Books are something social – a writer speaking to a reader – so I think making the reading of a book the center of a social event, the meeting of a book club, is a brilliant idea. ~Yann Martel
Are you in a book club? Have ever been in a book club? I have to admit that I’ve never been a member of a book club. But you know what? I still love book clubs. I love the idea of book clubs. People getting together to talk about books. People reading the same book and then talking about what that book made them feel or think. People enjoying the very gift of reading.
While I’ve never been a book club member, I have enjoyed a number of book club visits with various book clubs. Some of them were church book clubs. Some were library book clubs. Some were all women. Some had men and women. Some were senior citizens. Others had all ages. Finding the right book club may be what makes being in a book club fun. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with some book clubs in person. That was true for the book club in Blackey, Kentucky where I met with these lovely ladies. I only have a picture of some of the attendees because I always forget about taking a picture until the end when some of the members have already grabbed their book, whatever it is, for the next month’s meeting and have headed home to start reading.
In this digital age, you can also be in an online book club. While that might not be quite the same as meeting with a group of like-minded readers every month, it can still be great fun to read the same book and then enjoy discussing said book with others in the group. My publisher, Revell Books has an online book club Beyond the Book. It’s a public group on Facebook that features a different book each month. This month my book, These Healing Hills, was the pick for the group’s members.
So all month I’ve had the fun of seeing the comments of readers as they discuss questions like ” What’s your initial impression of the Appalachian and historical setting of this book? In addition, what do you notice about the interaction between the “brought-in” nurses and “mountain people” and how do you think this will carry through the novel?”
One of the readers, Karen, asked me this “Is it like looking at the book with fresh eyes?” And in ways it is because each reader does bring fresh eyes to a book. I sometimes think about a book as a partnership between a writer and a reader. The story comes to life in the writer’s mind as he or she writes it, but then it goes out to readers where it comes to life in their minds.
I’ve enjoyed reading the insights of the readers as they’ve answered the questions posed by the book club’s leaders. It was fun when they asked about favorite characters and many of them enjoyed getting to know Woody and Granny Em along with the main characters in the story, Francine and Ben. I don’t think any of them mentioned Sarge, Fran’s dog, but that could be because he doesn’t show up until later in the story and this question was asked early in the month. If you’ve read the book, did you have a favorite character?
The month is drawing to a close and next month a different writer will have their story picked for readers to discuss. But first, I get to do an online Facebook Live time to discuss the book with readers who will ask questions in comments while I’m talking online. If you want to tune in, the time set for my Facebook Live session is tomorrow, Thursday April 30th at 3 p.m. EST. Think up some questions and come on over. It’s a public group that you can join with no problem at all, and maybe you’ll want to start joining in with their book club fun each month. I do hope no storm comes up to knock out my internet. That would be no fun at all, and that did happen when I did a Zoom meeting with a librarian last week. We had to wait for the sun to shine and try it again. I still don’t know when the Owen County Library will have that up, but when they do I’ll post a link here.
As always, thanks for reading.
So, have you ever been part of a book club? Did you like the books they picked to read? If you aren’t in a book club, do you wish you were?
“If you stop to think about it, you’ll have to admit that all the stories in the world consist essentially of twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only the arrangement varies. From letters words are formed, from words sentences, from sentences chapters, and from chapters stories.” – Michael Ende in The Neverending Story