Book Club Experience

 Book Club Experience

    Personally, I don't have a ton of book club experience. Before this year, I had never been apart of a book club, or really had any offerings to join any. This has changed over the past few months. Currently, I am a part of two book clubs, both of which are very chill and laid back. First, I have a book club with friends and peers from my hometown, which is where I currently reside. There is about 12 of us in this club, and it is definitely still in the beginning stages of becoming stabilized. Last month, we read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I didn't get to experience the entire experience of the club because I had already read this book prior to joining the club. Although, it was nice to go back and get a refresher on the novel. The meeting itself was also laid back and not all that organized. One person decided the time and place of the meeting, and multiple people couldn't attend. Due to this, the book club organizers changed how to decide meeting time and place. They sent out a document for people to fill out for the best times to meet, which I really liked. As for the book choice, so far, it seems that it's up to the organizers to choose what we read. I think this is good for the start, but they should implement a system to get the group members opinions on what to read. This offers more participation and gives the individuals a bit more of a voice. 

    The second book club I am apart of is more like a relaxed group book reading. My sisters and I have always spoken about possibly doing something like a book club, but not all of us have been interested in reading. After lots of hard work on my part, and my older sister's, we got the rest of my siblings to enjoy and love reading. If you were to meet my sisters (there is four of them), you would understand how big of a win this is. This month is the first month we have started this. We are currently reading Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross. We plan on reading the sequel next month. Due to this club being with my siblings, there isn't much planning needed to make everyone happy. We decided to finish the book by the end of the month, and then we will discuss the book after. If we all finish early, then we will discuss the novel then. Personally, I enjoy this plan. If it were a group of strangers, this wouldn't work in the slightest. Since this is just family, it's much easier to have such a laid back plan. 

    Although I am not a part of it, I know that the library that I work at has a well-liked popular book club. I am not sure exactly who organized the club, but they did a wonderful job. The organizers choose the books they will be reading, and it seems that the patrons are really enjoying their picks. There are many great aspects about this book club. First off, the library provides the books for the patrons apart of the club. The library obtains all the copies available within the library system, which usually is around 15 or so copies. Now, obviously that isn't that many copies in the grand scheme of things, but so far, there has always been enough for those that are interested. I believe this is mainly due to patrons also reading the book via electronically. There is another aspect to this book club that is important to mention. For the meetings, there are multiple times available. There is a day meeting, as well as a night meeting. I feel that this is a great idea and allows for more people to be able to attend the meetings. 

    Overall, I feel that the book club experiences that I have myself are relatively good, but there isn't much to go off of. I am glad that the library that I work for has their own book club, because it allows me to see what works and what doesn't. They started this book club just a few months ago, but it really does seem like all is going well. I am always hearing great feedback from the patrons, which is lovely to hear. All in all, I would like to get some more book club experience, which I feel that I will as the year goes on!