My Book Club Advice

Not that anyone really asked, but our book club has been going great since 2004, and so I'll share what we do.

1. It is bimonthly.

This I think is the only reason it is still going. No one has time to get and read a book every month and if you know the book club is happening again in 4 weeks you're less motivated to make it this week.

2. It is co-ed

We have a few individuals who are single and a few couples of which only one of the couple is in the book club, but usually both spouses are in the club. I think that helps, everyone enjoys seeing each other and you can encourage each other to finish the book.

3. It has parameters for the date

If we know that it's always going to be on a Tuesday or Thursday and on the third or fourth week of the month, we can start planning accordingly. When we meet in December we already know if we have any trips, etc. planned in February and can let the host know.

4. We rotate hosts, and the whomever is hosting picks the book

Everyone gets a chance to host and everyone gets a chance to pick.

5. It is pretty small.

I think there are 12 of us. Before we invite someone new in we have to check with the group, and we really only invite new people when/if old people drop out (which has only happened a few times, one couple moved away and one other person stopped coming when she made partner at her law firm).

6. It is potluck

The host provides pizza or some other vegetarian entree, everyone else brings something else (appetizer, salad, dessert, etc.)

I love my book club friends!

Here are some of our books, we've actually done a lot more since the list ends, we haven't updated for awhile:

1. The Plot Against America, Philip Roth
2. A Conspiracy of Paper, David Liss
3. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
4. Love Medicine, by Louise Erdrich
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
6. Memoir from Antproof Case Mark Helprin
7. The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
8. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow
9. Fortress of Solitude, Johnathan Lethem
10. Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
11. Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
12. Mary and O'Neil, Justin Cronin
13. White Teeth, Zadie Smith
14. Perfume: The Story of a Murder, Patrick Suskind
15. Watership Down, Richard Adams
16. Saturday, Ian Mcewan
17. For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
18. Water for Elephants: A Novel
19. In the Company of the Courtesan
20. The Thirteenth Tale
21. Breakfast of Champions
22. Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon
23. The Road
24. Run
25. Interpreter of Maladies
26. Thee Junes
27. The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo
28. Empire Falls
29. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
30. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
31. Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann
32. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford
33. The Echo Maker, Richard Powers
34. The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
35. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith