My Bookish New Year's Resolution

01/11/2014

I don't usually set New Year's Resolutions. And if I have in the past, I usually have not been that successful with them. Eating healthier, exercising - I've tried all the standards at one time or another. I'm lucky if I make it to February. So this year I decided to set a different goal.

Sometime in 2014, I'm going to start a book club. I've wanted to belong to a book club for years, but I've never had the opportunity. The ones hosted by the library always seem to be held in the middle of the day when I'm at school. And other than that, there are no nearby book clubs I'm aware of. So in 2014, I'm going to start my own.

Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated. I've already recruited a couple of people, but I'm hoping for more. Right now, my biggest question is where do the books come from? Do those of you in book clubs buy a copy of every book you read? If not, where do all the copies come from? And how do you create meaningful discussions? I'm afraid our book talk will peter out after five minutes. Do you follow discussion questions or just go free-form?

I guess I've got some work ahead of me to accomplish this resolution, but I'm determined to do so. Stay tuned for further developments. And I'll gladly take any tips from my beloved blogging community! Thanks for your help!

Comments

IntrovertedJen link

01/13/2014 9:50pm

I have a friend that I actually met through GoodReads. We decided to meet in person and then we decided to start a book club. The first few months we used discussion questions and those really were the best discussions we had. Now we talk about the book as much as we want, which is sometimes very little and sometimes quite a bit, and then catch up on what we've all been doing over the past month. We've settled into a group of about 5 at this point, which is a good number. Most of us get our books from the library so we try to choose a book that's not too new and that has multiple copies available. We take turns choosing our books so no one's feelings get hurt if they never get to choose. We've tied some of our reads into plays at our community theater and that was a lot of fun, to read it then see it on stage. My biggest advice is to sort of let it be whatever it wants to be! Others in our group talk about other clubs they've been in where they weren't really "allowed" to talk about anything other than the book and stuff like that. Our approach is just to have fun with it, enjoy the books and enjoy each other's company. Sheila at BookJourney posts pretty frequently about her book club and they do lots of fun things, so you might get in touch with her or search through her blog. Good luck!

Julie @ Smiling Shelves link

01/15/2014 9:24pm

Thanks for all the info, Jen! I'd really like to avoid everyone having to buy a copy of the book, so I'm glad to hear the library is a viable option. Seeing it as a play is a fun idea, too. It looks like our first book is going to be The Book Thief, so we'll have to watch the movie when it hits DVD. I guess I just have to remember to relax and let things happen. Thanks for your words of wisdom!

My Bookish New Year's Resolution

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