HOW TO HAVE THE BEST BOOK CLUB
by
Nick DiMartino
BOOK CHOICE
The health of a book club lies in its choices.
How do you decide what to read? In many clubs, members take turns choosing a title. If it’s a club of real book lovers, that can be a stimulating exchange. But it’s a serious problem if members are unfamiliar with books, if they’re choosing in the dark. Selecting the right book as a discussion piece is different from simply choosing a book to enjoy. Democratic choosing of titles has killed many a club.
Try this: choose one or two people to be the selectors for three months. Then re-elect them, or elect new ones. The selector for any club needs to be someone who takes the time to be familiar with the best titles. Good choices generate good discussions, and if the discussions are satisfying, people come back.
Some books are simple reads. That doesn’t mean they don’t provide excellent entertainment. It just means there’s nothing to talk about. Simply a good story – say, a good mystery, a courtroom drama, or an edge-of-your-seat thriller – can give you wonderful hours of reading and about five minutes worth of conversation.
“That was exciting.”
“Yeah, that was exciting. And what a surprise.”
“Yeah, what a surprise.”
There needs to be some issue that’s ambiguous or some character whose behavior is controversial. Something on which readers can differ in their opinions.
In the book club at University Book Store, I choose. Our club’s angle is the best new title of the month. I try to see the good ones coming. I read as many advances as I can. I take the choosing very seriously, and try to find excellent reading experiences that are also discussable, then plan a promotion around it. Our particular club has a focus: we’re interested in brand new books from around the world. We read hardbacks or paperback originals, within the first couple months of publication. We’re trying to see literature as it first happens, right as it breaks.
The more book club members who have happy reading experiences, the more read the next book and come to the next meeting.
SELECTION CRITERIA
Ultimately the monthly selections for our book club are personal choices. It can’t be helped. Part of me wishes I were more open, but I try not to beat myself up over my narrow focus. I choose books that give me a rush of satisfaction when I finish them. I lean toward shorter ones, so I can read them twice. I try to choose books of quality that are artfully written and present ideas and viewpoints worth considering.
Realism
Fantasy elements don't work for me in these post 9/11 days. I feel like we’re all surrounded by fantasies, and it’s up to us to see through them. I, for one, passionately want to see what's really there. If I’m going to invest time in reading about people’s lives, I want no interference from non-realistic elements, no angelic aid, no romance with a time-traveller, narrators turning out to be dead. Tell me a story I can believe. When real characters are facing real dilemmas, members of a book club can discuss the character’s choices based on their own experience.
First Person
A story told from the limited perspective of a single point of view makes for the best discussion. It’s just like a member of the club telling a story. You discuss the story, and you discuss the storyteller. Is she lying? Is she hiding something? Is she in denial about something? It opens up a second layer for discussion. Instead of being told a character’s motives by an omniscient narrator, you have to guess at why people do things, just like the rest of the human race. First person narration includes the ignorance of the storyteller and the storyteller’s misunderstandings. It creates the illusion of a human being talking directly to the reader, with all the limitations and shortcomings that entails. But it also intensifies the intimacy of the reading act.
Moral Issues
Every day we face moral issues. I want moral issues in my reading. “Why do we do what we do?” “What is worth doing?” “What is the point of living?” There are so many fascinating answers. Give me literature that deals with choices, beliefs, and ethics. One of my favorite structures is the re-examination of a childhood trauma, transformed by new information or insight: “What really happened in the past?”
The focus of the club is on human perception and misunderstanding, on seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. Literature can be a framework for guessing at other people’s motivations and often guessing at our own, interpreting incorrectly until we discover the truth. Someone once said, “Misunderstanding is the root of all evil,” and I believe that sad truth is at the heart of the best literature. We constantly misjudge people. Literature tries to open us up through the limited perception of another individual, showing us someone else’s vision of life.
MEMBERS
Membership in our book club is free and without commitment. People may come for only the books that interest them. A number of members come devotedly to every meeting. And there’s always someone new.
Alternatively – at Pacific Mist Books in Sequim, for instance – only so many members are allowed in the book club, to keep the conversations small and intimate, and members pay a quarterly fee to the bookseller who hosts the meetings.
As host, I try not to influence the conversation. I have questions in advance. I try to relax the members into being honest and laying their cards on the table, not to be afraid to express their real feelings and attitudes, even if it goes against the group. The host may need to tactfully nudge digressers back to the thread of the conversation. Sometimes I’ll give ideas and thoughts in advance in the email monthly announcement, suggesting directions our conversation can take. Sometimes I’ll throw out a concept or give an opinion from a critic. Michiko Kakutani hating the Booker Prize-winning The Sea was a great conversation prod.
MEETINGS
We meet once a month at 7 pm, on the last Monday of the month, in the conference room on the second floor of the main University Book Store in the heart of the University District in Seattle. Meetings are free, and last about 80 minutes.
BENEFITS
Reading is one of the great pleasures of life, but it’s solitary. Book clubs try to solve that. They provide an opportunity to share your private mental zones with others. The common book provides all members with a language for the night. Discussing the structure or philosophy of a novel, discussing the characters like they’re people, leads readers into revealing their own moral values as they evaluate a character’s choices.
Seldom does everyone love the book. Conflicting points of view lead to good discussions, and almost every reader emerges from a meeting with a point of view that’s been altered by the conversation. One member of our club, a well-read British novelist, challenged all of our opinions on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead by not liking it, and was brave enough to question us. What a night! Seeing reasons why other readers liked or disliked a book leads you to modify your own reactions.
In book clubs you come to understand why someone once said, “Everyone reads a different book.” I never come out of a meeting feeling exactly the same about the book as I went in. The opinions and insights of the other readers always change, deepen or alter my own.
And that’s why we have book clubs.