Since Oprah Winfrey began her televised book club program in the fall of 1996, interest in book clubs has soared, nearly doubling the number of such groups to an estimated 500,000 in existence in the United States.1 Bookstore-sponsored book clubs, online readers’ groups, and private groups are increasing the numbers and visibility of this centuries-old practice of meeting to talk about books. Libraries are a traditional venue for book discussion groups. For libraries that do not currently offer such a program, this is a great time to take advantage of the public’s curiosity about book clubs.

At the Library of Hattiesburg, Petal and Forrest County, the Book Club has been in existence for more than ten years. The original Book Club has grown from one small group (the first meeting had one person besides staff) to twenty members, plus a second book group at our branch library. Each book club meets monthly for one hour of informal discussion of books and reading. The Library provides copies of the books at no charge to participants, and library staff makes the book selections and leads the discussions.

Want to Get Started?

How do you start a library book club? Many print and online resources are available for ideas and suggestions. The Reading Group Handbook: Everything You Need To Know To Start Your Own Book Club, by Rachel W. Jacobsohn, is available in a revised edition covering everything from organizational details to reading suggestions. What To Read: The Essential Guide For Reading Group Members And Other Book Lovers, by Mickey Pearlman, is full of annotated books lists, which are very helpful for making club selections (as well as listing hundreds of books you’ll want to read yourself!). Reading Group Choices, an annual publication (on the web at www.readinggroupchoices.com), suggests books for reading groups and provides a summary, author biography and discussion questions for each title. Publisher web sites are another good source of reading club guides for specific titles. Mississippi libraries can also use the Magnolia Database, What Do I Read Next? when selecting book club titles.

Organizing a Club

How do other library book clubs operate? Book clubs can be conducted in different ways. Some designate group members to take turns as the leader for each meeting, assuming responsibility for selecting the book and directing the discussion. Other groups are led by library staff. The establishment of a reading group, or any new program at a library, involves decisions about what resources will be devoted towards the service, in terms of staff time, books, and supplies. For most libraries, staff time is the biggest expense of this or any other program. How much staff time a library book club requires varies according to how the club operates.

Select a Day and Time

Besides leader preparation and book selection, what needs to be considered in beginning a book club? Designating a regular day and time is essential in building a group. The time of day selected will be important in determining who participates in the group. A daytime group will appeal to retirees and others free during the weekdays. An evening group offers people who work during the day an opportunity to attend. A weekday lunchtime, or even a Saturday meeting, may draw some from both groups. Before establishing a time, consider publicizing the planned reading group and identify some of those interested in participating. Use library newsletters, bulletin boards, Web sites, press releases or bookmarks to let people know about the book club. Find out from the prospective members when is the most appealing time for meetings and use this information in decision making. Once the time is established, select a regular day, the last Monday of the month or the first Tuesday, etc. Stick to the schedule to avoid confusion among members. As with any other well-run meeting, book clubs should begin and end at the agreed- upon time. A one-hour meeting is common and gives a small to average-size group (around ten people) time for everyone to speak. As the discussion winds down, the leader may take a moment to introduce and distribute the following month’s book.

Leading the Discussion

If a staff member can lead the group, especially when it is new, there is the assurance that the leader will be present and prepared for the discussion. The use of a group member as leader may be necessary in some circumstances. In these situations, staff should certainly make sure that this individual has the resources needed to lead the discussion and is prepared for the responsibility of the program. An appropriate analogy might be the use of volunteers to lead story time. Most libraries use staff in this role, but also make use of members of the public. Few libraries would, however, turn the program over to an untrained person without preparation. Since the book club may be the most visible example of adult programming a library offers, the role of a prepared leader should not be minimized.

What are the responsibilities of leading the discussion? First, make it a discussion, not a presentation. The group leader should not do all the talking, but should assume responsibility for keeping the discussion going. Consider going around the group at the beginning, asking everyone present to introduce him/herself and give a brief "thumbs up or down" review of the book. This exercise assures that even the quietest member of the group will have a chance to express an opinion. Comments made during this portion of the meeting can also indicate which issues are of most interest to the readers. Have some biographical information on the author available in case members have questions. A sample of what reviewers thought of a work is often of interest to readers and can come in handy if conversation lags. Check to see if a reading group guide is available for the selected book. Publishers, recognizing this market for books, are even including guides for discussion in paperback editions of some titles. Have a list or examples of other works by the author for interested participants. Consider suggestions for similar works by other authors.

Discussion Etiquette

Other duties of a good leader include keeping the conversation on the book. Sometimes the discussion reminds a participant of another book, movie, experience, etc., which he or she may share with the group. Do not let a digression from the book become lengthy. If everyone present took the time to read the book and then come to the meeting, they expect to discuss the book assigned. Be prepared to (tactfully) make everyone stick to discussing the book!

Group leaders should also be prepared to tactfully handle other delicate situations. For example, there may be one member who dominates the group to the exclusion of others. The leader should take every opportunity to draw others into the discussion. Call on members who may not speak up on their own and ask what they think about other comments made. A good discussion leader will also be prepared to put an end to comments by a member who is talking too long. Every group will have both reticent and vocal members. The discussion leader needs to keep some kind of balance. Tip for leaders: if all else fails to elicit discussion on a book, ask members present to "cast the movie." It’s always interesting to see how readers view a character in their minds.

