Update: Tom’s Disney Book Club & Halloween

Just a quick housekeeping post for today as I’m going to be updating other posts. Although this site is a blog format, I’ve found that some older posts remain popular over time, so I try to keep things updated so as to not give bad advice. My organization system is poor (and that’s being charitable), so sometimes it can be difficult to find what needs updating, but I’ve identified several posts that need updates, so I’m going to be working on that over the next week or so.

You may have already noticed some older posts rise to (near) the top of the homepage as I’ve updated them. I’ll continue this trend, bumping things up to near the top, but not all the way up.

By the way, if you ever notice an older post contains stale information, by all means, leave a comment on the post saying so. WordPress has this fancy email notification system for comments, so I receive an email for any comment left on any post.

Okay, now on with the two main topics of this housekeeping update…

Halloween

Halloween season is now upon us at every Disney Park in the world, with the first Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party having been held last night. I’ll be talking to a friend who attended in a couple hours, and plan on doing some preliminary updates to our Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Tips post based on their feedback. (We’ll have much better, first-hand updates after we attend the party.)

As I stated in our Halloween 2015 at the Disney Parks update, we were heading to Disneyland for the opening day of Halloween Time at Disneyland, and thereafter I’d follow up with a post with photo updates last weekend. You might have noticed that I didn’t follow up with such a post…

We did rope drop Halloween Time at Disneyland (which has been dramatically scaled back this year), but I forgot my tripod, so I wasn’t able to get night photos like I wanted. Sorry! Rather than doing an incomplete post, I decided to wait–I think we might head back for some night shots later this week. Stay tuned…

Tom’s Disney Book Club

What young boy from the Midwest doesn’t dream of growing up to be the next Oprah? That’s a silly question–they all do, myself included. I’ve finally decided to take the leap and try to be the Disney fan blogger version of Oprah. Since I don’t have the resources to give you all cars (unless we’re talking about the Matchbox variety), I’ve decided to go a different route…

Despite being functionally illiterate, I’ve decided to start a book club! That’s the logo for Tom’s Disney Book Club above; pretty fancy and not at all egotistical, right? I announced this in the latest issue of the Distinctly Patriotic Disney Tourist Blog Newsletter. If you’re not subscribed, you really ought to rectify that right now by signing up here–some newsletter critics have hailed it as the defining newsletter of our generation.

Additionally, I shared that our first title would be Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas, with the club “meeting” this Sunday for the first time. The first meeting would also feature a review of “American Experience – Walt Disney” that premiered this week (spoiler alert: I really enjoyed the show).

Unfortunately, a couple of readers informed me that they ordered the book but received an email from Amazon that it wouldn’t arrive until September 23. (C’mon, Amazon!) I was further informed that every library in the country doesn’t have the book, contrary to my statement that they probably do. (Embarrassingly enough, the OC Public Libraries don’t even have it…C’mon, this is the land of Walt Disney and that’s his definitive biography!)

So, rather than doing this book club thing the impetuous and half-baked way like so many of my ideas, I’ve decided to take a step back and give this more thought. Some of you who want to participate won’t have the book by Sunday, and now that I think about it, that’s also rather short notice for others who might want to participate but have real world responsibilities.

Then there’s the issue of just what “participation” looks like. The comments section of a blog post? A Facebook group? Something else? I really have no idea as to the best way to go about something virtual like this…or if enough people are even interested in participating to justify putting in a ton of effort to make something new for it. I’ve always felt that forums are most conducive to actual back and forth group conversation, but I’ve resisted forums here in the past because there are like 3,943 Disney forums, and social media seems to be displacing them. (Most importantly, I have no clue how to set up forums.)

Given all of these considerations, I’ve decided to postpone the first ‘meeting’ of Tom’s Disney Book Club from this Sunday until Sunday, October 18. Quite the delay, I know, but I want to actually give this thing a chance to succeed…BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO MISS MY WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY TO BE THE NEXT OPRAH. (Albeit on a much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much smaller scale…maybe more like the “next Carrot Top’s second cousin.”)

If you have any feedback as to the best or your preferred means of participating in a virtual book club, please share in the comments. I’m also open to suggestions for future titles, as I think that if this becomes a running thing, the goal will be one book per month with a month lead time to allow for acquisition and reading of the book.

If you have friends who are literate and like Disney, please help spread the word about Tom’s Disney Book Club by sharing this post with your friends via the social media buttons on the above left side of the page. Thanks!

YOUR THOUGHTS…

Will you participate in Tom’s Disney Book Club? Any recommendations for it? Excited for Halloween season? Any posts you’ve found that need updating? Share your thoughts on these questions and anything else in the comments!