I can't as I don't belong to one, would probably never enjoy the 'choices' of book and don't like cheap wine that seems to be the tipple of choice (in the UK) at such get-togethers.

Okay, so might we say that the first good thing about them is that they are optional!

LOL, Bon! I don't belong to one, either. I have a strong streak of stubbornness that makes me dig my heels in and refuse to go along with what "everybody" likes, so my guess is that book club picks would bring that out. (For instance, the more my sister in law insists that I HAVE to read Harry Potter, I'll LOVE it, the less likely I am to do it.)

Donna

Okay , so if we were to join a BC, the second good thing about them might be that they would have no accountability and wouldn't involve HAVING to read the book. It gives you a good opportunity to practice your bluffing skills !

And as Vee pointed out, the third good thing about them is that wine is served, which would dampen the boredom factor !

yoyo, I think I mentioned some time ago that there was a book club held in our local library. They didn't bother to choose a book to read and spent most of the time bad-mouthing the 'members' who were not present. Also they locked themselves in to the building being nervous about the undesirables that might be lurking outside.

I think I would have needed something stronger than wine to see me through those evenings.

And Donna I have never read any Harry Potter either . . . despite J K Rowling having grown up just down the road and my two older children attending the same High School, though after she had left.

Joined one at my local library and then promptly stopped attending after the second book.

1) I didn't care much of their choices. I have a rather strong preference for certain types of books (mysteries/thrillers, etc.) that seldom are included on the reading list.

2) the meetings were held at the library in one of their conference rooms so no refreshments of any kind :-(

3) there was one self-elected ringleader of the group who was especially obnoxious. She dominated the conversation and no opinion other than hers was considered to have any value. And she wasn't all that astute to begin with!!

btw, I really enjoyed all the Harry Potter books. Not usually my cup of tea either but very entertaining story telling.

So.....the fourth good thing about a BC is the bittersweet character development that comes with having to listen to some vainglorious soul take the group discussion on a wandering journey of overblown rhetoric. I refer to this as oratorial hijacking !

I have to say that I have no desire whatsoever to be in a BC.......unless it was in my living room, attended by all my closests and dearests with whom I can be brutally, hilarously frank and unfiltered ! We once passed the book Bossy Pants among our little group and everyone eventually read it....all the while writing notes in the margins with our unfiltered remarks as we went along. At the end we gave it back to the original reader to enjoy our additions!

I have always regarded being here as being in a Book Club! When my husband died, I needed someone to discuss the book I was reading and found this place. It is ideal for dropping in to, wine allowed, of course, also cups of tea, biscuits and chocolates on hand sometimes.

I tried a Harry Potter book and disliked the sadistic elements, so that was that.

I've been in the same book club for about 30 years! I've always enjoyed it. Ours is a small group, never more than twelve, so we each take a turn at hosting our monthly meeting. The host chooses the book for the next month's discussion.

Refreshments are not "cheap wine". It's whatever the hostess chooses to offer, though we are all good cooks and like to show off a bit :-) Personally I love having others to cook for as it's just me at home Monday to Friday. We had one lady who was very busy and she just did simple finger sandwiches and bought cookies. No one cared, it was the company we were really there for.

While there were a very few books I really didn't care for (maybe three or four in the thirty years), a lot of books weren't books I would have chosen, looked at askance when I received them and end3d up thoroughly enjoying. So it's definitely broadened my scope.

I do admit we're not the most intellectual group. We do discuss the book, going around the group so that each member has a turn to offer her opinion, ask questions that may have been puzzling her and some even read out literary critiques found online, but sooner or later the discussion morphs into small town chat; we are, after all, living in a small country town.

