I've been a member of three book clubs. One was very successful and two of them failed. The two died out because slowly and surely the members stopped attending. The main reason? They lost interest because of the books they were asked to read, a loss of respect and consideration of the members for one another. The two failed clubs met were held in libraries and were open to the general public. Each person chose two books to read and we all had to read them. The problem with this is that the tastes were quite varied and some of the books were about controversial topics or dry textbooks on finance or investing.

The third group was successful because it was smaller and started and run by a woman who asked the members to recommend books, and then let the group vote on the choices. It did help that these women had similar tastes and interests. It may have helped that the members were also all women, but I can't be sure of that. I loved the group and we had great fun, however, several of the members moved away and another couple of them dropped out due to health or job reasons. We still keep in touch and the group held together for about eight years, so I think that's a success.

We each recommended a fiction and a non-fiction title in January. A list of the titles was kept and we chose two each montt. We kept the selections short and light during the summer, gardening and vacation months and delved into deeper and heavier subjects in the winter. We each had our turn to present our opinions and interpretattions and the only real rule of the group was that we were not allowed to offer 'feedback' until each person had her say. We had a sort of relaxed rule of five minutes per person. Some of us took notes and after each member had a turn, we could have an open discussion. We kept the meeting to between one and two hours, depending upon how many members were present and how lively the discussion turned out to be.

Meetings were held in the same place on alternate Wednesday afternoons. This way people who missed a meeting weren't hopelessly left behind, but it wasn't so often that it became intrusive. The woman who started it and ran it was physically disabled and had in-home help, so she didn't have to worry about whether her house was clean or not, this took a lot of stress off of all of us! This would also work if we held the meetings in a neutral location, such as a library, local restaurant, pub or even a McDonald's if you choose the middle of a weekday and arrange it with the manager. Bookstores are also often amenable to hosting book clubs, especially those with a coffee shop attached.

The membership stayed at about ten people, which means there were always at least four present but not a big crowed if everyone showed up. Two people volunteered to bring a simple snack to each meeting. What's the fun of a club meeting without food?! It worked well that two members provided a snack because if only one could attend we didn't go hungry and the person who couldn't make the meeting wasn't stressed out about leaving us without a snack. Some members loved to bake and brought fresh goodies from their kitchen, some were busy and stopped and picked up a package of cookies or fresh fruit at the store. We kept it simple and respected each members' lifestyles and offerings. Hot coffee and tea was provided by the hostess. We usually sat around her dining room table, but sometimes would end up in the living room, it was very relaxed and flexible as far as 'rules' were concerned.

I highly recommend starting or joining a book club and hope my experiences help you have a successful experience!

Learn more about this author, Pat Merewether.
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