Needed: book club expertise
Posted by Gail Barrett on 19 May 2008 | Tagged as: Chit Chat
This week I am doing something I’ve never done before. I’m joining a book club. I was asked to do this by our local librarian. She wanted to start a book club for readers of romance novels, and wanted me (a real live local romance author) to join it. I thought about it, and finally agreed. The library is only about a ten minute drive from my house, so it won’t take much time. I read tons of romance novels anyways, so no matter what books they select, I’m sure I’ll be happy to read them. And it might be a way to connect with readers, meet others in the community who enjoy romance novels as much as I do.
The only problem is that I have never been a member of a book club before, and really have no idea what they are like. I mean, obviously, we will sit around and discuss a book each time we meet, right? But I’m wondering how they are generally organized.
In the movie The Jane Austen Book Club, everyone was assigned a different book. I’m assuming that if that’s the case, we will be expected to make some sort of presentation on our assigned day. That worries me a bit. Hopefully, this won’t be a flashback to my college literature courses where I had to write ten to twenty page papers about the books. I’m hoping for something fun, something I don’t have to prepare for — more on the level of just showing up to talk.
So I thought I’d ask you. Have any of you ever belonged to a book club? If so, what was it like? Any tips? Anything to watch out for? I’d appreciate any help you can give!
I have to say that I was disappointed in the book club I was persuaded to join. They spent about 10 minutes talking about the book and 2 hours chatting
Usually, in my experience, everyone reads the same book at the same time so everyone can share an opinion.
It will be interesting to see how it goes for you and I’m impressed that it’s a romance book club because sometimes they can be a bit um ‘literary’. There is one in my development but somehow i haven’t been nominated as a must read
May 19th, 2008 at 10:53 amKate - I’m also interested to see how this goes. Since it’s being held at the library, I’m HOPING that the people really intend to discuss books. If not, I’ll probably bow out after a few months.
I ended up leaving my old critique group for much the same reason. It became more and more social, and while I liked the people, I really wanted to discuss the writing. And I just couldn’t afford to spend every other Saturday morning socializing when I had so much work to do.
May 19th, 2008 at 12:14 pmOh, I forgot to say that I doubt they’ll choose my May book for their first selection. I’ll be surprised if the librarian/leader suggests it. They might prefer historicals or something else. But you never know!
May 19th, 2008 at 12:16 pmHere in the UK, books clubs tend to focus on the same book with each member giving their opinion on that book - and yes, the books chosen are usually the more “literary” ones. Social chit-chat seems to form a big part of the proceedings
May 19th, 2008 at 1:28 pmTricia - I’ll post an update after the meeting. I guess if they want to read “literary” romance novels we could read Jane Austen. That would be fine. Daphne du Maurier is another one I love. As long as they are romances, I don’t really care. I’m guessing that the librarian who is organizing this will have some opinions. She came to our local chapter’s librarian luncheon, so she is supportive of romance in general. It will certainly be interesting to see what people want to read… if anyone even shows up!!!
May 19th, 2008 at 2:14 pmI’m been a member of two different Romance Readers Clubs. One was just getting started and we moved back to the States before it really was off the ground. This group did have a facilitator who had started a group in Brisbane. This was very organized where we all were given the book that we would discuss and Kate had prepared questions to get us started.
The group I belonged to before we went to Australia was much more free formed. There were months where two different books were selected and we got together to discuss the book we’d have read. There would be one member who either prepared questions or corresponded with the author to get questions to discuss. Other months we talked about what we read that month and what we liked about the books.
Good luck.
May 19th, 2008 at 8:47 pmAnn - how many people were in your groups? Is there any size that seems to work best?
May 20th, 2008 at 4:36 amThe group in NJ we had around a dozen active members and they wanted to cap the group. It became hard for everyone to talk in an hour about what they had read if everyone was there.
To have a discussion about one book size isn’t as important but it helps to make have someone that acts as a moderator that can move the discussion along.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:19 pmThanks, everyone. Tonight (Wed.) is the first meeting. I’ll post an update tomorrow and let you know how many people showed up, etc. I’m pretty curious to see what happens!
May 21st, 2008 at 3:37 amEight women attended the meeting. We might get one or two more. We are going to read two books for the next meeting. Everyone is going to read The Perfect Rake by Ann Gracie, and then we are all going to read any historical of our choosing by Lisa Klepas. It should be fun!
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:40 am