Occasionally, a book club may have a member who is not just vocal, but plain difficult. A club leader or facilitator should again use tact along with firmness to keep the discussion from being disrupted. Call on another member, or make a comment that brings the group focus back to the book and away from any individual group member. Remember that everyone present has invested time in reading the book and attending the meeting. The library has staff time and resources committed to the program as well. A good leader will not allow one person to give everyone else and the library a bad return on this investment.

What to Read

Selecting books for discussion is one of the most challenging responsibilities of running a book club. For libraries, ever conscious of budgets, several factors must be considered. First, if a book club is to meet at or be sponsored by the library, will copies of the selected book be provided at no charge to the participants? If the library will provide the copies, then the availability of a title in an inexpensive paperback edition is almost mandatory. For small groups, interlibrary loan may be a way to obtain enough copies for book club members. To minimize staff costs in preparing book club books, the books can simply be signed out manually, eliminating the need for processing books for one circulation.

Successful Book Selection

Besides price and availability, input from book club members should certainly influence book selection. Many people participate in book clubs to expand their reading interests and want to read books they might not try on their own. A good way to get ideas about your members' interests is to pass out lists of possible selections and survey the group. At the Library, the Book Club tends to favor contemporary fiction, with occasional non-fiction titles. At least once a year, members like to read "classic" works of fiction for a change of pace. Some of these selections have been more successful than others. For example, our library’s book club members loved My Antonia by Willa Cather but, with one or two exceptions, did not enjoy Middlemarch by George Eliot.

Successful book club selections have included such serious works of literature as Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Toni Morrison’s Beloved, along with something as light as Helen Fielding’s bestseller, Bridget Jones’s Diary. Look for books that may have slipped past your group’s attention. The highly praised non-fiction Longitude by Dava Sobel was a hit with the library’s reading group, most of whom observed that they would not have read the book outside Book Club.

Books with intense or controversial contents can produce meaningful and memorable discussions. Anna Quindlen’s One True Thing, which deals with a mother’s death from cancer and includes issues of euthanasia, family relationships and infidelity, was a very successful book club selection for the library’s group.

Scheduling Ahead

It can be helpful to schedule books for several months in advance, so that participants can read ahead. Having a schedule can also help book club leaders balance challenging, serious books with works of a contrasting style. Selecting titles a few months in advance is also helpful in obtaining necessary copies and preparing for the discussion. Sometimes, several books with a common theme can be read as a series. For example, a book club can devote a few months to Southern authors or mysteries, discussing the books individually, as well as comparing each to the other. Publicizing an advance list of selections is also a good way of recruiting members for the group. Use the selections to increase both the number and diversity of the group. The best discussions come from a group with a variety of opinions and perspectives. Building a group that is diverse in age, gender, and ethnicity requires a reading list reflective of that same diversity.

Allow for Flexibility

There is some advantage, though, in not planning too far ahead. Allow for some flexibility so that the club can also use the book or author that everyone is talking about. For example, if a Pulitzer Prize or National Book Award winner has recently been named, it might be a good time to schedule one of the author’s books. Movie tie-ins can generate renewed interest in an older book, and fans of the film could become new members of the book club. In order to maintain a degree of flexibility, the Library's Book Club list has never been set more than a few months in advance. Book club members want to talk about the authors, books, and literary trends being discussed in the media. In fact, when Stephen King’s The Green Mile was published in serial form, Book Club members were so interested in this work that everyone agreed to alter the schedule to allow for discussion of the monthly installments. The scheduled book was considered first, and the last quarter of the meeting was devoted to The Green Mile. Members found this to be a fun change of pace and enjoyed discussing, not only the work itself, but also the idea of serial publication of a book.

"Can't Miss" Picks

Based upon the experience of the Library’s two clubs, here are a few "can’t miss" selections:

All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg - a moving memoir of Bragg’s poverty-stricken childhood in Alabama and the devotion of his mother, which propelled him to his current life as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines - the largest gathering in the Library's Book Club history attended the intense discussion of the issues raised in this challenging book.

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson - a mystery, courtroom drama, history and a wonderful love story offer something for everyone.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - the Library's Book Club members found this work of science fiction powerful, touching and unforgettable.

Making It Special!

If it is possible to offer simple refreshments, food makes a nice addition to any meeting. Coffee and soft drinks, along with cookies or popcorn, is usually plenty. If food plays a role in a particular book, it can be fun to incorporate that into the refreshments. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg, for example, offers the perfect chance to change an enjoyable meeting into a memorable one. (Speaking from experience, all that is needed is an electric skillet, tomatoes, and some cornmeal!)

Special occasions for book clubs, where everyone brings refreshments, are also fun for members. For the Library’s group, the December meeting has become a chance to share book recommendations based upon a year of reading. Book Club members are encouraged to keep a reading list to bring to the December meeting and share with the club the best books read in the past year. (Keeping a log of books read is a lot of fun for book club members and just about any reader. Suggest it early on!) Everyone brings something good to eat and comes away with a list of reading suggestions from other book lovers, the best treat of all.

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References

1 Bryan, Carol. "Oprah, just look what you’ve done!" Library Imagination Paper, 21 no. 2 (Spring 1999): 4.