we have a problem in our book club

Hermy - bloody hell I feel for you!

You've been accused of allsorts!!

Have only scanned the thread but to read some of the posts I'm sure you must have committed a very serious crime

I have a book group at my house once a week (yes zippi, you can come, we have had two members leave as they have found lurve, the rest of us are happily divorced/single/married)

The main problem with bringing new people in is that they may like ac ompletely different level stuff to the rest of you. We aren't particulary high brow, we are a very mixed group but have found our 'level', our very favourite book was The Woman in White, we also loved A Prayer for Owen Meaney and Rebecca.

We had a new member who had completely different tates to the rest of us - she was more of a Catherine Cookson/Daddy I've had a crap childhood sort of person. Nothing wrong with that but she really didn't fit in.

You have my utmost sympathy. I love my book group and it only takes one person to upset the equilibrium, even if it is unintentional. And I'm really crap at confrontation

yes a most enjoyable thread

very graphic

i have read war and peace twice

in one week

i had to do a opresentation seminar on it for a course called the historical novel in europe and i left my preparations a bit late

LOL, Oblovimov - Anna Karenina was our last book club book (went down very well )

P.S. Is Confederate new ?
I haven't seen her before.
She(he) is well funny.

This thread is well funny.
I have laffed and laffed and laffed.
I take back everything I said before. Tell her to *uck off and go off and read your
War and Peace
Anna Karenina
Captain Correlli's mandolin

( I only quote these becasue often people say they are unreadable)

oohh, I like Romy's idea - might try that with our book club

Hermykne - whilst i share your pain on reading crap books (we had 'Call Me Elizabeth for one of our choices - it made me feel itchy to read such badly written junk. Still read it though!), that's the point of a book club to an extent isn't it - to read things out of your comfort zone, as well as within. I wouldn't want tosh more than once a year, but once a year it helps remind you what good writing is about

actually no I didn't , never got into it myself tbh.

off to book club to dry out now...

that would be 'regularly' and 'illiterate' obviously... time to pour the rest down the sink i think...

I got a copy you can borrow somewhere.... we got to the point where there was waaaaaay too much 'chat' and not enough book at one point, so the one who suggested the book had to come up with a list of ten questions which were written on seperate bits of paper and folded in a (large) wine glass - we only had large wine glasses...)(book related - not plot based - not to prove ya read it!) and if anyone started monopolising with gossip before we had sacked the 'book' bit they got directed to pick a question and answer it. It sounds v boring, but was actually a good way of reminding people for 30 minutes that were supposed to have at least opened the front cover... and depending on who wrote the q's they were hilarious... (not mine obv. v studenty and i reguylarly had to translate into 'wine-soaked illitrate')
a way of reminding her of her bookish obligations? before she's allowed to move onto 'me'

Zippi - yellow wallpaper looks fab - will suggest it for our next book, I think.

Our book group has a similar sort of dynamic - there are a few of us who read the books fairly assiduously & try and read around them a bit, & others who rarely read the book & pitch up for a bit of a chat BUT we have developed a few unwritten rules which manage the process:

• first 30-45 mins is gossip time. No attempts are made to be clever in this time. Any attempts are punished with more wine.
• we have a 'natural' chairperson - plus two others of us who are reasonably arsey If things get too digressive, we just say 'Oy, back to the book please'. I know you don't want to be confrontational, but one of you not make some jokey comment to bring things back?
• Someone always prepares a few qus on the book, reads around a bit - so they always have a semi-agenda - so they can also say 'oy, back to the book'

I should also say, in a slightly snobby way, I was a bit nervous about our book club when it started - I'm an Eng Lit grad, & read a lot - some of our members are self defined 'non-readers'. But it works brilliantly - in fact, our current 'star contributer' is one of those 'non readers'.

Don't assume that 'U' can't contribute. Perhaps she just needs to feel a bit more confident that you are interested in what she has to say. What happens when she chooses the book? (Sorry if you've said this & I've missed it)

Oh sorry, is the yellow wallpaper a book? I'm obviously not the right type for a book club . Maybe I could sort out the olives or something.

Zippiti, I can do bookish, and I can choose nice wine and provide lovely snacks. I wish I was in a book club.
If you were starting a book club what book would you choose first?

hermy you do sound a bit more mellow now

have you felt the benefits of chatting

actually i havenmt seen the yellow wallpaper for a bit i should unpack some boxes i have a fancy to read it myself

A book club..Where the rule is if you really don't like or can't read the book
a. Attend and let the 'readers' do the talking.
b. You don't go.

contrary to appearances i am big intellectual

she wouldnt want to wade through my book shelves

zippis niche area

readings on madness

but SATC isn't a book !

to be frank she aint gonna read anything so she either is just allowed to freeload on the night

or you tell her she should stop coming