I just read this blog post over on book riot (skip to end to see link), called The Any Book Book Club. Its premise is that a group of readers get together once a month and instead of talking about the same book that they’ve all dutifully read, they talk about any book they’ve read recently.
This is such a fantastic idea! As an avid reader and (former) librarian, I can’t believe I haven’t thought of this before. The biggest drawback to traditional book clubs is the difficulty in finding a book that 10, 15, 20 people are going to like and be able to discuss. Just about impossible. This was the biggest barrier to my joining one and the individuals I know who have tried book clubs dropped out because of the book choices. Who the heck has time to read a “duty” book and still read the books that you are actually interested in?! I had enough homework when I was in school, thanks very much.
In the Any Book Book Club, the group maintains the passion with which most readers discuss their books and members can take notes on other books that sound interesting, still expanding their horizons. Far from being a difficult format to conduct conversation, I think it flows better than in a traditional book club because members are passionate and the conversation can flow in invariable directions. Much less of a question and answer format. This certainly sounds more intriguing than ‘that other way’, which reminds me a lot of university seminars, TAs and awkward silences.
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– Here is the link to book riot’s post, by Dana Staves: http://bookriot.com/2015/03/04/book-book-club/
