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Originally Posted by BlessedOne04
Does anyone belong to a book club?? My friends and I are starting one and we need ideas. Our first meeting is coming up and I need help coming up with activities (besides eating) and how to choose the books we read. Thanks and look foward to your ideas!
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Long details ahead:
My friends/colleagues and I have an awesome bookclub. Each member hosts a book club gathering. That member decides which book will be read, where the gathering will be held (usually at her house), what will be eaten, and if there will be additional activities. The book the host chooses can be as intense or as light hearted as the host wants it to be. Some book clubs can handle big topics and huge discussions--mine can--whereas some book clubs fall apart at the mere thought of a "controversial topic" and possible disagreement amongst them. You have to know your friends who are a part of your bookclub.
Some books have summaries and discussion items in the back but most do not. In fact, the best books tend not to have summaries and discussion items. LOL. Also, not everyone in the bookclub will read every book. Sometimes, people will only read when they are the one hosting the gathering. That is fine. We tell people that it does not matter if they did not read or finish reading the book. Just do not ruin it for those who did read...we will lovingly tell you to shut up if necessary.
My book club also does gift exchanges during the holidays and small Kwanzaa and other holiday/spiritual gatherings as part of regular book club meetings. Those of us who drink sometimes enjoy some libations during book club meetings if they are on a Saturday evening.
The first thing that my bookclub did was determine what bonded them (I am the newest member to the group) and made them create a bookclub. For starters, we are women of the African Diaspora (occasionally non-African Diasporic women come to a gathering) who have a whole lot of fun together, most of us are colleagues, we love to get into heated debates with each other (and anyone else), and we have similar (not the same) spiritual beliefs, and share exercise and eating habits. In other words, we have a lot of things in common but we are different enough to spark the heated debates.
I hate ice breakers regardless of what type of event it is. I hate them with a passion. I also hate party games regardless of what type of event it is.
Since you are friends, I recommend sparing yourselves the ice breakers and party games unless they come "naturally" to your group. A wine tasting is just a fun activity for those who love wine, I would not bore it by calling it an "ice breaker" (
). My group bonds through jokes, talking, and music. We typically only have a structure to our gatherings when it is time to discuss the books--unless we are celebrating a holiday together or something to that effect. The main point is to keep the book club fun and easy going. Do not bore each other. Even when we get into a heated debate during a gathering, we end with jokes and getting a second plate of a deliciously healthy dish.
[BTW, we invite our spouses and significant others to bookclub gatherings but most of the men refuse to partake in something in which they are outnumbered. If only women could opt out when we are outnumbered by men.
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