[Patrick Murtha]

One of the characteristics I hope this board develops is -- how does one say this without sounding stuffy? -- an informed tone. Many, many literature boards and Web discussion groups have proven to be mightily disappointing to me because the level of discussion is too childish. Interestingly, one of the most educated groups of readers I've encountered is at a board not devoted to literature; the reading threads at Style Forum, a group for menswear enthusiasts, are erudite and stimulating. Some the literary genre groups are also quite good -- rara-avis-l, for example, a Yahoo group focused on hard-boiled and noir fiction.

But I haven't yet encountered a general literature board that meets my needs, so I'm hoping this is it! I am equally glad that the focus is on world literature and that English-language works are not off the table (that restriction would be too hard for me to cope with). I also hope that we can be open to approaching non-fiction genres and quality genre fiction: "literature" and good writing are wherever you find them. Lastly, I hope that the discussions here can be informed by the growing coverage of literature across the Web and blogosphere as well as the traditional print realm.