Saskatoon Book Club For Non Fiction Books - Coffee/Bar Group

The No book Book Club Meeting originated as an Interim Meeting of the regular book club. From time to time the subject had come up that it would be desirable to have the Book Club get togethers more frequently than the 6 to 8 week intervals that they are at now. However, since it takes time to read a book (especially the more difficult ones) that just doesn't work out. As a result, we have been having a mid-way No book Book Club meeting where we discussed more general topics that the members are interested in.
Originally it had been envisioned to be something like a modern version of the French Salon Discussion Groups from the Age of Enlightenment. As such, it would be not only for intellectual exchange, but also as a platform for social networking. The reality is that that is probably a little grandiose and it perhaps is really just a Pub Night. Hahaha.
Sometimes it is a forum for intellectual exchange but other times it is just a fun get together where the members engage in conversations about almost anything. We have discussed travel experiences and hobbies as well as discussed topics such as meeting new people or profound experiences that have had a significant impact on their lives. There has recently been some confusion by individuals who thought of this meeting as only a Pub Night so just to clarify the format, I would suggest that it is more of French Salon than a Western Saloon.
So, once again, another No book Book Club Meeting would now be in order. The next meeting of the Saskatoon Book Club For Non Fiction Books - Coffee/Bar Group will not be reading a specific book and then discussing it; instead, we will be getting together to discuss more general topics that the members find of interest (and to have some fun).
We will be meeting on Tuesday, May 27, 2025 at 7:30 PM at The Thirsty Scholar for these discussions.
I hope you can make it to this meetup on May 27th. If you are planning to attend, but haven’t yet RSVPed “Yes” for this Meetup, then I would appreciate if you could click the “Attend” button to let us know how many seats to save.
I look forward to seeing you then,
Thomas
PS I’m thinking that we will do something a little different for this get-together. Instead of starting the meeting with a few brief presentations that we would start by going around the table and having everyone make a suggestion about things that they would like to talk about or learn about. We would then vote on the topics and come up with a few items that we would discuss.

The next book that the Saskatoon Book Club For Non Fiction Books - Coffee/Bar Group will be reading will be Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis. We will then be meeting at The Thirsty Scholar on 8th Street on Tuesday, June 17, 2025 at 7:30 PM to discuss this book.
At our last book club meeting there were a couple discussions about cryptocurrencies. That made me realize how little I knew about them and the underlying block chain technologies that underlie the cryptocurrencies. While doing some further reading on this I realized that I really didn’t want to undertake a major study on cryptocurrencies but that I mostly wanted to get a feel for how they worked. So, in the same way that Lewis’ book The Big Short gave me a feel for the components of the Banking Crisis of 2008 and how his book Money Ball gave me a feel for how statistics could be used to decide which baseball players to draft, I am hoping that this book will give me a feel for how cryptocurrencies work. I invite you to come along for the ride.
The notes that were provided by publisher are as follows:
“When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking readers into the mind of Bankman-Fried, whose rise and fall offers an education in high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, philanthropy, bankruptcy, and the justice system. Both psychological portrait and financial roller-coaster ride, Going Infinite is Michael Lewis at the top of his game, tracing the mind-bending trajectory of a character who never liked the rules and was allowed to live by his own—until it all came undone.”
I hope you can make it to this meetup on June 17/25. If you are planning to attend, but haven’t yet RSVPed “Yes” for this Meetup, then I would appreciate if you could click the “Attend” button to let us know how many seats to save.
I look forward to seeing you then,
Thomas