Confession: Until this year, I’ve never been part of a dedicated book group. But I’ve had several groups that didn’t work out for various reasons.
- High School Summer - During my junior year of high school, a group of us attempted to start a book club. We read exactly two books before everyone got busy and we threw in the towel. It was also problematic because everyone had vastly different tastes in books - we went together to see a movie of one of the books we’d read and half the group was sobbing and loving the film while the other half slept through it. Definitely not a good start to a good book club.
- College Roommates - My sophomore year of college, I moved in with some girls who I was delighted to learn were readers. We decided that we’d each take turns forcing our favorite books on each other. It was a mess. One roommate loved paranormal romances, the other loved contemporary YA, and I primarily read SFF. We couldn’t find common ground (and one roommate refused to read my SFF pick for her). We didn’t even make it past the first month.
- Writing Group - For about a year, a group of college friends and I stayed caught up by starting a writing group. We’d skype weekly to discuss our writing projects and occasionally talk about books we’d read. I started getting excited that this could be an excellent way for me to connect with people about books, but after a few months, our meetings became more and more sporadic until they ceased entirely. We still text about books now and again, but the long distance model simply wasn’t sustainable for us.
- Elderly Women - When I moved to a new town after college, I was excited to learn that my church had a long-term book club. I expressed an interest, but unfortunately, the book club met during my work hours. I still read a couple months worth of their books and was not at all interested in the poorly written, self-published autobiographies they tended to read. When I learned that the youngest woman in the group was in her mid-50’s, I realized it probably wasn’t a good book group for me at this time in my life and that they wouldn’t be interested in reading anything I’d like.
- Church Book Group Round 2- When I moved to a new city for graduate school, I was again excited (though somewhat wary) to learn that there was a well-established book group run by a woman at church. Within a couple meetings, I knew this was the book club for me and I’ve been attending ever since. It’s a unique group - the same woman has been running it since the early 1990’s and she has kept a spreadsheet of every book that’s been read as part of the club. You are never allowed to choose a book that’s already been read, so it forces you to be a bit more creative. It’s also a very well-attended group (averaging 12-15 people each meeting) and everyone has such diverse tastes in books that you’re certain to read something you like on a regular basis. It’s been my best book club experience ever - and one that I’m confident will continue for years to come.
What experiences have you had with book clubs? What different structures have you experienced in book clubs? What are your favorite books you’ve read because of a book club?