Being in this group has offered me a unique opportunity to ease into the social fabric of this small town. Originally my husband was transferred here due to his job. Traditionally those in his position have been fairly transient, only staying three to five years (we've worked the system to remain here while his job has been moved around to nearby towns he could commute to) and people in our position don't generally have friends in the more settled, permanent population, I think because subconsciously the attitude is "why go to the trouble of making friends with people who aren't staying?". Most of the members of our group are permanent residents, farmers' wives who recruited the occasional teacher when old members left the group and new members were needed to keep the numbers to twelve. (Many farmers marry the teachers who come to town :-) .) I was the crosswalk lady who was notorious for having a book to read in my uniform pocket, for the long periods of time when nothing was happening. One of the teachers, who was a book club member, asked me to join as I was clearly a reader. She is long gone, transferred out, but some of the ladies still in the group were there before me and we've had a lot of other ladies pass through, and I've enjoyed my friendships with all of them. One former member also recruited me to join the Sweet Adelines, which I enjoyed for over 20 years.

I love my book club!

Colleen, it sounds like you have a very well-adjusted book club. :)

Donna

colleen, yours sounds like the kind of book club I would enjoy!! Wish I could find one like that in my area.

Okay,,,,,,

This is a portion of the group I would hope to inspire to " read and discuss " :

( our day of rented bikes, tattoo sleeves and being bad biker chicks ! We do amuse ourselves greatly !)

Gardengal, start your own :-) I think it's the small size of our group that makes it work so well. (We also occasionally go out to dinner somewhere or a pertinent movie instead of a book club meeting.) Pick a few like minded reading friends and ask them to pick one or two similarly like minded friends and get together.

We have a diary that we record each month the date, what the book was and who chose it to assist in picking new books; we also have a list of suggested genres so they're not all "chick lit" and at the end of each year we all let the organised one who does up the annual roster know what months we'd prefer if we're hosting and which ones we won't be available (we're mostly now at the age when we are free to travel if we want to) so that at the beginning of the year she emails the roster out so we know who, where and when :-)

One of our members moved down to the city but wanted to stay in the group and when it's her turn to host we all go down to her place for lunch (her idea).

Generally we have January off so someone won't be hosting in any given year. January is our summer and lots of us go away for summer holidays but you wouldn't have to do that, or maybe July would suit better.

LOL!! Starting my own could prove difficult :-) I am a bit ashamed to admit that I do not have a large circle of friends - never have. And of the friends I do have, few are readers. My BFF is a reader and she and I have traded books and reading recommendations for years and share similar tastes. But she lives a significant distance away and still works 9-5 so that complicates things. Locally, my sister reads and she is a member of several bookclubs but there is a limit to how much social interaction I feel comfortable with with her :-) Even though we are both in our "golden years", I am still the baby sister and tend to get treated and lectured as though I was still 10 years old!! I do enjoy her company but in small doses!

Since relocating a couple of years ago, I have a new library I frequent often and will continue to look there and at local bookstores for an existing club I could join that fits my parameters :-)

Well, you could put a note up on the Library noticeboard :-)

Some of use were working 9 - 5 (I was until recently) but we meet in the evening so it's when we are free.

Colleen, I throughly enjoyed reading about your experiences. Until I got to your post I was beginning to think I was the only one happy in a book club.

Friends, I belong to an excellent book club. People often ask to join it when they hear what we do but we keep the membership to a dozen. We go on annual trips together, though I have to miss my trip this year due to my husband's upcoming surgery. We have good light refreshments and quite decent mid-level wine. This is after all California, where wineries abound. In fact there are two just a mile or so up the hill from my house. We each pick one of the books every year so we all get a voice in the selections. Everyone gets a chance to speak about the book more-or-less uninterrupted, then we all vote to rate the book. None of the members are my very closest friends, but I like them all very much and enjoy spending time in their company. I'm trying to remember how long I've belonged. It's something between 15 and 20 years now.

If you don't like the book clubs you've tried or observed, it may be because you don't like joining groups. Some people don't, and that is fine. But it is also possible that they are just not the right book club for you.

Rosefolly

Colleen, where do you go on the trips ?

I'm like Colleen and Rosefolly in that I really enjoy my book club. Mine works just like Rosefolly's, except we don't do wine and we don't travel. (Although I have a short excursion idea up my sleeve and others have expressed interest since I told them about Rosefolly's club.)

