I want to start a book club, but need advice...

[dflanag2]

I have never been in a book club, but I have wanted to start one for years. I am planning on inviting a bunch of people over in January to start a club to meet once a month at my house. I don't have a clue as to what I am doing, and I could use some advice!

[syd'smom]

I've been in a couple - what do you want to know?

My first one met about 7pm. The hosting house rotated and munchies were served. Now we're in a smaller one (3 couples) and we rotate houses and start with supper and then the book discussion. We've discovered that 6 weeks works better for most of us than 4 (especially with dh/dw trying to share a book ).

[dflanag2]

That's a great start! How do you choose books to read? How do you handle the actual discussions? Do you break into smaller groups? (How many is too many for a book group?) I like the every 6 week idea.

Thanks!

[crittersmum]

I've started a few in my time...nothing too formal or literary, just some people who like books getting together to talk about them.

• I find that six people is about the maximum for a good discussion involving everyone. Four would be the minimum because some people won't have had time to read the book or won't be able to make it.
• We take turns choosing the book and generally anything goes. You can have theme book clubs where you read biographies, nonfiction, fiction from a certain country or time period. I'm in one now where we read parenting books! If budget is a concern, many libraries have sets of books intended for book clubs where there are multiple copies available.
• We either meet in restaurants (discussing the Vagina Monologues cleared out our section in short order!) or take turns hosting at someone's home.
• We usually start by going around the circle with a general, "What was the best thing about the book? What was the worst?" and then things degenerate -- I mean "go on" from there. You might have to coax some people to go beyond, "I hated this book."

Keep it light and friendly and have a wonderful time! I've met two of my very best friends in the world through the first book club I ever started.

[Literate]

Yeah, I think 6 or 7 people is ideal. We take turns hosting, and whoever is hosting picked that month's selection. We've done fiction and non-fiction, older and newer. We do try to pick things that the library has, since not everyone wants to buy a new book every month.

I love my group! Love love love. We meet from 7:30 pm to 1 am or so. Yeah, we really enjoy book group.