Sunday, January 03, 2010

If I were to start a book club...

A few years ago I started a book club. It was fun, but I started to really dread reading the books people chose and eventually I quit. I thought that maybe I just wasn't made for book clubs. But earlier today I was sitting in the glider nursing a baby (nice to know the blog title still applies ;) and I thought "maybe I just need better guidelines".

If I were in a book club I would want to read books that:

- weren't too heavy
- weren't too deep in meaning
- were fiction. NO non-fiction.
- weren't too slow. Sorry to say it, but I find most Canadiana sloooow and borrrring.

Here are some examples of titles of books that I would have been happy to read as part of a book club:

- Twilight (ha)
- Outlander
- City of Bones
- Wicked
- Da Vinci Code
- Ender's Game
- Book of Negroes
- The Red Tent
- Time traveler's wife
- Galilee

If I were to start a book club I think I would have my first book be Hunger Games.

Also, I would want my meetings to be a social thing. 2 hours long, socializing, eating, some discussion into the book that wasn't too highschool english class / deconstruct the book and then some more socializing.

Would anyone join a book club like that? :)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I sent you an email about this... because I think you might be interested in a group I am a member of.

CrAzY Working Mom said...

Sounds like fun. I've never been a part of a book club. My busy schedule limits my reading time. I love to read, but don't know if I could live up to the pressures of reading on a schedule.

Rebecca said...

Sounds perfect. Now only if I wasn't so far away.

Capital Mom said...

I was going to say what Erin was going to say.

Amanda said...

yes, yes, yes!

Lynn said...

I had almost exactly the same experience! I started a book club many years ago and then grew to dread it -- it felt like homework. Once I had kids I had very little time to read, and always I was reading something I didn't want to be reading, because of stupid book club. So I quit, and since I was the founder, it eventually fizzled out.

About a year ago, one of my friends from that book club suggested we start it up again and I was very wary. But I made similar ground rules -- fiction only, relatively light stuff. We severely limited the members list, so we knew everyone we invited to join liked the same kind of books as us. Also we decided to make our meetings food-based, so everyone would bring a dish somehow/somewhat related to the book, and we'd spend just as much time chatting and eating as we did talking about the book itself.

Plus, we only meet three or four times a year, so there's lots of time to do other reading if we want.

So far it is going okay. I like the way it has turned into a more social club instead of an academic one, and I can say that we haven't read a bad book yet. It's still hard for me to squeeze in enough time to read the book, but I'm sticking with it for now.

Good luck getting yours going, and if you don't get enough interest and would like to know more about ours, let me know! I'm sure you'd like it.

zanou said...

I totally agree with you. I am part of a book club where we only read "chick lit" kind of books. Although we function a bit differently. We chipped in some money and bought a whole bunch of bargain books from Chapters. Each of us picks the one we want to read at our meeting and we just exchange them the next time. So no one is ever reading the same book at the same time. We post our comments on a website, so those who are interested can read them. Our meetings are all social, never an in dept discussion of books and they only happen once everyone is done their book. It's been almost a year and it's the best book club I've ever been a part of.

QOH said...

I just joined one exactly like it, so... yes! :)

Roz said...

i'd be interested...except i hate committing to ANYTHING. so i can't say i'd be in lol. Nice to know that it might be in Orleans, though, right? :)

Lindsey said...

Yes! Sounds like my kind of book club - especially since I've read most of the books on your list and especially because I'm reading "catching fire" finally - love it! =D
If I win the cheo dream home and move to Ottawa next month, I'm joining!! Have fun.

Anonymous said...

Um, YES. I love the books that you've listed that I've read. Who has time to read deep meaningful shit with twins?!?

Besides, everyone gets some sort of meaning from every book. And ALSO, books are stories. If a story is a good story, who cares who wrote it?

I would join your club right now if you didn't live so freaking far away. Have you considered moving to the delights of Europe? Then YOU can join MY club.

LTP said...

Dude, don't even GET ME STARTED on bookclubs. I'm in one now and even that one I can't read for because I don't make the time. We use a blog and the host picks 3 books and then we vote. Done and done. And even THEN it's painful. So, ugh, good luck with that one but well, you can count me out. ;o)