book groups

[Sheherezade]

Does anyone out there belong to a book group? How does your group work? Who picks the books and where is it hosted? I'm thinking of starting one here and I'm wondering if there is a standard. I've seen reference to local book groups at the library, but they tend to read only political books (and be political discussions) or parenting books (and have parenting discussions). I was hoping for something a little more social and relaxed. Any ideas for getting started?

[Vanquisher]

I belonged to one, and I personally feel that it had THE BEST set-up. It was very relaxed and casual. We picked one night, usually the first Friday of each month. The person who started the bookclub invited everyone over, and she gave us a little book quiz for a game. The person who did the best and worst each received a prize. Then she selected the first book and we had one month to read it, but it was completely no pressure. If you didn't have time to read it, you still went to bookclub because it was way fun.

At the next meeting (for the first book) we went back to her house. When you pick the book, you are also the host house. You make some food and everyone comes over. You gab until about 15-30 minutes after start time, grab a plate of food, and then sit and discuss the book. We discussed the book for 15-30 minutes, in general, for each book. Some were a little longer. We never talked about the book very long, and our discussions were always superficial and fun. We talked about why we liked or didn't like the book and respected others opinions, talked about characters, and other general themes or translations into our lives. Then, for 2-3 hours, or sometimes more after that we talked about everything else, and just had a moms night, and it was so fun. It was relaxed and casual. The next host volunteer would present their book choice, and we would have the meeting at their house the next month, and they would make the food. I miss it.

Great fun!

The book group I am in was started a few years ago out of a metro mom's group. I really like it because everyone is understanding about spouses work schedules, arriving late, missing a month, not reading, etc. At other points in my life, a more consistent group might be nice but this works well right now.

We have a set date of the second Monday of every month. We schedule out 3 or 4 months in advance for the hosting house. (I reserve a room at a coffee house because our house is too small and my kids won't leave us alone). We choose books 2 months in advance so that everyone has time to read or reserve from the library. The person who chose the books (or presented the options in our case) hosts the book group. The person who is scheduled to host the next month brings dessert.

The book chooser brings 3 or 4 books to the book group and then we vote which one to read. It works pretty well. If we're organized, we'll send an email with book descriptions, from Amazon or something, before the meeting. We don't have a lot of criteria for books and have done fiction and non-fiction, short story collections, novels, classics or new, etc.

My mom does hers a little differently. They only pick paperback books. The next host chooses the book and buys the book for everyone and hands it out at the bookgroup meeting. They have a rule that you have to read at least half the book (or first 50 pages?). There were some issues for a while with people not reading and then not having any book discussion.

I think it depends on what you want out of it and the people in your group. Have fun!

[SueC]

We started a book/movie group about a year ago. Every other month, we alternate between meeting at somebody's home to discuss a book, and going out for a movie and then to a restaurant/bar afterwards to discuss the movie. Each month, somebody is in charge of hosting either. If it is a book month, you are in charge of picking the day we meet, hosting the actual meeting, and having 3 or 4 books at the meeting that we will vote on reading for the next time. On a movie month, you pick the day and the movie, though there is usually lots of conversation through email to get input from everybody else.
Having it alternate between movie and book works out great as we are all moms, who sometimes need an extra month to read a book and always are in need of a night out on the town!

[DCJenn]

This is from today's Washington Post Metro section:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... ailarticle

It's an article about Virginia's new first lady and her book group.

J.