How to Make Sure You Read Best SellersJoanne Zaslow
Public & Member Communications
Ever wanted to read the latest bestseller or political tome but haven’t found the time or discipline to do it? Start a book club! It may seem like a drastic solution, but it’s an ideal way to build discipline into reading and, at the same time, meet interesting people and enrich your life. Ten years ago, two friends (Nancy and Mary) and I founded “The Ladies Eat and Read Society.” The club, whose name aptly suggests that food is an important part of our agenda and that we don’t take ourselves too seriously, continues to thrive and now has a chapter in Frederick, MD. As you follow the steps for starting your own club, feel free to use our guidelines (in parentheses) as launching points.
Step 1: Create Meeting Parameters
What you create can be set in stone—because those dates, etc., are the best for you—or negotiated at your first meeting:
- Regular day for meetings (Sundays)
- Frequency of meetings (about every 6 weeks)
- Regular time (officially 5:00–7:00 p.m., but often until 10:00!)
- Meeting location (each other’s homes, but also art galleries, tea houses, cafes, the beach, “in” restaurants, a villa in Italy [I’m not joking])
- Food (potluck most often, with hostess supplying drinks [of all kinds] and a main dish or dessert [we’re writing a cookbook]; occasionally dishes relating to the book we’ve just read; can be dinner, dessert only, tea, or nothing [?!])
Step 2: Create Club Parameters
- Kind(s) of books you’ll read (everything except science fiction and fantasies)
- Prospective members (neighbors, friends, acquaintances, friends of friends)
- Number of members (7 to 12 are recommended; we hover around 12)
- How the book will be discussed (hostess or whoever is so moved leads discussion, including author’s bio; some clubs begin with formal written reports or speeches)
- How the next book will be chosen (next meeting’s hostess chooses; everyone votes on members’ suggestions from lists, book synopses, reviews; our method has morphed over time)
Step 3: Prepare and Distribute an Announcement
- Online or otherwise, the announcement, distributed to friends, acquaintances, coworkers, etc., should say you are forming a book club and list the date, time, location, and RSVP information for the first meeting.
- List meeting and club parameters (you’ve created above) in the announcement (say if they are set in stone or negotiable).
Step 4: Hold Your First Meeting
- Discuss and determine club and meeting parameters (majority rules works), while eating (of course).
- Decide on the club name (shows the spirit and focus of the club).
- Choose the next book (from suggestions people happen to have brought along or from book lists: New York Times or Washington Post best sellers, Modern Language Association top 100, universities’ top 100 classics, Oprah’s, etc. [available online and from your library information desk or book club librarian]).
- Set up the next meeting (using your new parameters).
Our club’s next meeting will be a blast: We’re having a Scottish high tea with our chosen book’s author, Susan Fraser King, presenting her novel Lady Macbeth. During the presentation, the actress who reads the recorded book—Wanda McCaddon (aka Donada Peters and Nadia May)—will phone us (from California) on speakerphone. I told you we have fun!
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