The Good: I’m starting a book club! It’s called, creatively enough, Contemporary Fiction Club (CFC to those in the know). At least for now anyhow…
The Bad: I’m floundering in impossible choices. A good book club is a lot of pressure!
What books should my fledgling book club read? My co-founder and I think focusing on contemporary fiction would be fun. But then, I’ve picked up some poor fiction choices lately. The book should obviously be well-written and discussion-worthy. Hopefully it will lure people of all kinds into thinking CFC is the best book club ever. I feel like this is an impossible decision, and important because I want everyone to come back. Any thoughts?
And then there’s the additional worry of how to handle the meetings. Should I have questions? Let people just talk?
All suggestions welcome. Also please note, despite the above pathetic ramblings, I’m actually hosting a lovely brilliant book club full of intelligent and fascinating discussion, so it would be the highlight of your literary life to come to our first meeting–Feb 2!
Print or come up with book questions, but don’t absolutely stick to them. Be willing to go off on a tangent about t.v. or someone’s day at work or whatever.
Have lots of snacks.
Read environmental books, like _Strange as This Weather Has Been_
Read _Cloud Atlas_, _White Teeth,_ anything by Richard Powers.
Invite writing teacher friends from Michigan to come to book club meetings.
if you get bored, read http://www.greenscales.org
hah, all are welcome. I actually made up a little blog for the club so people can also follow online. Beware what sort of food, or you’ll end up like those high-maintenance book clubs the NY Times wrote about