The Sword and Laser

The inaugural book of The Sword and Laser has been chosen, and it's The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Not only is this a personal favorite of mine, but Tom Merritt and I thought it would be nice to read now considering the movie is coming out in December!

The Golden Compass is the first in the trilogy His Dark Materials, but we'll only ask you to read this first book. It may be easier for you to buy all three books at the same time (and you'll probably want to read the others!), but you're in no way required to do this. Most libraries should have it, and there are also new and used versions available on Amazon.

Hopefully we can all acquire the book by next Wednesday, and then we can plan on talking about the first chapter! The next book will be decided by a vote, and it'll probably be a "classic" of some kind. Enjoy!

After many enthusiastic recommendations, I've decided to use Ning as our discussion forum. I've been a member of Ning for some time now, but this is the first time I've created a network. Seems like it will be perfect! There is, of course, the minor downside of having to join yet another social network, but if we had forums you'd have to register on those anyway.

So go check out the page at swordandlaser.ning.com! This blog will still be used to announce the book choices and news. Have fun!