We take turns
choosing a book, cycling through the alphabet by first names.
The person who chooses the book also hosts the dinner.
We're very
exclusive in the criteria we apply to books we choose.
Here are the rules:
-
fiction
-
paperback
-
less than 400
pages
-
still in print
...and if you
think everyone is going to hate your book, you'd better make a
really good dinner to compensate for it.
Who's Next
In order to
allow more time between hosting couples, we have modified the
order of the selectors.
Barb
Farrel
Cathy
Paul
Sally
Frank
Sheryl
Tara
Steve
Stephanie
"Are
you accepting new members?"
Basically,
no.
Read and Feed has
been very gratified at the response to our web
site. We love to hear from other book-lovers, and
we like establishing ties with other book clubs.
However, we're really just a small group of friends. We
meet in our homes. We are not affiliated with a
bookstore, library, or other public institution or gathering
place. For this reason, we don't solicit or accept
members from the general public. Every one of us has
come in as a friend of a friend, and we've invited those
friends because we know they're avid readers, willing to try
cooking for a group, and reliable (if they say a certain date
will work for them, they will show up).
Membership
Guidelines
In case you're
thinking of starting your own book club, the following
guidelines might be useful for you:
Size of
the Group
At times, our book
club has grown to as many as fourteen people. We
found that to be too many for comfortable conversation--the
group tended to fragment into multiple conversations, and the
introverts shut down entirely. Also, most of us didn't
own enough tableware to feed that many! At one point,
due to several moves out of state, the club went down to
six. That was too few for a really lively
discussion. We've found the optimum number to be about
ten.
Composition
of the Group
We try to keep a
gender balance--makes for more interesting conversation and
for more diversity in the selection of books.
It can be a
problem when co-workers are in the book club, because it's
always tempting to talk about work. We've learned this
from considerable personal experience, because we've always
tended to have co-workers in the group!
Character
of the Group
One of the most
important factors in the success of our book club has been the
group's dedication. If the group decides on a date, we
don't just blow off the meeting because something better came
along later--we all show up, every month. That's
how we've built a common frame of reference (of shared books)
over time.
Aside from
dependability, there haven't necessarily been a lot of common
attributes in our group. We've had some wildly different
personality types over the years, and that's what's made the
group interesting: the book club members aren't
necessarily like the people you hang around with normally.
Contact
with other Groups
We'd love to hear
how other book clubs operate. In fact, we love to hear
from other book clubs, and other book lovers in general!
Feel free to sign our guestbook, or send us an e-mail at bookclub@tablemtn.com.