Book Club Ideas

Have you ever been influenced to read any of the books on their book lists after seeing them reviewed on their show?

Do the books they have listed appeal to you?

Do you think that it’s a good or a bad thing that they are so influential when it comes to getting the books the recommend on to the best sellers lists?

I suppose in the States, the equivalent would be something like Oprah’s Book Club?

Here is a list of them:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_52713465_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000139313&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-sign-in&pf_rd_r=0N488GQSWPB76J94HANJ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=168698791&pf_rd_i=13790191
Kirsty, please don’t waste my time with your childish response.
smithers – I hated Time Traveller Wife!

I think it’s a good thing in that it has probably encouraged alot of people to read novels when they wouldn’t otherwise have bothered, but they tend to focus on fairly ’safe’ middle of the road authors. I have read books on their list, and enjoyed them, but there are hundreds more books published every year than the twelve (?) which they plug.

hello…my friends and i are planning on starting a book club. we’re all about 14 and we want to have a fun, quirky name. one of us came up with "book buds" or "book buddies" but we wanted other opinions…make ‘em cute! thx

The Book Nook

These were books my Mom and Dad read to me when I was little. They bought them through a book club. There were many others but I can’t remember the titles.

I remember Gus was a Friendly Ghost!
You can get it and some other books I remember from my childhood, like the Harry the Dirty Dog books, Curdoroy, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Ferdinand the Bull, Blueberries for Sal, and the list goes on and on, from Amazon.com
I have found many of these at garage sale for 25 and 50 cents.

Are you referring to actual books that you can buy and receive through the mail, or are you talking about books to download?

If it’s the latter, this site would be a good place to start.

http://www.truly-free.org/

We are reading this book in my book club, and i can not seem to see and under stand the dark humor. if you dont mind,please list and explain a few examples of dark humor (and why they are dark humor).
thanks so much

well, i only saw the movie but the stuff about him beating himself up to keep the space for the fight club. anything that is violent and death related thats funny but not like the tupid stuff

A group of us have decided to start a book club (mainly so we’ve got an excuse to meet up for sevral drinks on a regular basis). I need some suggestions please of books we could opt for.

Good for you! There needs to be more book clubs out there. It’s a good exuse to hang with pals and discuss something intelligent.
I hope to start one next year myself. Here are some I would consider:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Blue Bottle Club by Penelope Stokes
Emily Ever After by Ann Dayton
The Sister Circle by Nancy Moser
Christy by Catherine Marshall
A Dog’s Life by Peter Mayle
A Walk to Remember by Nicolas Sparks
The Scarlett Letter by Hawthorn
All the Way Home by Ann Tatlock
The Locket by Richard Paul Evans
The Rag Nymph by Catherine Cookson
The Day of the Storm by Rosamunde Pilcher
The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott
The Unexpected Mrs. Polifax by Dorothy Gilman
The Shunning by Beverly Lewis

I read this book about 30 years ago. It had something to do with a few boys who discovered an "old" club that some other boys had founded years earlier. They had to follow certain tasks to find out how to join the club. They made spears out of broom handles, made masks and some other stuff I can’t quite remember. It had instructions on how to make these things as well. It turns out in the end that the boys father’s were the original founders of the club. It was about a third grade reading level, maybe about 25-30 pages long. I got it from the school’s book fair. That’s about all I remember.

This is definitely THE SECRET HIDE-OUT by John Peterson, 1965, 1998.

From wikipedia: "The book was an adventure story about two brothers, Matt and Sam Burns, who discover the log book of the Viking Club, a kind of junior secret society of boys from a generation or so earlier. While Sam wants to skip the log’s details and go straight to look for their old meeting place (the Secret Hide-Out), Matt wants to see if they can first pass the club’s membership tests, as they are explained, and be "worthy" of going as prospective members… if the Hide-Out still exists. Another local boy called Beany joins them in their quest… and as it turns out, an original Viking Club member who learns of their plan prepares to meet them.

"While the book didn’t include the complete "original" Viking Club log, it did include enough details and illustrations to show how such a club would initiate new members, and a style for presentation and decorum. A section in the back gave full instructions on making regalia for club members, including masks, whistles, shields and (dull-pointed) spears. These could be easily made by the book’s target audience, with mostly household materials, a bushel-basket lid being the hardest item to obtain."

Also, you might be interested to know that there was a sequel, ENEMIES OF THE SECRET HIDE-OUT.

You can buy a copy (with new cover artwork) at amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0590413538/24680e-20

or one with the old cover: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0590001191/24680e-20

I’m starting a classic mystery book club and know a web site with full classic books online for free and I was wonder if this would be ok to use insted of having everyone having to go out and hunt down the books and buying a hardback ‘budgets are tight’ and this way i could just send out the web link to this months book. okay or not okay? I love curling up with a book in my hands but i’m trying to think of everyone in the group.

As long as the book is out of copyright, I see nothing wrong with that.

I wish to start a book club, but am wondering what is the actual content of a book club. Do you have, as the group moderator, a list of questions, or topics? Does everyone have a turn to speak or is it a group discussion? Basically, what I would like to know is how this all works! Thank you for your answers !

I used to have a book club, and each month we would have one person pick a book. Everyone would read it, and at the next meeting we would go to the house of the person who chose the book and have a themed discussion. Example: the food or decorations would have something to do with the book. Then the person who picked the book came up with a small list of questions to get everyone started and it would go from there. It’s a great way to talk about books, and if you have a set way that you pick people so that everyone gets a chance to pick/host, it works well.

Good luck!

hi! i’ve just joined a book club at uni and we need some suggestions for which book we should read for september, we need something enjoyable but that we can also study. so any ideas would be great!

Germinal, by Emile Zola (about a french coal miners strike)
The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever
Far from The Maddening Crowd by Thomas Hardy (really anything Hardy)
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevksy
Middlemarch or Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

For Fun
Fear of Flying Erica Jong and Tropic Cancer/ Capricorn by Henry Miller