Who's in a book club?

[lillielangtry]

Does anyone else have a book club? And if so, how do you run it? i.e. how do people join, where do you meet, how you choose books...

I co-organise one, which is kind of an accident - I used to just attend but the organiser had to stop coming for a while and she passed it on. I love going so didn't want to see it end, but I'm not really sure I'm cut out for organising.

We have always been super-informal - no actual membership list or anything like that. Anyone who wanted to come along, could do: the only prerequisite was being able to discuss books in English. We just make random suggestions for the next book and whichever gets general support, is chosen in a sort of messy consensus.

But in recent months, we have had quite a bit of interest from new members. I think that there is a maximum size a group can have to maintain a good discussion, but turning people down feels so mean and as our attendees fluctuate anyway, it's a bit odd (a lot of us are expats so we come and go). Perhaps we need a waiting list? But like I say, with no formal membership list that seems odd too.

And voting on the next book choice?

I like the informality of our meetings, but I think we need to tighten things up slightly to get the best out of it.

Thoughts? Experiences?

[sophie]

I am in one.. I wanted to join one when I first moved to where I live, but successful book clubs become like a family and don't often have openings..so I started one. We meet once a month; there are 10 of us because our library has book club sets of 10 books so we don't have to buy books all that often. It has become a group of friends (we never knew each other before this), and we take turns choosing the book for the month. Our last book was Suite Francaise (by Irene Nemirovsky) which was a fantastic book. If you want to see the list of books we have read, I could post it...or pm it to anyone interested. We also meet in a neutral place so no one is responsible for cleaning their house for the meeting or that it becames about the food...

[lillielangtry]

Oooh yes, I'd love to see the list. I'll see if I can dig ours up and post it too.

[sophie]

I sent the list, not knowing if it would be taken (maybe too long?) but np.. so I will try and post it here
BOOKS READ....
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
Russlander by Sandra Birdsell
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
What it takes to be Human by Marilyn Bowering
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
Into the Blue by Andrea Curtis
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
We are the Mulvenys by Joyce Carol Oates
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
The Pilgrim by Timothy Findly
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Before I Wake by Robert J. Wiersema
Galileo's Daughter by Dana Sobel
The Tiger Claw by Shawna Singh Baldwin
The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan
The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Butterflies Dance in the Dark by Beatrice MacNeil
Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Places In Between by Rory Stewart
Effigy by Alissa York
All That Matters by Wayson Choy
Inez of my Soul by Isabelle Allende
Miss Garnett's Angel by Salley Vickers
Dirt Music by Tim Winton
Middlesex by Jeffry Eugenides
Web of Angles by Lilian Mattel
The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
Fauna by Alissa York
100-year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

[lillielangtry]

Thanks! Here's ours, there are some overlaps:

Half of a Yellow Sun - Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Night Train to Lisbon - Mercier, Pascal
Mother Night - Vonnegut, Kurt
The Little Stranger - Waters, Sarah
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Children’s Book - AS Byatt
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Murakami Haruki
The Land of Green Plums - Herta Müller
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
The Solitude of Prime Numbers - Paolo Giordano
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
Brooklyn - Colm Toibin
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Dice Man - Luke Rhinehart
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood
Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
The Fat Years - Chan Koonchung
We Need to Talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver
Snowdrops - AD Miller
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
Berlin Blues - Sven Regener
Budapest - Chico Buarque
Half Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan
Pigeon English - Stephan Kelman
Disgrace - JM Coetzee
The Cave - José Saramago
An Evening of Long Goodbyes - Paul Murray
State of Wonder - Ann Patchett
Dracula - Bram Stoker

[sophie]

Thanks lily, I am going to print your list since there are some on your list I am interested in using when it is my turn.. It has happened that I go blank when it is my turn to chose a title!