I'm so excited because tomorrow I'll be going to my first book club meeting. Hooray! I've never had a book club before, so usually I turn to the internet to talk about books I've read and adored (or disliked...but let's focus on adored). I'll always turn online to get more opinions, but I'm really excited to have a whole group of people to talk books with.
This all started a few weeks ago at the English Society opening social. Amongst the English Society, you can break off into interest groups. They had a table of already-existing groups and blank sheets to start your own, if it could gather enough interest. I was looking around at the groups, and some of them were subjects such as Shakespeare, Poe, C.S. Lewis, poetry, all things that make you think of classics.
Now, I love Shakespeare and C.S. Lewis, and Poe and poetry are things I can enjoy, too. But that's the stuff I read and talk about in my classes. I spend homework analyzing all of that. If I was going to spend my free time in a club, I wanted it to be something I read outside of a class.
So, amongst the Shakespeares and poetry, I took a blank sheet and made the group, Young Adult. Bam. I'll admit, I was anxious people would just want to show off and be smart and not join my group, but they did. The initial interest sheet was filled, and there are probably at least 15 people still interested in it. I'm pretty happy with myself.
It's taken the English Society a while to get us all organized, but I met with a girl I'll be co-leading the group with today and I'm so excited for this. It's gonna be totally awesome!
Have you ever been in a book club? Ever start one? And, do you have any suggestions for what we should read this upcoming year?
Wow, good on you Jenna! I hope everything goes off swimmingly tomorrow for you and your Book Club. As a fellow Hunger Games fan, you know what I'd suggest right off the bat. :-) And how about the books you've reviewed for us that you found good? Or put it to a general suggestion/vote from the club members (this one might yield a lot of responses). I've never had the fortune to be in an actual Book Club myself; the closest I had in high school was Writer's Club - we did some informal book reviews here and there, nothing in depth. I am intrigued to see how your club will turn out, and please keep us updated on it!
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful! Good stuff. I too would suggest Hunger Games, especially since it will be a movie soon and you can make a Book Club outing to watch it.
ReplyDeleteAs a suggestion, you can discuss doing a genre round-robin. Young adult is so diverse and you could set up a schedule, going from dystopian to sci-fi (Enders Game, baby!), fantasy, steampunk, literary or americana. Try doing regions, something set in the northeast, southwest, historical - all these will provide you with a circuit reading schedule to keep everyone interested and on their toes enjoying the discussions. Also, many books have book discussion questions so keep an eye out for those.
talking books and stories and characters in person with others is unmatched in terms of quality of experience. i love blogging, but getting together as real people has no equal. congrats and enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThat's exciting -- I'm glad you made a point for YA and that others signed up. Like some of the others mentioned, The Hunger Games books are always amazing, and so is *Incarceron* by Catherine Fisher (its sequel is named *Sapphique*). I'd recommend those last two books for personal reading, too, if the group goes with something else. Good luck with your club!
ReplyDeleteI've never been to a book club. It sounds like your is off to a great start, though! :)
ReplyDeleteIn the vein of SF/Dystopian, I'd recommend Cherry Heaven by L. J. Adlington and Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill. Both are great books.