I don't join book clubs because I would be the first person tossed out for not meeting the reading deadlines !!

I like to choose my own reading, thank you!

I like to "mix it up." Book club has introduced to some really good books (and interesting people) that I most likely would not have encountered on my own. When I was still working full time, I did feel an unease about not having the time to read enough of my own selections, but now that I'm retired, the mix works well for me. Occasionally, if I'm really not interested in trying one of the selected books, I skip that month's meeting. No problem.

My book group also chooses as it goes along. We take turns hosting and the hostess picks the book. We just finished A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles and next will be reading Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin.

Kathy, I agree, I have read a lot of books I'd never have picked up on my own because of my book group. There have been a few I haven't liked, but only one I didn't finish. I enjoyed Rules of Civility and have Commonwealth on my TBR pile and hope to get to it soon.

I've never joined a book club and don't think there are any in this area (not a very bookish place) My neighbour attends one in the next-door country/Principality of Wales. She told me a couple of years ago they read 'Fifty Shades of Grey' followed by all the sequels . . . I expected to hear the rattle of chains, groans and whip-lashing over the garden wall.

And did you, Vee?

Our local library has a Book Club but as it is held in the evenings, I don't go. The bus service is scarce then and I haven't been out at night for years!

Vee.......egads ! That sets the bar really low for book clubs selections . I believe it is what might be called insipid reading.

Yoyo, or perhaps inspiring?

LOL.... I fear I'm more of a "carry me up the staircase,...Frankly I don't give a damn" sort !!!

Vee - I bet you are thankful you have us to discuss books with!

Fifty shades of gray might apply to my book club's various hair styles, but we'd never select a book by that name.

Kathy, you are so right about RP and book discussions and recommendations.

yoyo, if some lucky lover was even able to carry me up the staircase he would probably get a hernia and be fit for nothing other than complete bed rest with me waiting on him . . . in the sense of providing meals, changing sheets etc nothing too strenuous.

I checked around for book clubs within my general area to see what was on offer and surprisingly several never mentioned the books they were reading, but I came across the one below which seemed to offer some interesting choices.

Cheltenham is an old 'Spa' town once much frequented in Victorian times by retired army officers. It has gone down hill in recent years but still has a clutch of good public (ie private) schools and a Literary Festival. Very much a town of two halves.

Cheltenham Book Club

Vee, I have been to Cheltenham and we mislaid our hire car there! There were so many streets leading from a main point that we got lost. Took us a while to find it! The gracious houses in each street we tried looked so similar.

My book club has 13 members, and we each choose one of the 13 books we will read over that many months. The 14th book is our book club trip book, and it is selected by the person who finds our author once we decide where we want to go that year. Our books for 2018:

January - Mayday - Nelson DeMille

February - Little Fires Everywhere - Celete Ng

March - A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles (my choice)

April - Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

May - Beneath a Scarlet Sky - Mark Sullivan

June - Born a Crime - Trevor Noah

July - Best Land Under Heaven - Michael Wallis

August - The Leavers - Lisa Ko

September - Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate

October - All the Ugly and Wonderful Things - Bryn Greenwood

November - Beartown - Frederick Backman

December - The Librarian of Auschwitz - Antonio Iturbe

January - Some Other Town - Elizabeth Collison

As you can see, our tastes vary greatly. There never fails to be a book I love that I might not otherwise have read, as well as I book I simply loathe and cannot push myself to finish. I find that my book club keep me from slipping into a comfortable groove. It works for me. Besides, the trips are always fun!

Rosefolly

It is interesting to go to a place where favourite books are set. I have been to Bath (Austen and Heyer) and Dublin for Irish authors. A couple of authors write mysteries based in my old home area in Sussex but they take geographical liberties to fit the plots at times!

Ann, I found I was put off the Agatha Raisin books because M C Beaton plays fast and lose with the geographical settings. She places them in the Cotswolds an area I know quite well, then claims AR drives to London within an hour . . . and parks right outside her office . . . too good to be true. A local author, Andrew Taylor, gets around this by setting his whodunits in our general area but merges the names of small local towns, areas of farmland, forest and rivers to create his own 'landscape'. A similar writer is 'Miss Read' who places her characters and her village school so as to be recognisable as in the Downland of Southern Oxfordshire/Berkshire, but doesn't go on to overdo the places/people she describes . . . nobody wants to be sued by an angry resident!

Agatha couldn't have been going through London at school pick-up time as it took us 45 minutes to get through one street!

We used to go to the Cotswolds for a weekend break at a Granada motel which allowed dogs but I am sure it took us more than an hour to get there from outside Central London. Well worth the effort though, such a pretty area.

I picked up a new paperback copy of Persuasion at a charity shop. A tie-in with a TV series, it has interesting extras including the cancelled chapter and her nephew's memoir.

Rosefolly, I love it that your book club schedules trips! What are some of the places you've gone and the authors you've met there?

Well......if we had destination book clubs I would probably read anything I had to in order to enjoy the trip!!

Me too, Yoyo!

I remember reading that the English author Rumer Godden (I think) who lived in a beautiful house in Rye (S E coast) was contacted by an American woman saying she would be in the area on such and such a day and could she possibly drop in as she was a great admirer of her work etc etc. On the appointed date the woman arrived plus all the members of her book club . . .

Lamb House Rye

how cheeky !

Good grief, that sounds incredibly rude! We don't do it that way at all. We have a designated club member who contacts a prospective author and explains that we would like to take him (or her) out to lunch or dinner at the local restaurant of the author's choice to talk about their writing. No surprises. If the author is not interested (which sometimes happens) we thank them and look for someone else.

We find it works best for us with authors who are not already famous. You would probably not have heard of any of the authors we've met. We have a good time, and often find that our authors are a great source of ideas about what to explore in their home towns. The New Orleans author spontaneously gave us a tour of his city. He's not the only one to do this. They have done the research; they know the place intimately; and they enjoy sharing their knowledge. We've gone to large cities and small towns. A secondary motive, for me at least, is to see as much of the country as possible. I've never been anywhere that was not well worth visiting, even places that did not sound intriguing to me at first. It's so easy to let your eyes glide over parts of the map that are not fashionable. In my opinion, you do yourself a disservice with that.

Ours is the only traveling book club I've ever heard of, though many authors are delighted to meet with book clubs in their area. Also our authors have told us that no other traveling book clubs have ever contacted them.

It makes a very enjoyable 'girlfriend' vacation as well. I value my book club highly. Even when I was thinking of moving, I planned to stay a member.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly, that sounds like an ideal book club. I suppose it would be possible to extend the idea to include trips to places where well-known but long-gone authors once lived, although the 'intimacy' of the visit might be lost. It would be interesting to see how many writers on this side of the Pond would welcome visitors as so many UK writers seem either reclusive and/or 'prickly' and need an agent to act as a barrier between them and their 'fans'.

...and since the word "fans" is a shortened version of " fanatics" I'm not so sure I'd open my door to a crowd of them either ! It can't end well.