I thought I'd make a post to summarize where we're at as far as comments put forth so far, and to perhaps offer a suggestion as to pacing and organization. Please feel free to comment. There will be a summary to the following in the penultimate paragraph for those that are daunted by the length of this post.
As far as pacing goes, I'm not going to suggest an obligatory amount of chapters per week. I think many of us could manage all but the most rigorous reading schedules, but I also feel that detracts from the enjoyment; while it is meant to be a slog, I don't suggest we set a pace that would leave someone feeling behind or even excluded from the conversation for maybe not meeting the page count for that week.
So, given that we have five relatively dense novels, no doubt piles of forum discussion ahead of us, and several brave souls imagining they'll make it, it seems appropriate to set a starting date. In an effort to keep everyone at relatively the same pace (by all means, read ahead), I'd like to suggest bumping our start date to the beginning of December. That gives us roughly thirty weeks before The Great Ordeal hits shelves. Five novels in thirty weeks breaks down to about six weeks a piece. Now I only have my novel editions to go off of (Canadian Penguin MMPB) but the way it breaks down for me is a little more than 600 pages for TDTCB, about 730 for TWP, and roughly 500 for TTT. My copies of TJE and WLW (also Canadian Penguin editions TB) come in at slightly more than 400 and near about 600, respectively. Setting aside that I rounded my numbers for the sake of ease, that works out to just about 100 pages a week. If you're anything like me, I need to finish a chapter, but I think that is a rather reasonable pace to aspire to without wearing oneself out.
Secondly, and the rather more cumbersome if not an out right arduous task, is establishing a coherent and ultimately simple organizational pattern to not only keep us all on the same track but also keep us from constantly thread jumping. As such, I'd like to suggest two different patterns.
TDTCB and TWP both lend themselves to easy delineation. The former breaks down into five parts (the Sorcerer, the Emperor, the Harlot, the Warrior, and the Holy War) while the latter is broken down into three major parts (the First, Second, and Third March). I had toyed with the idea of dividing things by viewpoint characters, but that gets muddy and often plot points overlap each other. However, TTT describes was is ostensibly identified as The Final March, and while I suspect with a little effort we might find several salient plot points by which we might divide the novel, in this instance I'm going to suggest we subdivide by region--not simply because it might be easily done, but also because it makes for an easy transition to the following novels which follow the same pattern. As such, I'd recommend we chunk the first four chapters: Caraskand and Enathpaneah together, the following six: Xerash and Joktha, chapters eleven and twelve: Holy Amoteu, and finally the culminating chapters: Shimeh. This works out to anywhere from 100-200 pages per subdivision, but I think it makes for the easiest means of organization.
This brings me to TAE series. Narratively speaking, neither of these two novels follow a pattern similar to any of those in the first series. As such, I'm suggesting an organizational pattern similar to both TDTCB and TTT. In each novel we have several viewpoints (more added in the second) by which we might subdivide our discussions; however, as I mentioned previously, I feel organizing by viewpoint might cause for too much overlap between threads, so in an effort to strike at the heart of simplicity, I'd like to champion an organizational pattern by geographical focalization. In each novel, we largely have three main plot progressions occuring: Slog, Ordeal, and Momemn. By organizing the second series by geography, this allows us to incorporate those additional viewpoints that come up in the second installment (ie. Malowebi, Proyas) without developing a new system or over straining the current one. Because of the chapter pacing/breakdown in the second series this makes for a slightly different discussion thread dynamic, but I think given that they alternate with each other fairly regularly that no one thread should get too tripped up by most recent events.
So to put it all succinctly, I reckon about 100 pages a week starting at the beginning of December. Book length will determine how long we actively discuss it (don't let the pace discourage you from continuing to post on previous threads, or reading ahead for that matter). As far as thread breakdown: TDTCB would follow the five part division it sets forth in the novel, the same to be said of TWP, a four part division based on geography for TTT, and a geographical focalization for TAE novels (Slog, Ordeal, Momemn).
Please, please comment. Not that I wish we get bogged down by the minutiae before we've even started, but having everyone one the same page will go along way to keeping this outfit together. As comprehensive, and long, as I tried to make that be, I'm certain there are things I've overlooked, so don't hesitate to speak up or make a suggestion as to tweaking or changing things. Everything I've included are merely suggestions striving at the simplest way to go about this