• Be polite. This is a friendly community that welcomes all. Please be respectful of others, even if you disagree with them. Don't insult, troll, or harass other users. The mod team will take a dim view of belligerent behavior, and members who can't be civil will be removed.
• Don't take it personally. Over the years we've found that very few books are met with universal appeal, and even some of the most globally beloved books have fallen a little flat here. If you nominate a book and the other club members didn't really like it, don't take it personally! That doesn't mean it was a bad choice or that you made a mistake, and nobody will judge you harshly for it.
• Be part of the community. You're no stranger to forums, which means that you probably know that forums thrive on activity. Please do what you can to foster activity on this forum. If you see something you like, say so. If you have a topic you'd like to discuss, post it. If someone else asks a question, answer it. Encourage other people to post by responding in an encouraging way. If you start a thread, be sure to respond to the people who took time out of their day to contribute to it. If you have content to share - a book review, a recommendation, a game review - please post those in the appropriate forums. If you're new here, take a moment to introduce yourself.
• Stay Focused. Post relevant topics that will foster discussion. We ask that you don't post blind links or use this a a forum for advertising. You may link to a blog post, but the link should be there to support a discussion that you intend to hold here on the forum. Do not start threads with the sole purpose of driving readers to other sites.

MAKING THE MOST OF FORUM SOFTWARE

• Mention others. Put an @ symbol before the username to mention someone. They’ll get notified when you do.
• Review and update your notification preferences. You’ll receive a notification if someone mentions you or posts to a discussion that you’ve bookmarked. You can set notifications from the Edit Profile page. If there's a particular book you'd like to join in the discussion of, you can arrange to have an e-mail sent to you for that particular sub-forum.
• Send messages. You can private message members by going to your inbox. You can also leave a message on another user's page, but be warned - those messages are not private.
• Don’t want to see everyone’s signature? You can hide signatures by going to Edit Profile > Signature Settings.
• Check out the forum from your mobile phone. Just go to the forum URL in your browser - no need to download an app. You can also browse to the forum on your phone, then add that link as a shortcut to your home screen. That way you don't have to enter the address each time or create a favorite link in the browser.

If you have any questions or concerns, please send a private message to one of the moderators, listed below. Private messages to @admin are not monitored.

• @Apocryphal
• @clash_bowley
• @dr_mitch
• @Ray_Otus
• @rossum

This club was founded in 2011 on a small gaming forum called Roludo, then moved to G+ where it grew and thrived. Since it's founding, we've read a total of 71 books! With the closing of G+ we've created a new home, here in our own space, and we'd love to have you join us in reading and chatting about the kinds of books that inspire us all to game. Not every member is an active RPG gamer, and you don't need to be either. Deep down, though, all readers of fiction are roleplayers aren't they? We all pictures ourselves beside those characters, sharing their adventure in imaginative settings.

I was known as Apocryphal Chris on G+, but since I'm against use of underscores in online names in the new millennium (they're so '80s) I'm now just Apocryphal. I've been here since the beginning when someone (it was Mount Zion Ryan) said "Hey, I should read the Silmarillion" and a bunch of other people (including me, and Clash, and Ray, and I think Barner, too) said "Yeah, me too!". That was our first book, and it's been a great ride since then.

My reading interests include social Sci-fi, Historical Fiction, Adventure Fiction, and occasionally Fantasy. I also like non-fiction such as Ancient History and Travel Literature - especially old travelogues, which I think are just loaded with gaming potential. My favourite games are traditional in style and generally have great, creative settings in which I can immerse myself: RuneQuest, Tekumel, and Ars Magica to name a few. Both reading and gaming are excuses for me to explore the worlds of the past, the future, and the imagination. Why do you read?

By the way, if you're on GoodReads, you can find me there too:
https://goodreads.com/user/show/75662586-apocryphal

It works like many other book clubs in that each month a selection of books will be nominated and one of those will be selected by the community for everyone to read.

The month's proposals will be selected from books nominated by community members and may sometimes be organized into a theme and put to a vote.

In general, the books selected will be novels in the sci-fi, horror, post-apocalyptic, or fantasy genres, but historical novels, inspiring travelogues, or themed short story collections may be nominated as well. The books can be new or can be classics.

Scheduling works something like this:

1. Middle of the month: Book selection for the following month (this gives you roughly 6 weeks to read it).
2. End of the month: Discuss the current month's book.

Members can read and comment on whichever books appeal to them. There is no obligation to read each month's book. Anybody who has read that month's book, though, either recently or in the past, and feels they have something to say, can contribute.

Members are also invited to post on a limited number of topics: suggesting books or themes for nomination, the introduction of topics discussing books in general (i.e. this year's Hugo awards), or anything else deemed relevant to both books and gaming. This is not a venue for linking to your latest blog post, though, and advertising and solicitation will not be permitted.

If you would like to propose a book for nomination, please keep in mind that it must

1. Fit into one of the genres listed above,
2. Be a stand-alone offering (i.e. not a story that will be continued in another volume)
3. Be ideally available in a variety of formats and countries. New books that are out in print in the UK or USA, for example, might not yet be available in Canada. Please check before nominating.

Although we started as a club of tabletop role-playing gamers discussing books, not all our members are particularly active in that hobby and you don't need to be either. Role-laying games, and gaming in general, remains a popular field of discussion here, however.

This book club had its origins in a small Montreal-based gaming forum called Roludo, then moved to G+.

In October of 2018, our seventh year, we moved to these forums, having completed 71 books. Since then another nearly seven years and 80 books have passed. You can find the complete list of books read in the pinned discussions.