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The Well of Ascension Read: Blog Tour Style

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(Image property of artist Christian McGrath)

I hope everyone has had a chance to venture forth into exciting and strange worlds over the weeks that we have been away from Luthadel and the rest of the Final Empire. For now it is time to return to our journey with Vin and Elend and the rest of the cast that we became so attached to in Mistborn: The Final Empire. It has been a nice break and now I am itching to get back to the story, I hope you are too.

I sent out an email recently indicating a change in the format of the group read for The Well of Ascension. We are going to do an experiment: hosting this discussion Blog Tour style. Several of you have volunteered to take question duty over the course of the next two novels and what I was envisioning is that each week one person would be the Discussion Host. That individual would post the questions for their section in a blog post on their site. I would email out the link when the post was up and we would all descend like locusts on that one site and have a week-long back and forth conversation about the section of the book we read that week.

The advantages of this would be to eliminate the pressure folks feel to get a post up each week at a specific time or essentially be left out of the heart of the conversation, would cut down on the number of sites we have to visit each week, and would potentially allow for more in-depth back and forth.

In addition to this change I was also going to suggest we limit the questions which would allow everyone to discuss what stood out for them in the section being read.

Deanna did a marvelous job coalescing all the above gobbledygook into this succinct explanation:

1. Discussion Host would post questions on his/her site.

2. Discussion participants would flock to that site, answer questions and discuss all in the comments of Discussion Host site.

3. Discussion participants do not create their own blog post with answers to questions (those answers goes under comments at discussion host site).

Then each discussion participant could do their own wrap up post (a review of the book) [at the end of the group read] if they choose to do so.

Sound good?

Reading can begin immediately. The Well of Ascension is divided into 6 parts (thanks Adam for pointing out my blindness 🙂 ) and rather than trying to divide them up evenly page-count-wise and making things confusing, we will have 5 Discussion Hosts for this book, starting with me. That means some weeks we will have longer sections to get through. Which is why I suggest getting to the book as soon as you can and reading a bit ahead of where we are discussing if you anticipate having trouble with some of the longer sections. Our first discussion post will not be for two weeks to give everyone time to start reading. After that we will have 4 more consecutive weeks of group discussions, a week apart, with Discussion Hosts putting up their posts on Saturdays. If I have assigned you to a week that will not work, please let me know in the comments section and I’ll switch things around. I appreciate everyone who has volunteered. We will have different Discussion Hosts for the next book (and the first book of the new trilogy if any of you want to continue on after we’ve read these two). Here is how it breaks down:

Start Reading Now.

Part One Discussion: Saturday, June 23rd. Hosted by Carl V.

Part Two Discussion: Saturday, June 30th. Hosted by Grace.

Part Three Discussion: Saturday, July 7th. Hosted by Sue.

Part Four Discussion: Saturday, July 14th. Hosted by Adam.

Part Five and Six (+Epilogue) Discussion: Saturday, July 21st. Hosted by Lynn.

Wrap Up Post (Book Review) if you so desire.

I would ask that each Discussion Host would include a link at the end of their post to the previous Discussion Posts, making it easier for folks to navigate back to previous week’s discussions if they need to.

Clear as mud? If so I hope that my first Discussion Host duties on June 23rd will clear up any questions. Again, I’m hoping to focus each week’s conversations in one place to allow for a more free-flowing and open back and forth conversation. It might be chaos, but hopefully will be fun chaos. If it doesn’t work, we’ll rethink it for the next book.

If you are interested in participating in the group read, please leave a comment in the comments section, that way I can put together an email list for notifications. Thank you, look forward to traveling with all of you again.

37 thoughts on “The Well of Ascension Read: Blog Tour Style”

    1. Done! If I remember correctly, you were on for hosting. If that is still true expect to be called upon for Book 3.

  5. I’m in! Of course, I just went to renew the library copy of Well of Ascension that I have and that is due back in four days and there’s a hold on it so I can’t renew. 😛 Oh well, just bought the paperback set of the trilogy on Amazon for $14.61. I’ll have them all next week. 🙂

    1. Yeah, I bought the trilogy in paperback because it was cheaper than buying the second and third as ebooks: it doesn’t make sense, but who am I to question Amazon’s generosity! 😀

      1. Kristin: I had to do that with the first book. Just had a friend pick me up a used copy of this one and I’ll end up buying the third as well.

        Sue: I’m wishing I had these in hardback now. I did pick up the first book in the next Mistborn series, The Alloy of Law, when it came out in hardback.

