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I belong to two, and I participate on Good Reads as well.
I heard about this, created by Mindy Klasky, and I wanted to let you all know about it.
quote:With the goal of getting more authors in touch with book groups who might want to read their books (and vice versa), I've created the Book Groups Wiki, where book groups can enter information about their meetings and authors can enter information about their availability. The wiki is open to everyone for posting; it's free to use, and it's no more complicated than making a posting on a blog. The wiki is located here:
If you organize a book group or if you're an author, jump in today. If you know people in book groups or know authors, pass on the link to them. This project will only work if the wiki is accessed far and wide - please help me to spread the word today!
Mindy, hoping this wiki takes off, with your help
So, do you belong to a book/reading group? How often do you meet, where (in general) do you meet, what do you read, how do you select books, do you only discuss the book (or do you talk about other stuff, too), do you have munchies (and if so, who provides them)?
One is a book group with other women in my neighborhood and the other is a science fiction and fantasy book group. Both have been going for years and both are all-female groups.
In the neighborhood group, we meet monthly, except in July and August. We meet in the members' homes (we sign up for the coming "season" in May or June). The hostess suggests a book for her month (usually the month before) and the group decides by consensus. We talk about the book and the author, with the hostess leading the discussion, but we also talk about other things. We read a wide range of books, because we all like to read different things. We're not supposed to have munchies (officially), but we always do.
In the science fiction and fantasy group, we meet monthly, but in December we have a party (where we bring goodies to share and we exchange "white elephant" books). We also meet in members' homes, and we decide which home and which book the month before and by consensus. We usually talk about all kinds of things because it doesn't take us very long to say whether we liked the book or not and what we liked or didn't like about it. The hostess provides some kind of dessert (and it's usually chocolate in some form or another).
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I heard of a book group that had the goal of reading all of those books that the members felt they should have read (like "the classics") but that they hadn't gotten around to. I think it had a name like "The Getting Around to It Book Group."
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Kathleen - you must spill. How did you find a group of women who read fantasy and science-fiction? Most of my reading friends (many of my friends don't read much...mommy friends, we're all subject to the perils of lack of time) are into chick-lit kinds of things or straight literary fiction, neither of which hold my interest well enough. I'd start a sci-fi/fantasy one (and wouldn't even be picky about the gender of participants, necessarily) but I have no idea how to find others in my area who read in the genre. Any tips? (Anyone's welcome to give tips.)
I'll check out that wiki on the off-chance that there's something like this in my area already that I just haven't stumbled across yet.
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Y'know, when I was a teenager, I never ran into anybody who was as interested in science fiction as I was. I kept hearing they were out there, but I never met any in the flesh.
By the time I was in my twenties, I was happy with written correspondence, though even that is sporadic these days (as is my interest in science fiction, actually). I wasn't inclined to meet anybody...and still am not so inclined...
[revised 'cause revisions made it come out really awkward.]
[This message has been edited by Robert Nowall (edited July 04, 2008).]
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Kathleen, wouldn't it be fun if your group posted a transcript here of one of your meetings...or did one live blog? Hmmm?
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KayTi, I started out in a "ladies literary club" and we read books that varied from ultra-feminist polemic to the sordid and depressing types of mainstream (there are other kinds of mainstream, but the group seemed to focus on the sordid and depressing for some reason), with some fairly interesting stuff in the middle, on occasion. (Did that make sense?)
Anyway, when it was my turn, I tried to find things that were more tolerable (in my opinion), but that they actually might read. I gave up when I chose C. J. Cherryh's THE PALADIN which is speculative fiction only in the sense that it happens in a place that doesn't exist (a sort of alternate ancient Japan). I thought that might be accessible to them. I gave up because there were several in the group who outright just wouldn't even give it a try (even though I had been willing to give their sordid and depressing choices a try).
So, I got together with one of the other women, who actually did like to read science fiction and fantasy (I'd known her since high school when we met at a special "get girls interested in engineering" summer program at the University of Utah), and we decided to start our own group.
There may be something about Utah that encourages people who like "weird" ideas (several WotF winners have come from Utah, and there are several published SF/F writers from here as well), but all I needed to do was contact women I was already friends with from our local science fiction "fandom" and women I knew from my neighborhood, who already knew I liked science fiction and fantasy (everyone at church knows I'm a little "different" that way ), and we had a small group.
As I've encountered women who might be interested, I've welcomed them to the group, and some of them are women I've met through Hatrack. The members have changed over the years (I think only I and one other member are still left from the original group), but we've been going for about 15 years now.
In your case, I'd recommend looking around for the nearest science fiction convention, and see if there is a list of attendees by location. Go to the convention and see if you can track down those who live near you.
Another possibility might be to see if the local library will sponsor (or at least provide meeting room for and let you put signs up about) a "ladies science fiction and fantasy" book group -- it's better to have a public meeting place when you are meeting strangers.
A third possibility would be to see if the school system has night classes (also known as "community education") and see if they would be interested in having you start a "class" on "reading science fiction and fantasy" (or even one on writing--I did that for a few years, using Barry Longyear's book SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS WORKSHOP I as the "text") and find people that way.
When I lived in Texas, I didn't have any idea there were any people out there, but I stumbled on "fandom" when I moved to West Virginia, though I didn't have a book group then. I have since learned that there are people all over the place, but it may be a bit of a challenge to find them.
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Wouldbe, I don't know how that would work. We talk about so many different things, and sometimes there's more than one conversation going on. If it were just science fiction and fantasy (or even just discussion of the book we've read for the meeting), I could see trying to transcribe it. But we talk about trips and work and other books we've read and movies we've seen or heard about and babies and recipes and kids and hobbies (some of us bring our knitting, myself included) and so on and so forth.
A transcript of two hours of that could be eye-glazing.
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Over the years, I've been involved in quite a few, and right now I meet monthly with a group of couples. We all bring some munchies to share, and rotate the location between our members. We do take time to talk about our lives at the beginning, and then we move on to the discussion. We discuss the principles and messages of the books, and talk about what we've learned that affect our everyday lives. Plot, writing techniques, etc. are not the focus of our discussions.
In September, I'll be joining a group that meets weekly. We'll study the classics, and write papers on the readings, which will then be critiqued by the members. I'm excited to get more writing practice! At this point in my life, I feel like I need the educational challenge.
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), and we had a small group.
