So, a couple years ago I found out about the Day Zero Project. Basically, it’s about making a list of 101 things you want to complete/achieve in 1001 days. Yea, no secret I was all over that one, huh? Me and my list obsession….
Anyhow, the list was a bit too ambitious and I only got about half way through it. But, one of the things on my list was to start a book club and on October 2012 we had our first book club. I started the book club with my sister and a few other girlfriends and next month will be our one year anniversary! You know that is going to be an epic book club meeting!!
Book club is about way more than just reading and reviewing a book. Book club has become a fun monthly ritual where us girls, who may not always get together outside of book club, get to enjoy a few hours of well, girl time! We mingle, catch up on our lives, drink some wine, eat some food, and of course discuss the book we just read. As a mother, it’s great to have some scheduled time to do something just for yourself and focus on you for a few hours.
For our book club meetings, my sister always prints our discussion questions with the cover of the book (it’s really cute!) Depending on the book, we may even make our dinner themed around the book we’re reviewing. For example, when we read “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” we had some yummy Chinese food and since the book “Now You See Her” was mostly based in Key West, you know we had some Jimmy Buffett inspired cuisine. Oh and I should also mention we had a field trip to the movies to see The Great Gatsby and we’ll be doing a fun 5K mud run. You know I am excited about that event!!!
If you’re interested in starting your own book club, here are a few things that I think have helped make our book club successful thus far!
- Be consistent – schedule your book club meetings at the same time each month. Ours are usually the last Thurs of the month, but sometimes we change it to Fridays, so being flexible is ok as long as everyone is available.
- Take Turns – we all take turns in selecting the books, as well as hosting. This allows us to expand our reading genres and get to know each other better.
- Have Rules – ok, we don’t have a lot of rules to our book club, just two 1. Choose a book you’ve never read before 2. No trilogies or series books. This way we aren’t obligated to only read those for the next few months or so.
- Send an evite – a few days after the last meeting, I’ll send an evite to everyone with a simple recap of our meeting, thank the hostess, and provide all the info for our next month’s book and meeting spot.
- Discussion Questions – these can be found easily online. I usually find them on http://www.litlovers.com/ or http://www.goodreads.com/ Having a set amount of predetermined questions helps move things along!
- Have Fun!
I’d love to hear if any of you are part of a book club and what you love about it? xo
It's a Messy Life 
I love reading but no one on my family is a fan so I made a FB group and now I have a virtual book club we are deciding our first book. I still wish someday to be on a real one!
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Jazbeth, I love that you made your virtual book club. It’s a start and such a smart idea. I’m excited to hear which book you choose. Kudos to you and finding a creative way to make things happen! xo
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My book club, The Sisterhood of the Time Traveler’s Pants (our official name), has been going strong since 2009. I love it!!! We’ve read some great book and some real duds. Our rules/guidelines are similar to the ones you posted. Most of all, we try to have fun. We don’t care if you’ve really read the book or not…you’d be amazed that you can still contribute meaningfully to the conversation without having read the book. We do require you drink…a lot! Just kidding (sort of!).
One fun thing we do is instead of reading a book for December (who has time!?), we do a book exchange party. Of course, it can’t be a book club book, but it doesn’t have to be new. I think people’s personal reading habits/likes really comes out for that.
Happy reading!
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Love the book club name & that it’s been going for years! That’s awesome. We tried to come up with one, but nothing stuck! Maybe we can figure one out for our 1 year anniversary. Love the book exchange idea, very fun! ps. What’s book club without some drinks? xo
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I miss my book club. Several members moved away and it was difficult to find the time to meet up. I love to read. The one we chose was The Help. After we read it our meeting was getting together to watch the movie. It was a fun way to hang out but still talk about the book.
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Oh yea reading the book then watching the movie is a great idea! It’s true finding the times for everyone’s schedule can be tough, we’ve had to move some dates around but we make it work most months. You should try to get your book club up & reading again, even if it’s just 2 of you! xo
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Good tips! I very much want to be a part of a book club. I haven’t found the right one yet (meeting time and books/genres I like to read). Maybe with your tips I’ll start my own!
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Anonymous Blonde, you should totally just start your own book club on your own terms! This way, it will be perfect for you 😉 xo
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