Anyone who loves reading books and has an outgoing personality should be able to start a book club. Book clubs are a fun way to meet new people, especially if it is a club that is not just with friends or coworkers.

I used to belong to a neighborhood book club. I met other neighbors that I had never met before. It was a pleasant social occasion. We rotated our monthly meetings at each other's homes and the hostess of that month was responsible for supplying the food and drinks. It was a good system. The rest of the members didn't have to think of a dish to bring, since they knew their turn would come.

However, the question to this article is how to start a book club in your neighborhood. I had some experience belonging to a neighborhood book club and there are things that I have learned from this that I can help you start your own.

If you just moved to a new neighborhood and you are an avid reader, join the neighborhood community. This way you will meet new people and among them will be people who like to read. As you get to know them better, you can start discussing books that you have read, thus enabling you to discover if they are as avid readers as you are. Once you have met quite a few of your neighbors who like to read, suggest starting a book club. As soon as you establish how many people you want to have in your book club, propose a date and a time when is convenient for everyone to meet. Then recommend a place. The place can be someone's house that you can interchange every month. Or it can be a nearby bookstore, or library, or coffee shop. Keep the time of the meeting short.

Since you are the one who started the book club, you will also become the moderator. You can suggest later on if anyone else would be interested to take over. Ascertain that every one has a chance to speak their thoughts about the book they read. Keep it short and simple. If it's a two hour book club and you have ten people in the group, then give everyone 10 minutes each - give or take a few - to discuss what they thought about the book. There are books that are controversial and can take the whole two hours to discuss them; and there are books that will never take that much time. In those occasions, when there is extra time, you can socialize with your neighbors and get to know them better.

In addition, use the extra time to discuss what other books the group would like to read. Maybe so far you have read all mystery novels. Some of the members might want to read a romance

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