I was talking to a colleague yesterday who said she was in a book club, and it sounded pretty good to me (She lives in a different town, and I wouldn’t want to travel very far to get there, and besides she didn’t invite me to join.) I was thinking
1)I like books
I like talking about them
I like listening to what other people have to say
I need to make some friends who live in my area
BUT I dont know how I’d go about forming a book club in this part of town. Have you ever done it, or something similar? Do I take out an ad in a local paper? Put flyers at the local library or Barnes and Nobles? What should my ad say? Is it probable that I’ll attract a bunch of mouthbreathing dimwits and run screaming from the first meeting? Is there anything I can do to avoid that in the way I advertise it?
I went to a book club at the local library for a while. They met once a month. It was only about ten people but it was nice. We are in the process of getting one started here at work (picked up the first book today!! The Book Thief, hope it’s good) so hopefully that will go well. I don’t know about starting your own with strangers… that has the potential to go either nowhere (i.e. people will read the add and be afraid that *you’re the mouthbreathing dimwit) or someplace bad (i.e. the mouthbreathing dimwits you forecasted will show up in full force).
Maybe search for other bookclubs at libraries or bookstores or Oprah (:)) or online and if you meet people you like you can always form a new bookclub with specialized interests.
Have you checked at the local library?
Have you looked on craigslist in your area?
There might be an already-existing one that you could join.
If you do decide to start your own, maybe you could have a themed club and have people who all have something in common. The library near me has a mothers with young children book club. Other people I know belong to a 30-somethings book club. Having something in common with other members beyond a love of books might help, or it might feel too limiting.
This site has a few helpful hints for running a bookclub.
I went to a book club meeting once. The club itself met at a local restaurant and that’s what made it kind of disastrous for me. I was with people I was meeting for the first time, at a large table, at a restaurant that wasn’t necessarily ready to handle such a large group, and I didn’t feel that some of my tablemates were particularly polite to the waitstaff. On the other hand, I’d be a bit nervous about inviting strangers into my home or going to a stranger’s home for a meeting.
Do you have friends that also have a love of books? If you had 3 friends and you asked them to each invite one person that you don’t already know, you’d have a large enough group of not-quite-acquaintances and that might feel a little less unknown.
Also, don’t be surprised or offended if people drop out. I would love to be part of a bookclub but the demands of my home life don’t make that possible right now. People may initially be interested and then have it not fit into their lives as seamlessly as they had hoped.
It’s definitely worth talking to the folks at your local library(or neighborhood branch thereof). If there isn’t a group already, they’d probably be happy to help you organize one – plus they usually have meeting rooms, etc., as well as a built-in potential audience.
Another possibility would be a local (non-chain) coffee place; the one down the street from me is trying to organize one. (They also do poetry nights, folk music nights, chess nights, etc.)