Book Club

I attended a book club held a public library. It was composed entirely of women over 50 and facilitated by a staff member. They meet monthly, and I get the sense that attendance is pretty consistent. There are typically no refreshments served, but sometimes they have special events, like a holiday party. During one meeting, a member made a cake from a recipe that was featured in the book the group read.

The staff member has a list of prepared question; after the meeting, the facilitator told me that sometimes she writes the questions, and sometimes the questions are the standard "book club questions" that come in the back of book club editions or can be found online. She asks the questions and allows others to answer before she does. The titles are primarily selected by the facilitator, and they tend to be lighter, beach read fare, but sometimes she picks bestsellers if enough attendees are interested. I was told this book club was created to appeal to readers who didn't like the heavier fiction and nonfiction titles read in the other adult book club.

Not every attendee participates equally. There are a couple very strong personalities that tend to dominate conversation and make jokes that are not always well-receieved. The facilitator tries to mitigate some of that and is not always successful. She also tries to keep the conversation germane, though it often goes off the rails. I think that is perfectly acceptable, as this book club fulfills a primarily social need rather than a literary one.

Attendees are pretty vocal about whether they liked the book or not, and time is spent discussing character traits and motivations rather than author intention. A large part of the conversation is actually devoted to readers' advisory activities. The facilitator is a circulation manager, and seems to enjoy connecting the title read to other titles. She is very popular with the patrons she knows, and her suggestions carry a lot of weight. I think people primarily attend because of the facilitator and not necessarily because of any particular book being read.

It was interesting to compare this book club to the one I facilitate. I think we face the same issues as facilitators, and this provided insight into the reasons people join book clubs. Many do so for exposure to a variety of books, though they may not have much to say or facilitators can't always draw it out of them. For many more, reading is integrated into their social lives whether through shared interests with other readers or the act of talking about books with people they wouldn't otherwise spend time with.