on joining a book club

So, many years ago-five to be exact because I remember we were living in our second basement suite as a married couple, which we stayed in only for Rusty's first year of life-I decided to start a book club.  I reached out to people that I knew that loved to read as much as I did.  They were awesome people to be sure.  They also reached out to people that they knew that liked to read and the next thing we knew, we had probably 10 or so people lined up.  It was fantastic!  My dream was becoming a reality!

Since I wanted to start this club, I decided to host the first event.  We picked a book-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, which is a fantastic read if you are looking for something good.  We all read it and gathered at my house one evening to discuss.  The discussion rocked.  What a great group of ladies we had!  We all deemed it a success!  We all picked a new book to read!  We planned the next date we would meet!  We picked the person's home we would meet at!  Then???  We never met again.  It bombed.  Big failure.  I was so sad.

I took a year to think about it.  I pondered what had gone wrong.  Maybe I wasn't supposed to be in a book club.  Maybe I wasn't good at organizing such things.  I chatted with the people that had been a part of it.  What had been good?  What hadn't?  Then I came up with a plan.

Here is what I learned:

1. We had too many people from too many different places.  Although we all loved to read, we ranged in our living locations from North Vancouver out to Abbotsford to Surrey.  This doesn't really work.  Adding that extra driving time to the lives of already very busy women simply didn't work.
2. We were trying to meet in the evenings, which just didn't work for us.  We needed a more neutral time, if possible.
3. We didn't set up our dates in advance.  This is a must...at least in my world.  

I pondered these things and three years ago decided to try again.  I contacted the people from my town that had been a part of the club.  One felt that she was at the place where she could join.  We chatted and invited a few other people that we knew enjoyed reading.  Suddenly, we had a club!  Here is what we did that has worked!

1. We got together and figured out a day and time that really works for us.  For our group that happens to be Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m.  A lot of people like to reserve that time for families and that is awesome and we respect that.  We only meet, however, every six weeks, so once in six weeks we are taken away for our families for some amazing girl time with the topic of conversation being an awesome book we have recently read-and let's be honest, we also chat about our families, our jobs, social circumstances...everything under the sun!  We have good food-usually something sweet.  We share a cup of tea or coffee.  It is awesome.  We don't run in the summers because everyone knows that summer gets busy.
2. We plan our dates for the entire year at our first meeting.  We sit down and go through the calendar.  We put those dates into our iPhones or whatever.  We pick who will host each one.  Yesterday we figured out when we will meet and where from now through the end of the club in May.  It is great.  I put those dates on our family calendar, my husband knows in advance, there are no surprises.  We take into account things like the fact that Christmas gets super busy and we try to adjust.  We look at things like the fact that Spring Break is usually when everyone is gone.  We think about things like the fact that I'm about to deliver a baby so I should host September and my other friend will be delivering a baby in December so she should probably host October.  It works.  
3. We are not strict!  Sometimes, we don't all finish the book.  That is okay.  If you don't, and you still want to come you are welcome to, but you come knowing that the ending will probably be ruined for you.  Sometimes, something comes up and person simply can't make it, or she has to come late, or leave early.  There is no guilt or shaming.  We say, "Great!  Come for when you can!  It's all good!"
4. We have welcomed new people!  Our little group has now grown to eight people-we just welcomed a new member yesterday!  Welcome Donna!  It is great to have new people come in.  I think we are about maxed out because we won't be able to fit everyone into our homes if we get many more, but the couple of people we have added have been a great addition and brought so much to the group.
5. We make the choosing of the books a team effort.  Now this is the area where I am baffled.  I have no idea how this works, but it just does.  At the end of each meeting we kind of toss around ideas of books that look interesting, put in our thoughts, and eventually the person that is hosting next makes a final decision.  This works.  Again, I don't know how, but I have yet to be annoyed by a choice.  Sometimes I don't love the book, but I am enjoying reading all of them.  

I LOVE being part of a book club!  I love that it forces me to read, sometimes in times when I might not otherwise because hey, we all know that life gets busy!  I love that it pushes me to read books that I might not normally read, books that may be outside of my comfort zone.  The thing I love the most is the group of women that I get to meet with.  They are truly awesome.  I don't see most of them on a regular basis in my daily life, but I always, always look forward to catching up with them at book club.  They are all extremely intelligent women, with strong opinions, that know how to voice those opinions in a respectable manner.  My brain is stretched by my time with them, and my outlook on life has sometimes been changed by something one of them has said.  

Join a book club.  If you can't find one, start a book club!  I'm so glad I didn't give up after the first failure...I love my Sunday afternoons from 2-4 p.m. every six weeks!

P.S.  The book we chose yesterday to read for our next meeting is The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules.  Looks awesome!  We just finished reading The Imposter Bride.  

Some books we have read-not an exhaustive list because I am writing this off of the top of my head and I can't remember all of the books we have read in two years!  

Cutting for Stone

A House in the Sky

Wild

The Casual Vacancy

The Light Between Oceans

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Secret Daughter
The Red Tent

The Chaperone

February
The Help
Left Neglected
Half-Blood Blues
Longbourne
The Age of Miracles
One More Thing (A short story compilation by B.J. Novak that we actually didn't finish...the only one that we have ever done that with...but make your own judgments.)
The Mercy of Thin Air
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D.

The Imposter Bride
The Dinner

The Rosie Project-Side note...we LOVED this book.  The sequel is coming out this month!  I can't wait to read it...I hope it doesn't disappoint!  READ THIS BOOK!  

Okay, I know I'm forgetting a bunch, but these were the books that jumped into my head.  Let me know if you have any to suggest to us!  We are always looking for new ideas!