By Tina Bradley
Love reading? Love to get together and talk about the great book you just read or get suggestions for what to read next? You need a book club!
Join one of the many already formed, or start your own. Arkansas State University-Mountain Home is starting a book club called The Mountain Tomes (points for most clever book club name!). Here’s how we did it, and how you can start your own:
Consider what type of club you would like to have. Will you focus on reading the latest bestsellers? Only romance? Mysteries? Perhaps you want to stick to nonfiction. Another popular choice is freestyle, where each club member has an opportunity to choose the next book. There is no rule about how many book clubs you can belong to. Don’t feel like to you have to meet every need with one club.
Find friends, acquaintances, coworkers, family members, random strangers off the street to join your club! Decide what sort of group you want and recruit accordingly. Typically, 12 is about the maximum number of members you want in a personal book club—it’s a nice round number and it coordinates well with having members lead the discussion/choose books once a month. You can certainly have more than a dozen members, but keep logistics in mind.
Decide how often you will meet. Once a month is a popular choice with many book clubs. It’s easy to remember and a reasonable amount of time to get through most books. Also consider if your group might want to take time off for holidays or summer vacation. For example, some clubs don’t meet in December or July. Meeting frequency is completely customizable to the group!
Choose a meeting location. Would you like to meet in members’ homes? That can be fun if you have members who like to host groups, prepare light snacks, and enjoy an intimate setting. Some clubs prefer to meet at public venues. Your favorite restaurant or coffee house will serve well and puts less pressure on busy members to host a group at home. Many local libraries have meeting rooms that book clubs can use as well. Pick the meeting location that works best for your group.
Have some discussion points ready before the meeting. Spontaneity is great, but fortune favors the prepared. If it’s your turn to lead the discussion, have a few talking points in mind ahead of time. This will get the ball rolling and avoid awkward silences. Focus on open-ended questions. Instead of asking if members liked the book, which begs a simple yes or no answer, try something like, “Who was your favorite character and why did you identify with them?” Or “Do you think the book would have them same outcome if ______?” Leading questions will result in much more involvement and get members personally invested in the discussion.
Keep track of what you have read. When you first start out, the need to keep a list of books read by the club may seem silly, but after a year of meetings, memories are a lot fuzzier. It takes just a few minutes to jot down the date, the book, and who lead the discussion.
Consider technology. Technology makes our lives easier in many ways, including running a book club. Facebook is not only an excellent place to post about a new club and to find interested members, it can also be an easy solution for keeping track of what has been read and where the next meeting is. You can even create a Facebook page dedicated solely to your book club. If you need book suggestions, try goodreads.com. They have book recommendations, discussion ideas, trivia, quotes, and online book clubs.
There is no right or wrong way to run your own book club. Have fun, do what feels right, and most of all, share your joy of reading! M! December 2014/January 2015
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