Learn More

Pressed Between the Pages
Our new old friend's book club

We have certainly learned through our mistakes on what makes a book club work. We started out blindly, adding new ideas as situations arose. For anyone thinking of starting their own book club, here are some helpful hints to avoid some of the things we did wrong.

• Make sure all members want to read the same types of books. (We stick pretty much to fiction and have avoided sci-fi yet do read books that could be considered fantasy.)

• If members need to borrow the books from a library, make sure the place has enough copies of the book before making it the selection. (Just try and find an adequate number of copies of a certain 1957 novel at your local library. That is what we were scrambling to do after one book became 'the chosen'. Amazon to the rescue.)

• Don't take your meeting to a public place. A quiet room without distractions is best. (Our apologies to P.F. Chang's.)

• Discuss the author as well as the book. (We give a short bio of the author, looking for tie-ins to the book itself. It really does help one appreciate the story more.)

• Do not allow members to walk into the meeting announcing their like or dislike of the book. (Premature verbalization is never a good thing. Get the discussion going first.)

• Take turns picking the books to be read. (We do a lottery when we are out of books. Everyone puts in a suggestion and then we draw for who goes first etc.)

• Don't hog the spotlight. Take turns letting others conduct the meetings. (We 'moderate' our own picks. We are responsible for the author's bio, questions and the flow of the discussion.)

• Use a format. (It keeps everyone consistent in their handling of a meeting and on the same page. )

• And most importantly--READ THE BOOK.

We didn't all participate at the same level in the beginning. Now, every member is to bring a 'passage' from the book being discussed to the meeting. All this involves is reading a sentence or a paragraph that stood out for them. Even a brief description of a character or event is fine. Just bring something to the table.