Book Club?

[David]

Sorry if this is the wrong forum.

During my [brief] 5 month stint at university, I haven't come across any, and was considering organising one, simply because I find it hard to meet people. The idea kinda evolved after I remember someone mentioning that the best way to read Ulysses is slowly, with a group.

So, do any of you belong to book clubs? Do they actually exist?

I guess if there's any response, I have a couple more questions that I'll ask afterwards

[Downer]

Used to but the internal politics and *****iness got annoying after a year or so.
Here's how ours was run - every month every member of the group was given one of two books ( it was run in library so we never had to buy them ), before the next meeting we read the book and then the readers of each book would gather round and discuss the book. For the next month books would be swapped round and then two new books would be picked.
We were limited by what the library could get hold of thirty copies of simultaneously but it wasn't much of a limit as they'd frequently buy in extra copies.
I joined it to start reading the sorts of things I wouldn't have though of myself and genres I wouldn't normaly touch. About 2/3 of them I actualy enjoyed, the rest I was either nonplussed about or thought they were crap.

The most embarassing one was a book we had because the author was coming to give a talk so we figured we should read something of hers. All but one of us thought it was the worst piece of fiction ever written which is not something you can really say in front of the author, I think she sussed it out when it got to 'any questions' and sixty people coughed nervously and sat on our hands.

Downer

[David]

So did you know the members beforehand? I mean, were you all friends or something?

30 people is a lot, especially since I would have to run it myself. I was thinking of limiting it to 10 or so, and then meeting in a cafe each time or something, and simply have a roster where each person picks a book.

[den]

:D Yay! I love book clubs, have been in a few...

The following link is for an internet-based international book exchange idea...

http://www.bookcrossing.com/home

But for my local area, we have a monthly group meeting, about 18 of us, to talk about/discuss books.

I love this site, the whole philosophy behind it, and I've met wonderful people all over the world from it as well as, like I said, local booklovers who like to get together at someone's home or at a local cafe etc. It's worth checking out David. PM me if you have any other questions about it.

[Koa]

I did something similar at school (high school, to say it with USA standard...).

Every year some teachers run 'reading groups'. Every teacher chose a subject and made a little club about it... Not only literature teachers, there were science teachers with series of books about Biology, even a maths one if I remember (I avoided them carefully as I can't stand those subjects). The partecipation of the students was absolutely free, I mean everyone could go (some were recommended to older students, but younger ones weren't kicked out)... I think averagely they ended up being of around 10-20 people.
The teacher chose a book, everybody read it, and then we discussed it. Starting from our opinions, to all we wanted to say about it... Teachers talked about their own opinion too, and moderated the discussion.
The meetings were every once in a while, depending on how busy school matters were. Students weren't obliged to participate to every single meeting, nor to read the whole book if they really hated it, or simply ddint have time. (I guess hte main purpse was to suggest enjoyable readings, not to be treated like homework.)

In my last 2 years of school I pertecipated to the same group. The theme was slightly different every year, but to sum it up it was all about dark sides of human beings, maybe the first time it was a bit more psychological (I remember the very first book was 'Doppeltraum' (original title) by Albert Schnitzler, the book that inspired Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut).

Thanks to this group I read 2 of the best books I've ever found: one was by a Hungarian author called Antal Szerb, the title is something like 'The moonlight and the traveller', not sure it's the original title tho...
The other one really changed my life: The Demons (again not sure of the English title) by Dostoevsky (it was so big we discussed it in 2 meetings, to give people the tiem to read it)...I fell in love with the Russian culture and decided to study Russian at university, so I can say it influenced my life...(oh, the previous year we read Notes from the Underground but I didnt undertsand much of it and I still havent had time to re-read it).

Hope this description of my experience was clear enough, feel free to ask any questions.

[David]

Thanks for all your help

[Downer]

I didn't know any of the members of the club before I joined it. As far as admin went for than many people, it was merely a question of making sure everyone signed out the books and returned them which wasn;t much effort at all. You can avoid even that if people have to obtain their own at which point admin boils down to finding a venue and making sure that people know where it is. If it's an informal group then you might as well make it a pub so there's no room booking or messy business like that. For pub meets we used to make sure that someone turned up half an hour early in case of newcomers.

Downer

[Munro]

I am unaware of any book club near me, most Sydneysiders would pay $100 to join the local football club than join a book club for free...*sigh*...so depressing.
I treat this place kind of as my book club, and I work in a book store too so I can discuss what I've read with them every weekend. Everyone there is really intelligent and educated (not to mention eccentric) and I learn a lot from them.

[chrissy]

I've only been in an online book club. It was fun for a while but the conversations constantly dwindle into their own vacation stories, kids, tv, etc...I guess for some people it's a social outlet where they all have a common interest, but I've yet to find any with meaningful discussions. It's especially hard to find people who are into classics.

Chrissy