topic Re: Question for Book Lovers???? in Book Club

Question for Book Lovers????

CANDLEQUEEN — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 14:11:23 GMT

Have any of you ever belonged to a Book Club? My sister and I are starting one up next month, and we have about 10 people , we are holding the meeting once a month, question is for those who have ever belonged to one, how did you go about deciding on what book to read? My sister and I are throwing some ideas around, but I thought I would come on this board and see if anyone has any suggestions as well.

Thank-you!

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

mspatmac — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 14:16:49 GMT

Years ago I did. We had 8 people and met every 2 weeks. The group decided on every 2 weeks. We rotated who would pick the next book which was fun because most had completely different types of books so we read quite the variety. Hope you enjoy, I did

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

ThinkingOutLoud — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 14:30:11 GMT

I've been part of one a couple different times. Some options:

~ At the end of each get-together, people make suggestions and decide on one

~ One time, someone came with a printed list of '100 books to read before you die' (google it). I think it was divided by genre and it was passed around and we just marked what ones we'd be interested in

~ My local library has special 'book club bags' - you may want to see if yours does something similar or at least see if there are enough copies of titles you're considering so people don't have to purchase them

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

ThinkingOutLoud — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 15:13:44 GMT

Just thought of something else -

You might want to consider having different genres each month.

For instance:

Jan - self help

Jun - adventure

Oct - mystery

Dec - classics

This way, you get a variety and everyone knows what to expect. I say this because someone once suggested a different genre and at the get-together, people disparaged ithe book more than I had heard them do so before. I think the comments hurt the person's feelings and may have made her hesitant to suggest another one in the future.

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

CANDLEQUEEN — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 15:10:28 GMT

Thanks so much ladies!!!!Great comments. I appreciate them.

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

Still Raining — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 17:30:51 GMT

I was in two clubs prior to this mess.

In one the leader selected and that was not the best way to do it.

The other one kept a list of who was up next and that person had pure choice. Unless there was a revolt 😂. That was so good because it forced all of us out our ruts.

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

tucsongal — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 20:34:16 GMT

I’ve been part of a book club for many years and we have continued through Zoom thankfully. We select a year’s worth of books by December and look for things that are not brand new so that we can get them from the library. People start bringing suggestions in the fall and we read the description or reviews and make our decision as a group.

Sometimes someone has read the book, other times it just sounds interesting. We’ve even made changes partway through the year for various reasons. Our book club is very laid-back LOL.

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

tucsongal — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 20:36:15 GMT

@Still Raining wrote:
I was in two clubs prior to this mess.

In one the leader selected and that was not the best way to do it.

The other one kept a list of who was up next and that person had pure choice. Unless there was a revolt 😂. That was so good because it forced all of us out our ruts.

——————————

Has either group considered zoom meetings? I was able to talk my book club into it and now we don’t want to miss it.

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

onliner — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 21:56:09 GMT

I have been in two book clubs, both met at the library. The librarian was the moderator. Both clubs met once monthly. Every 6 months we emailed suggestions with brief summaries to the librarian and she put everyone's suggestion and summary together so that we could all vote. She listed the books by genre, and we voted on one or two per genre. She decided when we would read the books, so that we weren't reading the same type of book in a row. Choosing 6 books in advance gave us the opportunity to buy the book ahead of time. Questions were usually emailed to us just before we met, so that we were prepared.

There are some good ideas on starting a book club on litlovers.com

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

KaySD — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 03:07:09 GMT

In my book club, which is in its tenth year, we take turns picking the book. The person whose turn it is also picks the meeting place (although lately it's always zoom). Our only agreements are to read literary fiction, not too dark. Enjoy!

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

Jaspersmom — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 12:28:56 GMT

My book club has been meeting once a month since 2002! We have 8 members and each month a different person selects what we'll read. We do it in rotating order. We meet in a local restaurant so no one has to worry about hosting. However, since Covid, we've done one Zoom, met in a local park and now are sitting in people's backyards, Dont go too big because you won't be able to have a decent discussion since everyone will want to talk at the same time - LOL. We use Goodreads and other sites for discussion questions if we need them. For some books we have a lot to say and others not so much. We've read every genre you can think of.

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

CANDLEQUEEN — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 13:11:08 GMT

Thank you all! I have some really good options, and our first meeting is next Saturday. I appreciate all of the responses.

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

ThinkingOutLoud — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 13:19:50 GMT

One more thought - you may want to set the standards* from the beginning to prevent issues.

Hope you enjoy your group!

*light and happy (no cuss words, smut, gore, etc)

dark and depressing (you get the idea)

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

CANDLEQUEEN — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 13:59:36 GMT

@ThinkingOutLoud wrote:
One more thought - you may want to set the standards* from the beginning to prevent issues.

Hope you enjoy your group!

*light and happy (no cuss words, smut, gore, etc)
vs
dark and depressing (you get the idea)

@ThinkingOutLoud That is a good idea! Thanks! I am taking notes!lol.

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

sandy53 — Sat, 12 Sep 2020 22:59:18 GMT

All the books for my book club come from the public library. Our members do not want to spend money on books and the system works well. There is a list of books on the state library website of all the books available in multiple copies. We suggest books we would like and the librarian tries to schedule them. If they come from another library, we have to pay postage. The librarian in charge of this at our local library does a great job of letting us know what other books clubs have liked.

Twice over the years we have invited local authors to our book club to talk about their books and we have purchased copies of those books.

My book club meets at a local church so no one has to clean her home or "entertain." We do not eat and each woman can bring her own beverage if desired. We rotate the facilitator for each meeting and usually use the discussion questions from the litlovers website for our discussion. If discussion questions are not available (rarely, but sometimes happens) we each bring one or two questions to use. We do actually discuss the book. I know many book clubs that hardly discuss the book.

Re: Question for Book Lovers????

CANDLEQUEEN — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 13:45:33 GMT

Had our 1st book club meeting this past saturday and it went really well. Everyone was very enthusiastic, and excited about it! Several had been members in the past of various book clubs, so there were some nice suggestions and comments. We decided that the host for the month decides on the book, and also comes up with 3 questions for discussion at the next month's club meeting.

We will alternate our meetings based on volunteers, we are mostly all family so it is easier.....The person hosting decides on the book for that month. We will read Little Fires Everywhere to start. I have already read it, and enjoyed it! My sister, who started the meetings is a really good leader....

Thanks again to all who gave their suggestions, really appreciated them all!