1. You’ll get to meet new and interesting people. They might be neighbors, they might be co-workers, they might be friends of friends. Okay, they may be friends. (A new way to connect with your friends.) The members might be people you'd never meet any other way. You might make new friends. You will have a chance to meet and interact with people who have varying backgrounds, who have lived in different places and who all bring something different to the club. And to the conversation. 99% of people who join book clubs are all intelligent readers who enjoy reading and discussing books. (Yes, there are some book clubs that never get to the discussions about the books. Is that the kind of book club you're interested in? Personally, I'm not sure why those are called book clubs.)
2. The connections readers make to what they read are varied. Just like my experience with Catcher in the Rye, you might think Holden Caulfield suffers from a learning disability, another reader might think he's a caricature and I might think Holden is just an example of another spoiled, entitled New York City boy. Defending your position or accepting another's, you are developing a deeper understanding of what you've read.
3. You read books that you might not otherwise read. (This is both a good thing and a bad thing - thinking of my current experience reading fantasy.) You might discover that you like other genres besides historical fiction. Or if your book club is restricted to just a certain kind of book (based either on genre or issues), you might be introduced to a new author. I like the fact that in one book club I read a mix of books I'd pick on my own and books I'd never even consider. I like the fact that in my other book club, I've often guided to read classics that I somehow never managed to read before. A lot of the books on my personal "To Be Read" list are books that I've heard about from other members of my book clubs whose tastes run similar to mine.
4. Some books just need to be discussed. Sometimes you need to delve more intensely into the plot points or to character development. Sometimes you need help to make the connections between the world in the book and the world that we live in. If your book club is anything like one of mine, you might collectively try to solve some of the world's problems. This is a good time to add that some books don't need to be discussed. Members who select the books your club reads should be discerning enough to know which titles are appropriate and which are not.
5. You can be a book critic. And the members of your book club will care to hear what you have to say. You can give voice to books you haven't liked. Some book clubs frown against members coming to the meeting without having finished the book. Any book club I've belonged to encourages everyone to come to the meetings. We won't hold back spoilers because you haven't finished the book. A dissenting voice can spark an excellent discussion. You might discuss what makes a best seller a best seller (after you've wondered how a book disliked by the majority of the members in your club has become a best seller).
6. Do you see yourself as a lifelong learner? What better way to learn new things than to read about them? You will also think about the things you already know is a more serious way. You will need to think about life and about how you've arrived at your point of view.
7. You can learn more about the area where you live. One of my book clubs consists of a group of men and women who are all transplants from somewhere else. My other book club has a nice mix of transplants and natives. Yet both book clubs make a concerted effort to read books about Florida. We also enjoy reading books of local interest. In the past few months alone, I've read a book about Thurgood Marshall during the Civil Rights Movement and a case that was just miles form where I now live, I've read about the history of the Everglades and I'm getting ready to read Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' memoir about her time spent in Florida writing The Yearling.
8. If you're lucky, you might get to meet authors in person or Skype with an author. Authors love book clubs!
9. You'll have somewhere social to go once a month... (Maybe your book club will include great snacks - or wine - or beer like my Books and Beer Club) and you'll get to sound so smart. "Oh, at my book club the other night..."
10. If one book club doesn't fit, there's always another book club out there that might fit what you are looking for a little better. Having had zero experience starting a book club, I won't even go there. But that's always a possibility. There are tons of resources online about how to start a book club.
Happy reading,
whether alone or in a group!
whether alone or in a group!
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