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The Progressive Book Club

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Apparently, the Progressive Book Club was the brain child of Howard Dean last year.  It is an attempt to counter the long standing Conservative Book Club, which dates back to 1964, ironically the year Goldwater ran for president.  The PLC has yet to gain much traction, but one hopes that it actually might grow into something.  My guess is that it will be another political casualty as progressive reading tastes are far too diffused to be as neatly packaged as the stuff they peddle at the CBC.

Comments

  1. avrdsNovember 25, 2010 at 12:08 AM

    It would be great if they had a site to discuss real books like we do here. For example, one of the reasons the Alter book is so powerful is that while it is 100% sympathetic to Obama and acknowledges the 100% mess left behind by Bush et al., it doesn't take any easy shots. So it doesn't feel like a polemic when you're reading it.

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  2. James FergusonNovember 25, 2010 at 8:57 AM

    You should be able to join without necessarily buying books. I like what the guy did who created Mubi, formerly the Auteurs. It is free to join, but if you want you can watch movies individually, or pay a small monthly fee like Netflix, to watch an incredible range of international movies. He also has tie-ins with all the major film festivals and offers a selection of movies for free. As a result, there are many lively chats, you can create your own favorite lists, etc.

    PBC strikes me as very limited and purely a response to CBC.

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  3. James FergusonNovember 25, 2010 at 9:50 AM

    Take that back. I see now that they have a Progressive Reader,

    http://www.progressivereader.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rick DiguetteNovember 26, 2010 at 11:21 PM

    I visited the website and came away from it wondering who on earth would want to read most of those books?

    For those of you who have read and admire The Leopard, I recommend Joseph Roth's The Radetzky March. Wonderful book.

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