I was recently browsing through a website I frequent for locating audiobooks, I noticed they had a book club and thouhgt that would be cool. I sent the email to join and now I feel like such a nerd. Ha.
Is there really anything to it other than just talking about a boor you all read?
My book club has been meeting for over fifteen years. Sometimes we talk about the book. Sometimes we talk about husbands (its a women’s group), children, jobs, world events, local events, weight loss, old boyfriends, menopause, divorces, old friends…We don’t even have a requirement to read the book. We drink wine and eat chocolate and cheese. But we are old friends and we have the least formal type of “bookclub.”
The women in the group who belong to other bookclubs have different formats. Some are required to report on the book (a friend belongs to a “topic” club. Each month two members present on a topic that interests them). My mother in laws book club all read different books about the same topic, then talks about the topic.
Moved MPSIMS --> Cafe Society.
I host a book club, and I’d guess that maybe 30% of the conversation at our meetings deals with the book itself. The rest is about topics raised by the book, or whatever subjects come up in conversation. We’re a very small group - about half a dozen people who come every month, and a few others who show up now and then - so it’s more like dinner and drinks with friends than anything else.
I’ve belonged to a book group for twenty-five years now. It’s gradually evolved into a group of best friends. We talk about the book and then the conversation moves on to anything else we want to talk about. We would never, of course, not let someone attend the meeting because they hadn’t read the book. We eat the food we brought along to share. One meeting a year is an all-day movie-watching event. One meeting a year is a get-together at a restaurant.
I don’t know what kind of book club you’re talking about. Is it some sort of online club? I don’t think that would work as well in the long run. I suspect that book clubs that meet in bookstores or libraries don’t hold together as well as those that meet in members’ homes.