I admit that I sometimes need to "stretch" a little to remain open-minded about reading books I would not choose for myself. But sometimes I end up liking a book that did not appeal to me. And even for books I didn't like, I almost always gain some appreciation for why others liked it.

Our host-of-the-month often serves a treat that has some connection with the book. For example, when we read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I made an assortment of half-sandwiches (ham salad, chicken salad, and pimiento cheese - all from the grocery store deli counter) and with a small round cookie cutter, I cut a bite out of each sandwich. This was to represent the unfinished sandwiches that the author claimed she dug out of school cafeteria trash cans when she had no lunch of her own.

My best effort was when we read Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.

That's so cute, kathy_t! Yoyobon, sorry, I wasn't clearer, we don't go on trips together, but as summer here is down time after harvesting, that's when farming folks tend to take their holidays, so many of the ladies go away with their husbands/families on independent vacations. Rosefolly'd group seems to go on trips together though.

Kathy.....adorable !! Love the idea of a theme.

I have acted as social director for our little group of women for a loooong time . We convene at my home every other Thursday afternoon throughout the winter months ( Oct- April) ostensibly to knit and chat During the other months I arrange "adventures" for us which have included ; traveling near and far kayaking, hiking with llamas, renting bikes and riding lake trails, hiking various state parks with gorges and waterfalls, touring local historical mansions with guides, an evening with a local psychic, tubing on a local waterway, taking a zentangle class, riding a gravity mountain coaster at a local ski area ( scarey !!), blowing glass at Corning Glassworks, day cruises on the Finger Lakes, visiting the new baby giraffe who made international news last year,,,,,,,,,and much more. Each adventure is chronicled ( by me) with photos and story pages to recount some of the hilarity of the trip and they are each given the pages as a memory.

If these ladies all enjoyed reading it would be a perfect adjunct to it all to be able to discuss books ! I do interject my latest good book into our conversations, and loan out some of my favorites but for the most part the group seems too busy and involved with life to be able to commit to a book a month !

Yoyobon - That sounds like a wonderful group of friends, and they are lucky to have you to organize the adventures. You don't need a book club. (You have us, after all.)

Kathy.....you are right ! This forum is the one of the best places for ideas and discussions . I really appreciate getting input from readers who share similar interests in books.

I'll second/third that. It is my only place for swapping reading ideas and recommendations plus I really enjoy all the OT subjects that are batted about.

yoyo are you one of those biker girls in the photo above? I wouldn't want to mess with any of them on a dark night . . . as the saying goes over here. ;-)

yes.....what a riot. I am in the red helmet. The funny part about it is that we are all "of an age" and hadn't been on a bike for many, many years ! But we rocked our attitudes !

As for bike riding at a certain age, I have actually lost the skill. They say you never forget, but I am living proof that some people do. However my DH Tom who turns 80 on his next birthday is still a vigorous rider. Most years for his solo vacation does a bike tour. My solo vacation is my book club trip, and we also take a vacation together as well as visit family. There are several men around his age in his bike club and as you can imagine most of them are in amazingly good health. However this year we have had to cancel any biking or hiking vacations. Tom needs shoulder surgery and it takes time to recover.

I just wanted to say that if I ever move from California to Yoyobon's neck of the woods, I will throw out completely unsubtle hints about being invited to join her group. Bikes aside, they sound like women I'd very much like to spend time with. Yoyobon, you are warned!

Rosefolly

And Rosefolly you are welcome !

And here we are visiting April the giraffe whose baby's birth last March was watched around the world ! It was one of our adventures....and that's me feeding April a carrot !

Enjoyed the photos yoyo. I presume in the 'biker' pic the finger-gestures are of the group indicating how many lumps of sugar they take in their tea.

Actually that's not giving THE "finger" , but a sign that hard rockers make with TWO fingers. Egads ! We're bad, but not THAT bad !

Great pictures, Yoyobon!

Like Colleen, Rosefolly and Kathy, I really love my book groups -- both this one here and the one IRL.

