Book Club
I attended my first book at my local library in
February. While I have participated in book clubs before, this was the
first library hosted book club I have attended. In past book clubs the
'host' each month selected the book and led the discussion. It was a
social, fun and open dialogue about the book. I enjoy leaving a book
discussion pondering other perceptions of the book.
There were six of us attending the February library book
club, including the library staff leading the book, Sold on a Monday. The
audience for this book club is older and only four of the six attending had
read the book. Overall we were there for 1.5 hours. The majority of
the time was spent trying to brief one other attendee on the book, the second
one didn't participate he only listened and occasionally wandered away. (I was
warned this was normal.) The library staff member began to brief the other
attendee, but was often interrupted by another member of book club. By
the end of the evening I could see that this was her way of participating in
the discussion, but I wonder if it would have been a more productive discussion
had she let the staff member give a brief overview. I was also under the
assumption that the staff member would try to lead the discussion with a few
questions regarding the book, but she didn't. I don't know if this was
because of the debriefing of the book took over the discussion or if this is
how book club normally goes. I could tell that she (staff member) was
frustrated when the other member continually interrupted her. She and I
were the only ones there under the age of 65 so she would glance my way with a
look of frustration. I think she was also gauging my reaction to
it. Ultimately I realized this discussion was going to be a combination
of explaining the book to the other member, and sometimes a deeper issue or
style of writing would be brought into the conversation. Every time I
thought we had finally moved on to discussing the book, someone went back to
explaining the story. Some of the actual brief discussions that took place
were:
*Timeline- How quickly this whole story took
place. This also played into discussions
about the reality of travelling as much as they did in the 1930’s.
*Too many side stories-
While there was the main plot, several characters had side stories going
on. There were mixed feelings about the
value this added to the book
*Reality/History- There
was a fair amount of discussion regarding the believability of the story and
the idea of a child being sold. This
idea led to discussion regarding families and the value of children, the need
for large families and the harsh reality of knowing that typically not all your
children would survive.
The book club ended with a general discussion of books that
had and hadn't been read in book club. I took a book for next month, I'll
give the book club one more try but it wasn't the fun discussion and social
atmosphere of other book clubs I have participated in. The one
interrupting member later told me she was glad to have someone young attending
and was happy that I was willing to interrupt her in discussions as she thinks
that it makes for a better discussion.
Overall I found the experience frustrating. It will be interesting to try and attend in
March to see if everyone has read the book and if there is more discussion or if
it is another retelling of the book. Personally I think that when a
library hosts a book club there should be more structure to it, and the
librarian would take the role of leading the group. This librarian
has only been leading the book club for less than 6 months and so I do feel
that she is struggling to change the format of the book club. My guess is that those attending have been
for several years and don’t see any need to change the way they have been doing
it. I think this is a reflection on the library and what seems to be the
attitude of this is how it has always been done so why change anything. While staff is very friendly the programming
and vibe of the library, from children’s to adults is rather stale.
I appreciate that you can dial the bottom line down to frustrating. I get hives just thinking about someone up wandering around while you're trying to do a meeting of some sort. Add that to just rehashing the book and they better have good refreshments or witty presentation because I can read a summary on my own.
ReplyDeleteWow! Your experience indeed was very frustrating. Was it explained why the other member just wanders around and eventually finds his way back? How can he follow any discussions like that? If there's a discussion to follow. I feel bad for the librarian who was trying to bring some kind of order to the group. You're brave to try it again. Better luck next time.
ReplyDeleteThat would definitely be frustrating! As Shannon said, we can all read summaries on our own, but book clubs should be about discussing the themes, writing style, or message of the story not rehashing what happened. Hopefully the librarian will be able to get the format updated without becoming overly frustrated herself.
ReplyDeleteYikes! That does not sound like a good time! Maybe you should make the suggestion that only those who have read the book can be at the meeting? It seems so counterproductive to spend an hour and a half telling someone what the book was about so they can participate in a talk that never actually happens!
ReplyDeletecomments noted - grade on canvas
ReplyDelete