If you're in a book club,

GingerPeach · ‎03-12-2010

how does your book club choose its books?

Do you have a favorite and/or most successful way?

I've heard a few methods: the person hosting the meeting chooses the next book; or everyone puts a book name into a "hat" and someone draws the name; or simply by consensus.

[was Homegirl] Love to be home . . . thus the screen name. Joined 2003.

Sooner · ‎03-10-2010

Those who want to help choose the books meet and select for the year. We try to get a variety of books and pick mostly things not on the bestseller list.

Still Raining · ‎03-30-2014

We rotate around to each member in turn and choose. Very rarely we get a veto, but often.

It is a wonderful way get out of your comfort zone.

tucsongal · ‎03-10-2010

We all bring suggestions for a couple of meetings and just choose as a group. We’re very laid-back and it’s an easy process. We’re working on next year’s list and try to get things that you can get from the library.

mac116 · ‎03-26-2010

We do a yearly theme, then take a turn bringing 2-3 suggestions for the next month. I've read many books that I would not have otherwise chosen.

We try to choose books that can be easily obtained from the library, Amazon, or a used book store in our area. This works best for our group, since we have several retirees who are trying to downsize their book collections.

sandy53 · ‎03-12-2010

We get all of our books from the public library and usually let the librarian in charge of "multiple copies" choose for us. She's good at it. She knows what other groups have liked and what we have liked in the past. We can also put in requests. The state library website has the list of books available in multiple copies.

Our members do not want to purchase books. This makes our book club affordable for all.

Alison Wonderland · ‎02-05-2018

Everyone gets to recommend a book and make a brief pitch for why it should be the selection and then everyone votes on their top two choices. The one with the most votes wins.

People get one recommendation and two votes as a safety, so you don't wind up with a 1:1 vote, even if everyone votes for their own selection with the first vote. Though most of the time at least one person wouldn't have a recommendation to add or someone would make a recommendation and then vote on someone else's book anyway.

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

I'd love to be in a book club again. I miss it. I was in two over the years and the choice of books was rotated.

AngelPuppy1 · ‎03-13-2010

I always wanted to be in a book club but never knew exactly how it worked. This probably sounds dumb, but could someone explain how it does work? I mean -- how often do you have it, where do you meet, what and how do you discuss and prepare for the meeting of the book club, etc.? Can you use a library's meeting room, or does it have to be a member's house? Thanks!

"A day without sunshine is like, you know, night." - Steve Martin

sandy53 · ‎03-12-2010

@AngelPuppy1 wrote:
I always wanted to be in a book club but never knew exactly how it worked. This probably sounds dumb, but could someone explain how it does work? I mean -- how often do you have it, where do you meet, what and how do you discuss and prepare for the meeting of the book club, etc.? Can you use a library's meeting room, or does it have to be a member's house? Thanks!

We meet once a month. Our meetings are at my church because the book club started as a small group ministry. Now, many years later, we have about half who are members of the church and half who are not. We rotate who is the discussion leader and usually use the questions on litlovers.com to guide our discussion.

Our meetings are no-host and casual. We like meeting at the church because then no one has to clean their house. We choose not to have dessert and people bring their own drinks if they wish.