book clubs - has anyone done this or is a member of one?

I set one up. I did it through netmums local meet-a-mum and I got a group of 6 together. I put a message in the local but here too but didn't get much response.We meet every 6 weeks. Its been running a while now and we all really enjoy it and have become good friends.

I looking to join one in the Newbury area?

Before we moved I used to go to a group in a local bookshop. Inevitably you get the odd domineering person who wants to talk all the time.

The guy who ran it decided we should go round the circle at the beginning and everyone had the chance to say what they thought of the book without anyone interrupting. After that it was an open discussion. I know it sounds a bit regimented but we needed that rule!

At the end, just out of interest, we each gave the book a score out of ten 1. for how good we thought it was 2. for readability/enjoyment. Not always the same thing ..

Valdeeves - have you joined the MN one on Goodreads yet? If not, see link
here.

I'm trying hard to set up a book group in my area - Newbury.
But anywhere not to far in West Berkshire will do.
I belonged to a fab girly one in Birmingham where we talked about the books and caught up on each others lives in equal measures.
We read everything from The Time Travellers Wife to Cloud Atlas and always had a good laugh.

If anybody lives in my area, I'd love to join an existing group or set one up.

Xxxxxx

I joined an expat book lover club just a few days ago. They have 2 books per month - all discussed on line of course. The list of books has been made up through to June next year. I am really looking forward to participating. This book club was set up on Yahoo Groups - looks easy enough to do so long as someone is willing to be the moderator and keep it all going.

I joined a small one last m,onth . There are about 7 or 8 women in it. We meet once a month at a restaurant, have a meal and a drink, chat generally but also about a book we will have all read in the previous month. I only knew 2 of the other members - 1 very well; the other was a friend of a friend. The others were really nice though.

The book is chosen by a different member each month. That personbrings in a choice of 3 book titles with information about the books. the group then choose between themselves which one to read.

Ours is done early evening too so that the 3 mums of us aren't back in too late; especially as it is mid week. We normally meet after work at about 6:30 for a couple of hours.

Last month's book (my first) I did not enjoy at all, and only read half of it. It was set in the genoside and was a bit too graphic for me. But then at least I will have my opinion on that won't I?

Next meet up is on Thursday at the new Italian restauant beneath my apartment - how convenient!

I'm thinking of starting one in the new year, Did you do it Bossykate? My friend and I have a few names but I want people who are similar to us but still have different tastes, if that makes sense! I can picture me doing the screeing
'whats your favourite book and who is your favourite author?'
'The Black Velvet Gown by Catherine Cookson and I love a Danielle Steele'
'ummm, sorry no, we've decided against it!'

Thank you sjs & SoupDragon (very impressed with the link advice!)

To do a link type
\link(the full address of the page\a description) but use {} curly brackets rather than round ones

So,
\link(www.randomhouse.com/resources/rgg.html\this) (with curly brackets rather than round ones)
becomes
this

To get more than one link on a post, you need to put a comma after the first link. I think anywhere after the first link works fine so just include one in the text somewhere.

If you go to google and enter "Reading Group discussion guides" there are heaps to choose from. Amazon have some too which you can print out but I always have difficulty finding them on the site.
My favorite is Random House... the site address is
www.randomhouse.com/resources/rgg.html
I just took a look and they even have info about history of reading groups and advice to set them up.
www.randomhouse.com/resources/bookgroup/book_group_guide.html

BTW, can anyone tell me how to do links???

Interesting comments sjs - have you got details of the discussion websites?

Thanks in advance.

