Book Clubs
My book club is limited to eleven members. We meet once a month for eleven months. In December we have a dinner and a gift exchange, books of course. Each month one person is a hostess, and another is the discussion leader. Everyone picks a book to be discussed. The difficulty is finding eleven copies; most of us have to buy the book, as the library has only one or two, and our town doesn’t have a bookstore.
One book club I visited has unlimited membership. They meet monthly in someone’s home. Each person brings a book they’ve read, talks about it and loans it to another. The same book may move around all year. At the end of the year the books all go to Friends of the Library for their used book sale. Many members purchase their reading for the entire year at this sale!
A different book club I learned about has twenty five members and they meet ten times a year. They are in reading groups of five readers. They pay dues and five copies of each of the 10 books are purchased with the dues and given to the groups. The genre of the books are selected by drawing from a hat: Classics; Award-winning Fiction; Environment; Politics; Biography; Music/Drama; Poetry/Psychology/Religion; Art/Artists; Travel/History; Fiction/Free Choice. Two people in each group choose one book that fits in the category their group drew. The books are purchased at their community used book sale. All twenty five discuss the same book. The downsides, I was told, is that most readers want to read the book to be discussed just before the meeting, and five readers share the book. They rarely read current books. The accounting gets tedious as well. The best thing is readers all read something outside their normal genre choice. Sometimes readers are surprised! This book club has been continuous for more than sixty years.
I’ve heard of book clubs that are genre specific, like sci-fi, or even Harry Potter Book Club, or cook book clubs where food is shared. Libraries and many book stores have book clubs and often have visiting authors. Book clubs are available on line and bookstores show their selections on the websites. Some online clubs include free books or 99 cent books. In one town I visited with my books I saw in the paper a meeting notice for an audio book club for blind members at their library. In another I saw a notice for a men’s bookclub.
Find the book club that is right for you. One that has members you enjoy, and one that will expand your reading. If you can’t find one, you can always start one. Make up your own rules. This link might help you get started.