Introduction

Are you currently in a book club or are you thinking about starting one? I have put together this website to help you plan and decided how to run your own book discussion. In this website, there is this main page which will give you some tips as well as some reader advisory resources to help you choose books to read for your book club. I have also included a page based on how my book club chooses books and what we have currently read. The next page is my personal recommendations for books as it is important to share your personal book recommendations as well as learning about what others are reading. Remember to not take it personally if not everyone enjoyed the books you did, everyone has different tastes and it makes for a great discussion if people involved in your book club enjoy reading different genres. To help you make your own recommendations, the final page includes a form page for you to add your own recommendations. As you navigate through the website, there is a site map located on each page to take you back to whatever page you would like to view again. This website is just to get you started and give you a starting point, there are many resources that you may be able to find on your own. I hope this helps you and that you find the resources that I have included on these pages useful to you. Enjoy and Happy Reading!!!!

Things to think about:

In my Reader's Advisory course at Dominican University, one of the things that we learned was how to run book discussions. Here are some of the things to think about when running a book discussion or choosing a book.

• Read the book as early as you can to think about what you are reading.
• Bring out point that the author is trying to convey
• Read reviews about the book and information about the authors
• Develop a set of questions beforehand
• Pick a book that will generate a little controversy, you want the discussion to be lively and worth the patrons' time
• Books discussion groups choose books in a variety of ways: Some groups don't repeat the same authors, some only read male or female authors, some vary the length of the books

Leading Book Discussions

When thinking about discussion questions, one thing to remember is that they should stimulate the discussion. Most books have discussion guides at the back of the books, rephrase and simplify those questions as they are often difficult to follow. Make sure that you are asking questions that will allow people to share their reactions.

How to Start the Discussion

First ask everyone to make a brief comment on the book and hopefully there are no repeat answers. Give everyone a chance to talk and find out where everyone is at with the book. You can also ask groups to rate the book. This can be done at the beginning or end of the discussion or both. There might be some opinions that have changed after the book discussion.