressed.

-- 
Alan Westrope     PGP public key:  http://www.crl.com/~awestrop
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