Interesting ideas for book club? So far our choices have been booker prize type authors and novels

[Anonymous]

Is there another way to do this?

Choose an author and read various books. Or a period of time?

I’m new to this

[Anonymous]

Depends upon the interests of your club…
- Do people like to read “hot” books or classics or mix it up?
- Is there a strong preference for audio vs physical/eBook? [my group is heavy audio, so I check that my suggestions have good audio versions so people have a better experience]
- Are people ok to buy, or strongly prefer the library? [if library, check availability/don’t only focus on releases from last 12 months]
- How consistent are attendees? Are people able to commit to a 3-6 month theme or arc, or prefer to drop-in when they can?

I love the idea of smaller themes…there are so maybe you could choose!
- Nautical (Moby Dick, Endurance, A Marriage at Sea)
- Jaw-dropping NF
- Science-based NF
- Jane Austen vs Jane Eyre vs Jane Seymour (Haunted Queen) [or another 1800s famous Jane?]
- Evelina (Burney) vs Emma (Austen) vs Eloise (Quinn) vs Undine (Wharton)
- Tear-jerkers (would be interesting to have people nominate…the Correspondent? Hamnet? The Wave? Wild Dark Shore? Marley & Me?)
- Several set in the same country/location (Paris, Provence, British countryside, Moscow, Australia, Scandinavia, Mexico…)
- Booker / Pulitzer Prize second acts (work that follows a win)
- Book title that starts with the last letter of the last title you read (might be focused on a lot of vowels, but who knows?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends upon the interests of your club…
- Do people like to read “hot” books or classics or mix it up?
- Is there a strong preference for audio vs physical/eBook? [my group is heavy audio, so I check that my suggestions have good audio versions so people have a better experience]
- Are people ok to buy, or strongly prefer the library? [if library, check availability/don’t only focus on releases from last 12 months]
- How consistent are attendees? Are people able to commit to a 3-6 month theme or arc, or prefer to drop-in when they can?

I love the idea of smaller themes…there are so maybe you could choose!
- Nautical (Moby Dick, Endurance, A Marriage at Sea)
- Jaw-dropping NF
- Science-based NF
- Jane Austen vs Jane Eyre vs Jane Seymour (Haunted Queen) [or another 1800s famous Jane?]
- Evelina (Burney) vs Emma (Austen) vs Eloise (Quinn) vs Undine (Wharton)
- Tear-jerkers (would be interesting to have people nominate…the Correspondent? Hamnet? The Wave? Wild Dark Shore? Marley & Me?)
- Several set in the same country/location (Paris, Provence, British countryside, Moscow, Australia, Scandinavia, Mexico…)
- Booker / Pulitzer Prize second acts (work that follows a win)
- Book title that starts with the last letter of the last title you read (might be focused on a lot of vowels, but who knows?)

Great ideas, ty

[Anonymous]

Here’s a general discussion about book clubs that might have some useful ideas:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1140563.page

[Anonymous]

I think it's nice to have balance - something light and funny after something heavy and deep.

[Anonymous]

Are you asking for themes OP or just generally how book clubs choose what to read?

[Anonymous]

Our book club doesn’t have a theme. Either someone reads something and says hey, this would be a great book club book. Or someone hears of a good book and others say oh, I’ve been wanting to read that. We actually try to have two months of books lined up but we often forget to plan ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there another way to do this?

Choose an author and read various books. Or a period of time?

I’m new to this

We rotate who chooses what we read - when you host, you choose the book. Also, every June we pick a topic rather than a book (biographies, countries, mysteries, whatever), and then we as a group have a good summer reading list

[Anonymous]

Gavin Newsom just published a book, why not read some new controversial stuff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gavin Newsom just published a book, why not read some new controversial stuff?

I doubt that would be very controversial in most DC area book clubs. It you want controversy, Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy might be more provocative, but I don’t know if you could get anyone to read it.

[Anonymous]

We take turns choosing the book. We traditionally just names the book, but recently have been coming up with 3 choices for the others to provide input. I appreciate that, because there has been a couple of books that was really not interested in. Mostly I was fine with the selections, too. Sometimes I don’t weigh in on the options.

We don’t have a theme or a genre - I think it would be really limiting. We read all kinds of books - fiction, non-fiction, classics, contemporary - I’m sure we’ve read close to 100 books together at this point.

For me, the only thing I think about in terms of ‘criteria’ when it’s my turn to pick is whether it is likely to be fun or interesting to talk about. Two of us in my book club really enjoy Sherlock Holmes, but agree that they wouldn’t be good for book club because there’s not much to discuss. Books I never would have considered reading independently have provided great conversation.