How does your book club work?

[Anonymous]

I'm in two book clubs that ate run a little different and I'm curious how your clubs work.

One has a different host each month and the host selects the book and leads the discussion.

One has two co-leaders that always lead the discussion but the host and meeting frequency changes and the whole group votes on which book to read next.

Most people that attend have read the book and we have good discussion but I prefer one to the other.

[Anonymous]

I'm in two as well. We rotate hosting duties - I do both in December, and we vote to pick out the book. Bonus points for me when I can talk them into reading the same book the same month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in two as well. We rotate hosting duties - I do both in December, and we vote to pick out the book. Bonus points for me when I can talk them into reading the same book the same month.

I forgot - we all ALWAYS read the book. Otherwise, I would not participate.

[Anonymous]

I was in two book clubs, one at work (tv industry) that I dropped out of because I never liked their book choices which were imposed by the chairperson of the club

Another was with some moms that I organized, but I quickly discovered that on a few of them really wanted to talk about the books while the rest wanted to drink and gossip, which was tedious. So I stopped offering to host and that one died.

not a lot of success here!

[Anonymous]

Online. It's much better. Most are not based in DC area though. Less drama of hosting in-person (what should I serve, wear, is house clean enough? Etc.). Every two months. Read. Interesting books. Most members are/were in academia, research and a few witty lawyers. Some were part time stay at home moms. Others worked full time outside while raising kids. Don't get into details of who is doing what as far as raising kids unless it was related to the book. Last 10-15 min or so is for connecting on topics unrelated to book. Choosing the next book done by survey and via email instead of taking precious online time. Most have a drink usually tea or coffee. A couple of members drink wine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Online. It's much better. Most are not based in DC area though. Less drama of hosting in-person (what should I serve, wear, is house clean enough? Etc.). Every two months. Read. Interesting books. Most members are/were in academia, research and a few witty lawyers. Some were part time stay at home moms. Others worked full time outside while raising kids. Don't get into details of who is doing what as far as raising kids unless it was related to the book. Last 10-15 min or so is for connecting on topics unrelated to book. Choosing the next book done by survey and via email instead of taking precious online time. Most have a drink usually tea or coffee. A couple of members drink wine.

This sounds great - how did you find a group?

[Anonymous]

My mother is in a book club that's kind of different (I think?).
There is 12 women who live in the same area, and each woman pick a book at the beginning of the year.
The chairwoman makes a list of the women and the books.
Then each woman hand over her book of choice to the next woman on the list (usually by putting it in their mailbox/letterbox).
Read the book.
Repeat every month, until each woman get her own book back!
Usually they have one meeting at the end of the year, to talk about all the books and just mingle. Their book club is mostly about getting to read new books, not so much about the discussion. The book club has been active for over 30 years!

[Anonymous]

One has two co-leaders that always lead the discussion but the host and meeting frequency changes and the whole group votes on which book to read next.

Ours is more similar to this, except that we meet in a meeting room at a fast casual place. We are in the suburbs though, and the room is given to us free of charge as long as we order some food and drinks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mother is in a book club that's kind of different (I think?).
There is 12 women who live in the same area, and each woman pick a book at the beginning of the year.
The chairwoman makes a list of the women and the books.
Then each woman hand over her book of choice to the next woman on the list (usually by putting it in their mailbox/letterbox).
Read the book.
Repeat every month, until each woman get her own book back!
Usually they have one meeting at the end of the year, to talk about all the books and just mingle. Their book club is mostly about getting to read new books, not so much about the discussion. The book club has been active for over 30 years!

30 years is amazing!
I think I'd miss the conversations, though. It would be hard to remember details enough to have a good discussion up to 12 months later.

[Anonymous]

I'm in two groups; both made up of women who love to read and always read the book. One group delegates book choice to the host; the other chooses books by consensus. I thoroughly enjoy both groups and consider the group members some of my dearest friends. That said, choosing books by consensus takes a lot of time and sometimes results in lowest-common-denominator choices.

[Anonymous]

I'm in four.

1. Run by two woman who take turns facilitating. We meet by zoom.

2. Run by one woman who facilitates. We have a group chat on instagram.

3. Organized by one woman, but we all just chat as we read. We have a Discord.

4. Run by one woman, we chat on a schedule (chapters 1-4 on this day, chapters 5-8 on another day). We have a Discord.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in four.

1. Run by two woman who take turns facilitating. We meet by zoom.

2. Run by one woman who facilitates. We have a group chat on instagram.

3. Organized by one woman, but we all just chat as we read. We have a Discord.

4. Run by one woman, we chat on a schedule (chapters 1-4 on this day, chapters 5-8 on another day). We have a Discord.

I’m envious. I’d love to be in even one!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in four.

1. Run by two woman who take turns facilitating. We meet by zoom.

2. Run by one woman who facilitates. We have a group chat on instagram.

3. Organized by one woman, but we all just chat as we read. We have a Discord.

4. Run by one woman, we chat on a schedule (chapters 1-4 on this day, chapters 5-8 on another day). We have a Discord.

I should add that groups 1, 3, and 4 were formed as projects. Group 1 is reading a certain author's entire catalogue. It's something like 50 books. Groups 3 and 4 are reading long series. Everyone in those groups joined because of the project. We all knew going into it what we were reading and when.

Group 3 is the only one where we don't know way in advance what we're going to read. The leader picks the books. Sometimes she presents a few options and we vote. Right now, we're reading through years, so a book published in 2000, then 2001, etc.

[Anonymous]

I'm in two groups. One group is organized on Facebook and we vote on the books we'd like to read, usually a few months in advance to give people time to read a longer book, like The Covenant of Water. Someone volunteers to host but if no one does, we meet in a coffee shop.
The other allows the host to choose the book.
I like the Facebook voting, even though I don't always like the book we end up reading. It's the discussion that counts, and sometimes the most disappointing books can provoke the most interesting discussions. A friend of mine launched an online book group, but I can't handle three groups!

[Anonymous]

I'm in one that meets in person monthly. Whoever volunteers to host picks the book. Some members are more serious readers than others so the book picks are a mix of longer books and lighter reads. Some months we don't talk about the books as much as other months but it evens out. I like that it forces me to take a chance on books I wouldn't otherwise read.