Round Rock New Neighbors (New
Neighbors of Greater Round Rock) Book Club Ideas
Our Book Club seems to need some help.
History:
The Book Club was begun before I moved to Round Rock. I
found it soon after I arrived. My neighbor told me about it, though she wasn’t
a member. The group met at different people’s homes each month. I received the
files when another of my neighbors moved away and gave them to me. I have some
old files and booklists.
The first article in the file is an Amazon printout about Ulysses,
by James Joyce. I don’t think the Book Club ever tackled Ulysses. I
nominated it early on – I’ve always wanted to read it, but I wanted it to be a group
experience. The group didn’t vote for it. The next article is an Amazon
printout, with lots of reviews printed in full, about Anne Tyler’s Ladder of
Years. Then, there is a page that someone wrote about The Hundred Secret
Senses, by Amy Tan – looks like notes someone would use for presenting the book
to the group for discussion. There are some cut out articles from the Austin
American Statesman with lists of “Top Ten on the Modern Library List” (Ulysses
is #1) and “Austin’s Top Choices” (#1 = To Kill a Mockingbird. The date
of publication of the newspaper is cut off. James Magnuson’s picture is on that
page of the Statesman, with a list of his favorite 5 books – he gave us an
author visit years later. There’s a “Xerox copy” of a Statesman article about
Christopher Reich, and his novel, Numbered Account.
All these old records of the Book Club – what shall I do with
them? I would be sad to dump them in the recycling – better to pass them on to
someone who wants to archive and/or lead the Book Club into the future!
Moving Forward:
For now, I’d like to set up our next months of reading and
discussing books. If you didn’t nominate yet for this summer/fall, you haven’t
helped much…yet! I have created a
questionnaire that I hope will help us move in a good direction now, as we
might be emerging from the pandemic. Or, as we begin to accept that the
pandemic has changed us.
I have some ideas about things we could do. Meeting
in-person is best for everyone’s mental health but not necessarily for our recently
accepted habits. Barnes & Noble isn’t giving us any priority any more.
Do you like the following idea? Whoever is at a discussion meeting, e.g., our
May meeting when we discuss Klara and the Sun, (by Kazuo Ishiguri), (if they
want to) can suggest titles for 2 months hence. After we have gathered titles,
we vote at the meeting and choose the book with the most votes. Then, the email list receives a message
about the book, and the book title will be on the blog as scheduled for a
specific month.
Would this work for you?
________
In fairness to those who nominated, I will begin to schedule
the books that have already been nominated. There aren’t enough for our
scheduled “season”. We might skip a month or accept some new nominations. Maybe
nominating and choosing books can be a rolling procedure, with occasional votes
if several nominations arrive at the same time.
Would this work for you?
________
Status quo – in May and November, everyone who didn’t
present a book that half of the year nominates 1 book each for the next
half-year. Then everyone votes. Do
you prefer this? _______
Other ideas? (Insert here)
Would you like to take charge of nominations and votes? _______
Someone needs to do it!
The Blog – We have had a blog writeup each month
after our book discussion. Although I am a proponent of in-person discussions,
I did find ways to make the blog posts more easily and more detailed via Zoom. Sometimes,
before a discussion, the nominator has prepared something to post on the blog
to help the group prepare for the discussion. Would you like to take charge of receiving
preparatory material from the nominator and posting it on the blog? ______
Would you like to contribute something
to the blog on a regular basis? _____
Would you like to be “guest blogger”
occasionally? _____
Do you find the blog useful? _____
What do you search for on the blog? (Insert answer) Would you miss the blog if
it were gone? _____
Probably, the blog could stay online
even if no one updated it. If it stopped being updated, would you like to have
it available online as it is now? _____
Meetings:
Please check as many as you want to:
____ I want to meet in person only. I am willing to meet at
the library, at a subdivision clubhouse, at someone’s home, or elsewhere. (Please add some Ideas for where to meet and
especially whether your home would be an option for a meeting sometimes:
_____________)
_____ I want to meet on Zoom only
______I’d like to meet in person and on Zoom, seasonally,
e.g., Summer and Winter on Zoom; in-person when the weather is comfortable for
outdoors. (This might require an email in the morning before a scheduled
meeting)
I’d be willing to pay $2/month dues to the Book Club, which could
go toward the cost of Zoom _____ I’d be willing to act as “Treasurer” for
the group, arranging for payments and keeping records. ______
Nominations:
Here is my nomination - It’s late, and I understand that books
might already be scheduled for some months, especially if we don’t have enough
nominations for a vote.
Your name
Author & Title:
__________________________________________________________________________
More ideas for improving our Book Club: Insert here:
Thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment