Book Club Recommendations
Most of us have groups of friends that we’d like to see more often, but we just don’t get a chance to get together as much as we’d like to. Though it may sound strange, most people need or want some sort of an excuse to get together, from planning an event to having dinner together. One great way to get together with friends is to host a book club, where a group of friends gets together to discuss a book they’ve all read. Book clubs aren’t the stodgy, dry gatherings that they’re sometimes stereotyped to be; often it’s the highlight of the month for lots of people. Book clubs are especially good for groups of friends who either love to read or want to read more, since it encourages people to at least finish one book between each meeting (which, for most clubs, is around once a month). Though it may sound silly, some of the best book club meetings are those where the book is hardly discussed. This varies some from club to club; in some book clubs the book is the primary (and sometimes sole) source of discussion, while in other book clubs the book itself is only a way to get people together to have a good time.It’s always nice to have some book club recommendations, especially if it you’re hosting a book club for the first time (and these book club recommendations are even more important if you’ve never been to a book club before). The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of books out there, and it’s tough to know what sort of book to pick for the book club. One of the best book club recommendations is to let each member of the book club pick a book one month until everyone’s had a chance to choose. This allows the club to sample from the literary tastes of all of the members and often results in exposing members to a wider variety of literature than they would read if they were on their own or if one member chose all of the books. However, if you’re just kicking off the club, you may want a few books to start off with to get things going.
One of the best book club recommendations I’ve heard is to choose books that are relatively easy to read and, most importantly, somewhat provocative. The first criterion comes from the fact that if a book is tough to read (i.e. Pride and Prejudice) there’s a good chance people won’t finish enough of the book to talk about it. Granted, the best book club recommendations will depend on the people in your book club, but most clubs do best with contemporary novels. Also, the discussion about the book won’t be very interesting if the material is relatively cut-and-dried. Try to find topics that are either brand-new (i.e. The Kite Runner) or provocative and applicable to contemporary issues (i.e. Fast Food Nation).