I was a member of a club last year and loved it. Sadly have had to leave since we moved house but I'm hoping to either start one or join one once we get settled.
Last one was started in the small town we lived in to meet new people and also encourage us to read more interesting books at least some of the time. 3 of us started it and then got friends and friends of friends to join. We ended up with 14 to start with which in hind sight is too many. But we only once had all 14 turn up. But would say 8 - 10 is about right.
We chose a list of books together and agreed to meet on certain night each month (eg last Thurs of each month.) If people couldn't make it that was just unfortunate, but we reckoned if we tried to coordinate diaries each month it would be impossible and just wouldn't happen. Then at each meeting we would nominate someone to buy the book for the next but one meeting (and they would bring it along at the next meeting.) They would just chose something from the preapproved list.
We spent a lot of time at some meetings talking about other stuff - it was always fun but a few of us were getting frustrated about the lack of book discussion. We didn't get around to addressing it before I left...
Books we read and enjoyed - Poison wood Bible (great and I think almost every book club reads it eventually!), Cane River, House of Sand and Fog (really hard to get into but we all enjoyed it and had a good discussion. We also read some "lighthearted" ones but wouldn't recommend it (Babyville and Diary of a Shopaholic
) Fun books but not worth reading for a book club - only generate about 10 mins of discussion.
So one recommendation would be agree the kind of books up front.
There are great websites with reading discussion guides - we didn't use those formally, but I think if I do it again, I might encourage a more formal start/introduction to the evening to get the book discussion going.
Go for it!

Hi Bossykate:

I've recently started a book club with some friends I met in pre-natal class - we've all added some additional friends as well. Lots of fun - wine, cheese, great conversations. First book we read was The Crimson Petal and The White, and the discussion was great as one of the members is a philosophy professor and teaches an ethics class on pornography and prostitution. We learned LOTS that night! Our next book is The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith (haven't begun yet!). We are getting together every six weeks or so - it has been somewhat difficult getting everyone's schedule to coincide.

I also would recommend beginning with a few women you know - good luck! You will enjoy...I'd love to hear how it goes, and what books you read...

bossykate, I'd love to be in your book club but, I fear, I too would be too dumb to contribute - scummymummy said it much better though Think I'd be one of those women who goes off at a tangent and talks about rubbish telly programmes.

banish ennui at bossyk's book club
cerebral chewing gum firmly outlawed
like minded mums succeeding at reading
talking and thinking and not being bored
by ulysses, war and peace, dante or grass,
not finding amis a pain in the arse
last book that i read was green eggs and ham
thought it was fab- do i pass the exam?

I think it is a really good idea to advertise (and therefore 'screen'!!) because hopefully you will then avoid the problem I have experienced of everybody knowing each other too well so it's too easy for the discussion to drift away from books onto day-to-day stuff (ie: if children are at the same school, local events etc etc) which is NOT the idea of a Book Club, IMO. By making it clear in the advert you should just get people who really want to read & discuss books, obviously be careful about where you advertise, the local library might be worth a try?

Good luck, I would be interested in hearing how you get on. I am tempted to start up a 'break away' one myself!

Thanks for the comments about Nothern Lights, Aoe & RosieT, I agree that one of the best things about a book club is making the effort to read books you normally wouldn't try.

There were mixed opinions on Northern Lights really, I wasn't too keen to tell you the truth but there were others who really enjoyed it. We did all actually read it which is good, at least I read something I wouldn't normally pick up. Dh read it subsequently and loved it; I have bought him the two others for Christmas

I used to belong to a club - again started by a couple of women who knew each other and recruited interested friends. We each took it in turns to choose and the evening started with the chooser discussing briefly why they'd chosen the book, what they got from it etc. which opened up the discussion nicely. Only over the longer summer break did we have a free-for-all choosing session and it often degenerated into chaos!
We also had that thing of people relentlessly discussing things not to do with the book so we agreed that first we did the book, then we arranged the next meeting and only then did we start to natter ... it was good fun and is still going (but sadly without me as I moved house).
Only problems were people who didn't get on having not-so-subtle arguments via the books, and people choosing increasingly gloomy books in an effort to be literary and serious. When I was in immediate pre- and post-natal hormonal states I had to stop going because I couldn't bring myself to read the books chosen! Oh, and be wary of classics because everyone goes to the library and reads up about them first - makes for a dull discussion!

We did Northern Lights for our bookclub, too. I know what you mean about the first three or four pages ? all that daemon stuff does seem a bit wierd ? but I promise you, it was really worth persevering with. I wasn't keen at all, as I'm not normally into anything fantasy-ish, but in the end really enjoyed it and ended up going on to read the other two books in the trilogy too, as did my MIL, who's also not normally keen on fantasy. I think everyone in my b/c thought it a cracking read. Most went on to read the others too, mostly raving about them as well, although a few didn't rate the third quite as much.