LasMa
In addition to your local library, try meetupDOTcom. (Don’t worry about the fee to join; that’s for groups that want to be listed in.) Search for book clubs near your location.
The local newspaper may also have a section listing club meetings. If there’s a coffee, doughnut, or sandwich shop that keeps community flyers, brochures, and pamphlets in a rack or on a table for customers to pick up, that would be another place to look.
I just downloaded the book club book on my kindle. Nothing I would ever choose to read because I don’t like when time frames jump all over the place, but I will give it a whirl. I mean what else am I supposed to do at 4am while I lay in bed unable to sleep?
No Kindle here yet, but it could happen someday.
The parks & recreation department may have a book club, too.
Just finished Gangsterland. I really enjoyed it.
You could also start your own! You can start with 6-8 people, but you really need about 10-12 members to make sure there will always be a critical mass at any meeting. A fun way is to find three friends and then ask each of them to find two or three more prospective members. Then you meet new people but they are screened by mutual friends.
If you really want to discuss the books, make sure to specify that the group is for real readers. Then you can take turns hosting with very casual dinners or snacks, and wine (if you wish). In our group, whoever is hosting gets to choose the book.
Someone has to take charge to send out evites, keep track of whose turn it is, etc. I’m in a couple of different book clubs, one of which has been going for 12 years and the women in the group are now among my closest friends. The key is consistency: having it month in and month out on a certain day (eg third Tuesday of the month).
I was enjoying belonging to a book club before we moved. Meets once a month. The group decided on the books for the year at a planning meeting with the host having the final say. More casual about the books than it sounds like Nottelling’s group is. Everyone in the group shares an outside interest besides the books. How food and beverages are handled varies a great deal no matter what kind of group it is, in my experience.
I’d second Nottelling’s suggestion. She outlined all the steps for you.
My group meets the second Tuesday of the month except for July and August. In December we meet at a Chinese restaurant and do a Yankee book swap. Otherwise it works pretty much like the group Nottelling’s described.
@cartera45 - I just finished The Blackhouse and I really enjoyed it. It’s good to hear that the second book is also a winner.
I also just finished We are All Completely Beside Ourselves and was pretty ambivalent about it. I didn’t know anything about the book except that it was well-reviewed. I thought the writing was great, and I wanted to like it - but once I hit the “big reveal” about mid-way through the book, I lost a lot of interest in the story. I don’t know why - as I said, I thought it was written so well - but it left me feeling…meh.
I guess I am an oddball… I love, love, love to read. But I have hated every kind of book club discussion I have ever been involved with (even including the online ones here).
Really, inparent? So interesting! Would love to hear more about your thoughts! Did you enjoy discussions in literature classes in school? Can you put your finger on what it is that you don’t enjoy?
Do you enjoy interviews with authors, and stuff like that?
My Bookclub at the library is open to all. i :"> borrow ideas from this community, check on how many copies we have in library. At a meeting, me, and others, can offer suggestions with a description, then vote. If not for Bookclub, I wouldn’t be exposed to new authors.
It is also fun to bring in local authors, or arrange phone conversations with the authors. We’ve brought in people from autism group or Mormons, to add insight for particular books.
Like Intparent, one of my friends reads a lot but won’t join any BC. The library group stays focussed for 45 minutes. No one is allowed to dominate discussion. In 8 years, there have only been a few disrupters.
I think IRL book clubs can be sort of awkward, but I’ve only observed the library ones. My mother belonged to one which was more like a book review club. The host chose and read the book and presented it, but no one else was obliged to even try the book! I thought it sounded very weird. To me the CC book club is what I wish high school literature classes had been like.
I had no interest in joining a book club for the longest time. Now I participate in three. It sounds like two too many but you’d be surprised how the book choices overlap. Still, it surprises me how different each group is from the others.
Things I like:
CC Book Club - Discusses a book every other month and tries to time shorter books to busy parts of the year, longer ones to slower times. The focus is on the book. The time span allows for in-depth discussion. People have found on-line links and interviews and reviews, etc. that add to the discussion. If you don’t finish the book on time, no problem - chime in a day or two late. Discuss in your pajamas. This group is my favorite with a great core group that keeps coming back. I do like the discussions that pull in more than just the regulars though. It’s fun to have others (lurkers, perhaps) throw in opinions. I always learn something from the discussions.
