Book groups

[Famous Mortimer]

I went to my first book group last night, having read "Station Eternity" by Mur Lafferty (documented in the sci-fi book thread). Our local library network encourages its branch managers to do book clubs on a subject they're interested in, and one of them loves sci-fi and fantasy. It was quite nice! I felt at home, and they've got some fun books coming up soon (one of Rothfuss's, and "The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy", which I've not read in a good decade). Weird getting used to being the oldest person at a thing - I mean, none of them were young, but I had five years on them at least.

Have you ever been in one? Organised one?

[13 schoolyards]

I and my co-author were special guests at one - extra special guests really, as we'd been double-booked and the other author was clearly the main event (but was very nice about it).

It was quite a large group, maybe thirty people, almost all older women who seemed to devour novels at a rapid rate but were very engaged and asked some good questions of us. It did kind of put me off the idea of actually joining one myself though, keeping up with everyone else's reading seemed a bit stressful unless you were someone who read a lot (more than I did).

[buttgammon]

Not quite the same but I've been in a few reading groups over the years where the object is to take a dense book and read it slowly together with lots of discussion in between. I used to go to an intimidatingly high-level academic one and then a really fun social one where I made a couple of friends.

[Inspector Norse]

Went to one once. The book was Catch-22. Several members of the group expressed disgust that a satire about American soldiers and their insane patriarchal environment would have so much misogynistic dialogue.

[Bad Ambassador]

Been in one for 13 years. One person left in a huff because no one liked The Unbearable Lightness of Being, someone complained that High Rise was bad because "it would never happen" and one insulted me to my face because I suggested a James Bond novel.

But also I was the only member of the group invited to the organiser's wedding, so there's that.

[Vodkafone]

I've been going to one for eighteen years although I've very recently switched to only going intermittently because I feel like I've said pretty much everything about books that could be construed as vaguely useful or interesting and I'm probably repeating myself by now.

They're nice people and there is beer involved. There is a democratic process for choosing the books and I've read some absolute belters that I wouldn't have otherwise read, but I'm going to focus on things I really want to read for a while cos I've only got time to read one book a month.

[RaspberrySwirl]

I'm in two, both online. One is run by my local indie bookshop and although I've not enjoyed everyone that's been chosen the conversation about them is always fascinating.
The second is run by a writer and avid book nerd. It's new so finding it's feet but he sometimes gets the writers or people with links to them (for older books) as guests so it's always interesting. I can sit in my pjs and eat crisps while also talking to other people who have towering to be read piles, what's not to like?

That said, I was in a Waterstones one a few years ago. The woman who ran it was lovely but too soft and there were a couple of strident older women who were right about everything and loved the sound of their own voices. Disagreeing with their take meant you weren't smart enough to truly understand the book apparently. I just stopped going.

[flotemysost]

Had an ill-fated one with some mates at work years ago, the premise being that every time we'd meet at a different pub/venue that was vaguely pertinent to the themes of the book. The first (and only) book we managed was Diamonds Are Forever; went for martinis at a poncey cocktail place and spent a few minutes talking about how staggeringly racist and sexist it was then just ended up chatting about other stuff.

I also have a pal who works with Element of Inclusion and they ran a book club that was meant to be in-person but kicked off in March 2020, and so had to swiftly shift online. I found nonfiction was (and still is, tbh) the only thing I could attempt to get my head around during that wretched period - much easier to skim-read, jump ahead, or go back and re-read if needed - so that was a nice breather from Zoom quizzes and sinking endless Beer52 tins on hours of video calls, even if I probably never had anything remotely coherent or useful to add to the discussions.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

That said, I was in a Waterstones one a few years ago. The woman who ran it was lovely but too soft and there were a couple of strident older women who were right about everything and loved the sound of their own voices. Disagreeing with their take meant you weren't smart enough to truly understand the book apparently. I just stopped going.

This sort of thing is what puts me off; the chance it could become a sort of intellectual dick-swinging contest

[Famous Mortimer]

I just went to one for a book I didn't like, and was a bit worried. Turns out everyone else thought it was shite too!

Next month's is "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy". I'm really looking forward to re-reading it.

[checkoutgirl]

What's the format? Is it like Brian what did you think? Oh that's interesting, Jemima you have your hand up you say something now. And everyone in a big circle or what?

[Famous Mortimer]

What's the format? Is it like Brian what did you think? Oh that's interesting, Jemima you have your hand up you say something now. And everyone in a big circle or what?

Ours is organised by the local library, so the manager will read out a bit from Wikipedia and then will have a few questions prepared to get things rolling. It's small enough that we don't need to have hands raised or owt like that. It's the first one I've ever done, so no idea if that's standard or not, though.

[Famous Mortimer]

I turned up to the sci-fi one last night to discover that, after about a year, I'm the longest-attending person there (including the host, who was switched out about six months ago). It was an odd experience - one woman turned up, asked to borrow a copy of the book then just started reading it from the beginning while the discussion was going on. One older attendee has mentioned she has a PhD approximately 20 times in the last three meetings, and also hates every choice as they're too modern.

I was mentioning this to a co-worker who said she's in three groups and is trying to "break up" with one, so evidently this is a tricky social interaction to navigate. I at least find something interesting about most choices for this group, and there are/were some good people attending, so I'll stick it out.

[bgmnts]

Tried to find one in my area but living in the arse end of nowhere it didn't materialise. It does seem like a genuinely cool thing to be a part of though, and I read an article the other week saying that book clubs are on the rise with the younger generation.

So that's nice innit?

[Famous Mortimer]

Tried to find one in my area but living in the arse end of nowhere it didn't materialise. It does seem like a genuinely cool thing to be a part of though, and I read an article the other week saying that book clubs are on the rise with the younger generation.

So that's nice innit?

Maybe you could put up a sign in your local library, or something. How "arse end of nowhere" are you? If anything, there are too many round here - at least three different monthly sci-fi ones, and dozens of others.

[bgmnts]

Don't think I got the bottle to start one myself tbh.

The one I tried to contact in the town closest to me is dead it seems, sadly.