I'm starting a friends' book club and looking for pointers
For any of you who have been in a book club before. Any lessons learned? Nice to haves? Things to avoid? This is going to be limited to a fairly small group (4-6 people), so I feel like I don't need to get too formal with anything. But at the same time, I know that a good structure goes a long way to a successful regular reading club.
We have pretty a varied reading pace between us. One of us can read a book a day. I'm more at the book (300~ pages) every week or two pace myself. I'm sure that others may read faster or slower than that still. So I figure a book a month is decent for keeping to a casual-but-intentional reading pace for most of us.
Part of this is intended to be a way to keep in touch with friends I don't get to talk to as often anymore, and part of it is just reading new books I wouldn't even think to read.
I’ve participated in two book clubs, both of which failed to catch because people kept picking really long and dense books that nobody could actually get through. So I’d say to start small. Everyone wants to get around to reading “Infinite Jest,” but it’s something you want to work up to.
Also comfortable seating and make sure you have at least 4 or 5 people you know will be rock solid to come every time.
Food and drinks are important too. Half the reason people do this is for socializing, so don’t get too focused on the “we are very into reading books and stuff” side of it. It might even be good to time box the book discussion and let people chat before and after.
Hilariously, much of the reason I pushed to get this thing going was because I started trying to read Infinite Jest and got put off by the waaaay too effusive intro (anyone who compares an author favorably to Don DeLillo gets fast tracked onto my "do I really want to read this" list; I'm not a fan). Maybe I'll get around to it, but that thing is a serious commitment akin to House of Leaves to me. And it took me two years to chug through that noise.
Unfortunately most of this has to be online. Everyone involved lives in other states from me. So while some of them could get together with each other, there's a lack of physicality to this set up that I just have to live with. I've opted to set up a discord and let much of the socializing and organization happen whenever people sign on, but that gets into all the problems of a real-time chat (mainly, the investment involved in keeping up).
Still, this is good advice. Thanks!
That might actually help with the attendance issues. Let me know how it goes and I might try to get something going with my friends on Discord too. Does Discord do group video-chats? That might be a fun way to do it.
It does! But I think it's a little hard to handle three or more. It definitely does two-way video quite fine.
For groups like this, the first thing to establish are parameters for the book selection. Have it written down somewhere -- this will prevent someone from choosing The Count of Monte Cristo when the pace of the group is more along the lines of Shibumi. Sort these out with the group -- it doesn't need to be super rigid with a smaller group.
Secondly, whoever chose the book should do a brief intro to the author and the book itself. Nothing crazy -- just a little context for the book.
Themes can work if your group is that sort of group, but only fall back to this if your group struggles with choosing new books.
I really like for everybody to keep an eye out for passages they especially liked. Then, if they're up for it, read it back to the group when you meet up. If you can open or close with this, it makes for a good transition.
Yeah, I think it's a good idea to have expectations as to what genres (and book lengths/densities) people are most interested in reading. For us, it's looking like scifi and fantasy are the main jams for all of us. We also have a current suggestion list hovering around a dozen of mid-sized books. How have you handled books from a series? There are a few in this dozen that are the starts of series themselves--Neuromancer as an example.
If everybody is new to a series, that might be a great place to start. If you're doing either voting or taking turns, you could simply have the option to continue the series in there. It depends on how interconnected the series is. If you were doing the Nathan Heller series from Max Allan Collins, there are definitely some later in the series that aren't worth reading. When I've been with a group that was doing a series, we usually knew when to stop in a series before we got there.
With people who have already started a series, you could have the others catch up in a shorter window (especially with this series.) You could say 'first group is in two weeks, read the first half of Neuromancer...'. Once you're all on the same track and have gone through a few books, you'll find a good rhythm. Years ago I had a group that would do either a longer book or a shorter trilogy.
If you decided to go by vote, here's a quick little sheet I built for you.
Basically, everybody pops in an
x(or anything) in their column for the books they're interested in. From there it'll give you a list of the most voted books and also a list of most popular series. Once you've covered a book, pop anxin A and it'll cross it off. You can also delete it, but if its part of a series, it might be worth keeping it around until the series is complete.If this is something you want, feel free to make a copy. If not, don't worry about it. It's only one formula, really.
You're lucky to have a group that is interested in the same genres.
I have never ran or even participated in a book club, so I don't have any advice, but I have always wanted to partake in one... so any chance you could share your book pick once you get to that point? ;)
p.s. Are you going with any particular theme, or just trying to find something all your friends can enjoy?
We're each pretty heavy into scifi and fantasy, with some of us tilting toward YA. I'd be the one that's most skeptical of YA, and I'm willing to sign on to read them (as long as it's not literally all YA all months), so a theme seems likely just from who's involved.
I'll forward the pick when we have one.
Perfect, so am I... hard scifi & cyberpunk especially! William Gibson is one of my favorite authors and I have read the sprawl trilogy a dozen times already though, so if you do choose Neuromancer to start (as hinted at above) I would probably pass on it. ;)
p.s. I don't read much YA and am a bit skeptical of it too, but I also would be willing to give some a read if they came with a solid enough recommendation.