Library Book Club - Meets once a month at a book-related restaurant. I joined when my youngest left for college five years ago. (That empty nest thing hit me.) I knew no one and it took a while to acclimate. I made myself stick it out for four meetings and, lo and behold, I liked it better. I like that a group of strangers meet, drawn together by a common interest - ages range from mid-20s to 80s. I call this one book-club lite; the librarian calls it her dining club, as some in the core group focus more on where to eat than book discussion. I can say this with affection because I like the group. (They do read the book … just … that restaurant is really really important.)
Other Book Club - Meets in a private room in a cafe every six weeks. Well run by ex-teachers - if you want to eat, get there a half hour before discussion which begins promptly at 7 and ends at 8 with the next books chosen by group consensus. I like that they choose two books - read either or both. If you don’t like one book, well, then read the other one. I still don’t quite feel a part of this group. The ladies have known each other a long time with a lot of shared history. I always feel a little on the outside looking in but shouldn’t feel that way. I think the group leaders would be horrified. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming. So … my problem, get over it.
General thoughts: I wouldn’t join a book group that meets at the homes of members. I like the anonymity of restaurants and definitely don’t want to host a group.
A book club needs a core group to succeed. I usually read a book even when it would not be my choice; I do draw the line sometimes, mainly with my library book-club-lite. The other two groups go out of their way to make sure the group likes the choice. If someone says no, another book is chosen. And of course one group always has two books to choose from.
I really really wish that book clubs delved into some good science fiction/fantasy more often. But that’s just me.
intparent: I always like the books you add to the Best Books thread. I’ve either read them or want to read them. They’re not typical book club discussion books, though. Therein, may be part of the problem … though I’d love to be in an intparent group.
Halfway thru Station 11. I’m hooked.
I just this summer joined a book club. It’s been sometimes awkward sometimes great. I have gotten to know these neighbors much better. We have about 12 and rotate houses and you are supposed to provide snacks/drinks related to your book. Host chooses book.
About 4 years ago a group of us in my office started a book club which meets once a month at lunchtime. There are about 12 members ( all women no men wanted to join) and about 6 of us are the core group. We have expanded to have a holiday party outside of the office and went to a movie of a book that we read (“Wild”). we encourage everyone to bring a suggested book to the meetings and then we choose the next one. The book must be readily available through the local libraries or out in paperback although we also share a lot of books.
I belong to a group that meets in a church’s conference room. We bring our own drinks and order pizza. I love this because there’s no “one upmanship” about snacks/food and no arguing about restaurants. We have some members who are extremely wealthy and others who are on fixed incomes.
I belong to two book clubs. One I don’t go to too much anymore. I found that they were much more conservative than me and the books they picked were more like books I read at the beach. The other group reads a wide variety of books. We put everyone’s name in a hat and draw one at each meeting. The person drawn gets to pick the next book but only if they want to. We meet at someone’s home. It is always a home of someone who wants to have it. I never do because I am not comfortable with it. The hostess sometimes offers food but not always. I do like it when the food and the book combine. We had Thai food when the book was set in Thailand.
I belong to two book clubs, the CC one and an online Goodreads one called “The Roundtable.”
The CC one is good for me because the discussions are only once every two months (I’m only mildly interested in some of the books that are chosen, so that is enough for me) and because it is an online club. Best thing…the people are terrific!
Goodreads has lots of groups…it took me a while to realize that! I really like the one I’m in because there are lots of discussions of different books going on at the same time, and you can choose which books appeal to you and which of the discussions you want to participate in.
I’m in two book clubs too. One is actually better because the women aren’t as good of friends with each other so there’s less socialization and more book talk. Of course, as we get to know each other better, that is morphing.
I hated “Orphan Train” and loved “We Are Completely Beside Ourselves”.
I’m five books into the Tournament of Books list. “All the Birds, Singing”. Whew.