I joined my BFF's book group about 6 years ago. The book group had been in existence for almost 20 years (most of the members had met when their kids were in pre-school). As the "new kid" I was made to feel very welcome and now I feel like I've known these women forever. We are a small group, just six of us, and one member has moved away but makes an effort to FaceTime in for our meetings. We each take turns hosting and the host chooses the book.

Over the years the books chosen have not all been my cup of tea :) so (good thing) the group has definitely stretched my reading muscles. There are always a few duds, but overall I've enjoyed most of what's been chosen, and often come to appreciate even the books I didn't like so much once we get into the discussion. It's nice to have an expanded social circle, as well.

Kathy, that watermelon is brilliant! I wish we'd thought of something like that when we read The Boys in the Boat! Occasionally, one of us will try to match food with the theme of the book, but yours is above and beyond.

Yoyo, great pictures!

Here in flat, low-country Charleston, SC getting around by bike is a way of life. I bought mine as soon as I relocated here 7 years ago and ride it to the College library, to do errands, and just out along the scenic rivers and around the lake. Many folks commute to their office jobs via bicycle here.

I tried 2 different book groups. The first one met in the evening and was taken over by the hostess who also ran a book store. She served wine and the discussions really wandered off topic. The other book group was in my building and the books chosen and/or discussed I found just plain boring. This on-line group I find most satisfying of all.

I'm just home from a trip to Charleston, where I met woodnymph for lunch at a great French restaurant of her choosing. The weather was so pleasant that we were able to eat outside. I came home to snow flurries and night temps below freezing. Bah, humbug!

Carolyn, you are obviously RP's roving ambassador! I remember some years ago you visited London and spent time with Martin and Anyanka.

Eating outside is seldom and option over here!

Carolyn.....I share your misery. Snow on the ground this morning. But the warmup begins tomorrow when Spring will finally have the courage to arrive ! I've always wanted to visit Charleston......lucky you !

Yoyo, I live right in downtown Charleston. Let me know if you are planning to visit and maybe we could meet.

Thank you for that kind offer ...I would surely keep it in mind should I ever plan that trip .

I am reading a non-fiction book for my upcoming book club trip that reminded me of Yoyobon's circle of friends. It is called The Drummond Girls and the author is Mardi Jo Link. A group of women friends in northern Michigan go off to Drummond Island for an October weekend every year for a couple of decades. There is a lot of drinking and craziness going on (and I'm not implying that for Yoyobon's friends) but mostly it is about friendship between women and the strength it brings to their lives.

Rosefolly ......well the craziness would sure fit for my group though we hardly tipple. Our senses of humor seem to sync so that when we get on a roll we really have some great laughs. During one nasty snowstorm one of the girls was getting ready to drive up for our get together and her husband asked : " What do you all DO at these that you'd risk life and limb to get there !!?" LOL. They each hate to miss our "every other week" afternoons during the winter season. And our motto is : " If you're not here we'll talk about you ! " ( all in good fun :0))

The only book club I've been involved with was one a friend belonged to. She mentioned to me that everyone had to choose a book for the club to read and she was drawing a blank. I suggested Kristen Lavransdatter and was invited to the meeting where it was discussed. Everyone pretty much hated it and that finished book clubs for me. (Those of you who know how I feel about that novel will understand.)

Lacey, I remember well our wonderful book discussion here about KL. I doubt I would have ever read it were it not for your suggestion, and I would have missed a great trilogy.

Oh my gosh - I LOVE those cupcakes!
I can't believe how accurate those book covers look.

Those cupcakes are great. Someone gave my sister a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of books for Christmas, and it was fun helping a little working it. The final picture was of classics row upon row but not exactly in line. It was surprisingly hard to work, but the titles and authors when you could figure them out were good aids as was the box cover, of course.

I would LOVE to find cupcakes like those for the next book club meeting I host!

I'd guess the books are made with marzipan and could be put on top of any good cupcake. The best part of them is the covers which are probably made by printing a sheet of dollhouse-sized miniature book cover images onto fondant paper.

Beyond my skill set. If I find some for sale I would buy them, but I'm not going to tackle it on my own.