Saturday, November 15, 2008

How Does Your Book Club Operate?

As more book clubs jump onto whatareyoureading.com, some have shared information about how they run their affairs. MPBC of Lawrence, Kansas meets once a month at a member's house. The person who is hosting the meeting is also the person who chooses the book. While no one is assigned to research the selected book, often times members will bring supplementary information to enhance the discussion. And yes, food is key. There is usually some wine and a fabulous dessert involved as well.

A member of the WWW Book Club of Washington, D.C. reports that their club has two volunteers "present" the book at each meeting. This entails tracking down information on the author, reviews or other helpful background information. She reports, "I love that aspect of our group -- it just forces a bit more structure to the discussion." WWW meets monthly and the host provides dinner. "It has become one of my favorite things -- raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens...and book club evenings!"

What are your book club traditions? Don't be shy! Share your information with the rest of us.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I belong to two book clubs here in Charlotte. Both originated from the best independent bookstore in town - Park Road Books. http://www.parkroadbooks.com

Book Girls meets once per month. This week the owner of Park Road Books will meet with us and give a brief book talk on 20-25 books. We'll select twelve to read in 2009 - and have lunch (as usual). Our group discusses and then rates each book on a 1 - 5 scale; Dotty keeps a running log of our ratings and comments we have about each book.

The Wild Bunch meets every three weeks. Our books are selected from recommendations each of us bring based on things we've read or heard about new authors/titles, interviews we've heard on MPR, favorite authors we've previously read, or even favorite books we've individually read and want others in our group to enjoy as well. We tried alternating fiction and non-fiction but decided we had better discussions when we stayed with fiction. It's a "serious book club" for voracious readers with lots of opinions(who also like to drink a lot of wine). In December (4th year now)we'll do a poetry night; each of us brings a poem to share so that we can expand our repertoire beyond literary fiction. Poems are bound in a keepsake package by one of our more creative members.