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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’ve never attended a book club.  My impressions (which may be completely wrong) are that book clubs tend to either read angsty books and then have angsty discussions about how they connect with the books, or read “literature” and then have literary discussions as described above.   Neither of those types of experiences interests me (although there may be other book clubs that offer something completely different, of which I am simply ignorant.)

This discussion has caused me to reflect on what type of book club would appeal to me.  The book club I’ve imagined, I would love to attend, but am doubtful it exists.  Does anyone know of a book club where:

Each member reads 2 books each month.  One would be a designated book (fiction or nonfiction) everyone read to anchor the theme, the other would be a tangential book that they would individually choose to provide insight and stimulate discussion during the book club.

So for example:

If the book club read A Tale of Two Cities, members might read about France, the French Revolution, Dickens, Paris, London, etc.

If the book club read a biography of George Washington, members might read about colonial America, plantations and/or slavery practices of the time, the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, how the role of president has evolved over time

Members could pick whatever individual book interested them, however niche, and in doing so would explore interests and perspectives that might not have ever occurred to the rest.

Does such a group exist?[/quote]

I'm one of the PPs who has been in two book clubs (with limited success).  This sounds like a GREAT idea for a book club.  I would definitely do this.

Where do you live?  :)[/quote]

That sounds like a great idea but a little daunting of it were assigned.

Often people in my book club explore a little more to bring something new to the conversation, but not always a whole book. For example for Pachinko last month one person ended up reading an article about the game, another talked about living in Korea, another had read a history of the Japanese occupation, and another happened to listen to a podcast or two interview with the author. All these extra bits added to the discussion, but they happened organically. Some months I might have time to do a deeper dive and some months I'm scrambling to finish the main book itself.

We meet in a public place (generally a library) but alternate who is hosting and the host generally brings questions to help guide the discussion if it gets slow. Sometimes we come up with our own questions and sometimes we pull from the Internet.[/quote]

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