Several years ago, we began incorporating non-LGBTQ books into our reading list on a roughly quarterly basis. That experiment has largely been successful. However, as I pointed out in a recent email to the group, one unintended consequence of that expansion is that it now takes us longer to finish the main titles on our list, because there are fewer dates on which to schedule discussions.
With that in mind, I have proposed that, effective in January, we discuss non-LGBTQ literature on fifth Wednesdays—or add those books to the rotation of anthologies and short works that we discuss on third Wednesdays (which means we will read fewer of them each year). If you’re a member of our merry band, please consider weighing in on this; thanks.
Toward that end, I received the following response from Patrick Flynn which he has authorized me to share here and now:
"I am not sure a non-LGBTQ selection has value (though I am enjoying The Satanic Verses). I would prefer we use that extra day to work on our nomination/selection criteria. What, after all, does the rubric mean, particularly for literature that was written before the terms were invented and/or people and characters came out in numbers? To illustrate, does the book The Secret Dublin Diary of Gerald Manley Hopkins, meet our criteria or not? I think you would say yes. But do his poems?"
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