        1. After I hit “purchase” I started thinking that I wanted hardcovers instead but too late! I might give these to my brother when I’m done and then search for hardcovers at the local used book stores. I just can’t believe that I got them for $5 a piece. They’re certainly worth more than that!

          1. That is a good price. A few friends were talking the other day about bigger books like these and how they enjoyed reading hardcovers more because the page count is less and you feel like you are making more progress. I couldn’t help but agree because, although it is psychological, I felt the same way reading The Way of Kings.

  6. I’m not sure how I feel about this format, but willing to give it a go and see how it works out. 🙂 I saw the emails regarding it first from my phone, kept meaning to reply from PC but, uh, never quite got there. *cough*

    In any case, count me in, and if we’re still using the same format for Book 3, I’m also keen to take up a week of host duty. 🙂

    1. Yes, we’ll see how it works. I was wanting to try to get away from the difficulty of everyone having to visit 10-20 sites each and every week and carry on similar conversations at each place. This was my first idea. Creating a Goodreads group and doing it that way was another idea I tossed around.

      I figured this way gives folks a chance to still have people visit their blogs. And I’ll sign you up for the next book either way, as co-hosts are great regardless.

      1. Goodreads method would be something I’d be interested in as well, but as you say, does move people away from the blogs even more than this format does.

        Still, might be worthwhile anyway, because I do think that the forum and continually threaded nature offers a more organic and continuing conversation style than either a billion separate posts or even one with comments.

        Could always give it a go for the third book and compare how they all went at the end. xD

        1. This method does keep at least some blog visits occurring. I think it all boils down to the fact that even as a host I find it incredibly difficult to visit that many blogs over and over again during the work week to discuss the same book over and over again.

          On the other hand I love discovering new blogs. If this works on some level I was thinking it might be interesting to actually do a real Blog Tour of all participants who sign up sometime during the group read. I’m kicking around some ideas, we’ll see.

  8. Well, you know I’m in! And you have my email. 🙂 I love the new format of the group read, but thank you for still sending out notifications of where the discussion will be at, because I know I won’t remember specifically! Can’t wait to get to reading this one again!

    1. Yes indeed, I fully expected you to take part. Interested in taking host duties for one section of the next book?

  9. So I get to host a week and come up with some questions concerning one of my favorite series of books? Of course I’m in. And I get a really fun section of the book to talk about

    Also, Book 2 is actually split into 6 parts, but part 6 is a little less than 50 pages (at least in paperback), and part 5 through the end of the book only ends up being about 160 pages, not really any longer than any of the other sections, so the schedule you have up should work out fine.

    1. Yes, thanks Adam. I was obviously excited about looking at page counts but not actually reading, lol! There are indeed 6 parts and I’ve updated the post above, including Part 6 in with the last read, so we will still have 5 discussions on the book.

      Sometimes that whole ‘head screwed on’ thing seems appropriate for me.

      1. I’m really glad that the last 200 pages are going to be read as one go. That’s the part where it’s always impossible to put the book down anyway.

  10. So glad that the next book will be underway! I missed out on reading with the group during Mistborn (Amanda convinced me to read so I could read the next two with you guys). I’m curious to see how the new format works out, but I know what you’re saying about visiting numerous blogs in one week. And if you need more discussion hosts for the third book, I would be happy to do it!

    1. I’m curious about it too. The nice thing about it is that if it doesn’t work we can always switch back or do something totally different. So glad Amanda convinced you to get caught up and join in, welcome!

  11. Count. Me. IN! And I think I’ll like the new format since it does relieve some stress since I will be on vacation for part of it. I won’t have to rush to put up my own discussion. Here’s to a blog tour success!

    1. That stress relief is one thing I am counting on/hoping for with this new format.

  13. I realized that I did not officially sign myself up for this group read.
    So here I am saying… Include me on this reading adventure.
    I do hope this book will be as good as Mistborn, if not at least close.

    1. Its official now!

      I’ve heard this book is the lesser of the three so we’ll see. At any rate we all want to see how this thing ends so we’ll get through it one way or the other.

  14. I’ll be in!
    I read the first Mistborn book years ago and though I didn’t participate in the readalong, reading bloggers’ thoughts on it helped me remember the story and get ready for the second book. I probably won’t make it in time for the first part as I am currently trying to finish reading The Stand for the Standalong, but I’ll be there for part 2 for sure! 🙂

    1. Glad to have you on board, Kay! I’ve added you to the email list. Welcome!!!

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