Book Club Experience

Initial Information:

I run three book clubs at the main branch of my local library; however, I chose to attend a book club held by a smaller branch of my library. It is patron run and library sponsored, thus, no one in the club was aware that I worked for our main branch. This gave me the chance to be a bit more anonymous in the group, as well as a chance to ensure that a program we are sponsoring was running smoothly. As such, I did not inform the proctor, or anyone in the book club that I was there to observe for an assignment. I did not want to risk swaying the normal balance or flow of the group, which would have occurred had they realized that I was there to evaluate the group for both my job and schoolwork. The book being discussed was The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth's Children #1) by Jean M. Auel. I made sure to call the library in advance and get the title, so that I could read it before the February meeting. The meetings occur on the 3^rd Monday of every month from 3-5 pm.

Environment:

The book club was held in the ‘meeting room’ space of the library, which essentially amounts to a rentable and bookable room on the second floor of the library branch. Upon entering the space, I was welcomed by the proctor and a few of the members that had arrived earlier. Someone, I am not sure who, had provided a variety of snacks and bottles of water that the members of the book club were welcome to take. I was immediately made to feel welcome, even though I had never attended a meeting prior, and the conversational nature of the environment reassured and helped me to relax in my setting.

Beginning of the Meeting:

The casual conversation continued as more members of the club began to filter in, and this lasted well beyond the beginning of the meeting. It was about 3:30 pm when the group actually began to discuss the book rather than tidbits of gossip and catching up with each other’s lives. It was clear that everyone knew each other quite well. What eventually got the group to quiet down was the proctor of the meeting shushing the group and asking for their attention. She began by giving basic biographical information about the author, and relevant information to the book. She then asked each member to say their name, whether or not they finished the book, and any initial responses to the book that they would like to share with the group.

Middle of the Meeting:

As the members of the group shared their responses, quite a bit of conversation was stirred by the initial reactions of the patrons. Most everyone, myself included, seemed to feel free sharing their thoughts, and most all of the members had no problem interrupting each other and building off what each other had said. I would absolutely say that this was not meant as disrespectful, but the flow of the conversation was one of the most comfortable that I have seen in any book club I have attended. I would say that the first question posed by the proctor had the book club talking for a good 45 minutes. When the conversation died down, and everyone had gotten the chance to pose their own questions, the proctor appeared to have a list of prepared questions she drew from; the same back and forth occurred with many sharing personal anecdotes that they believed to pertain to the story. The proctor spoke very little other than to get the ball rolling, however, some patrons made a point to question her and get her opinion. Reassured by this behavior, I did not feel that the proctor went out of her way to assert her opinion and try to sway the others in the group.

The proctor asked a number of questions such as how the patrons reacted to the level of detail that Auel puts into all of her novels, and how authentic they felt that the story was. She brought up the struck balance between the main character’s duty as a wife and mother, but also her training as a medicine woman and the way in which feminism came into play. Another question that really struck me was the discussion on ancient art found in the form of cave paintings. This proctor was not afraid to make her book club really think and construct their responses rather than providing them an easy out with yes or no answers. Clearly, she knew her book club, though, because they were eager to answer the posed questions, rather than being intimidated about being made to think about large themes and concepts found in the book.

I can confidently say that all of the members of the group were actively participating without too much prompting. In fact, the members of the book club seemed to encourage everyone to be vocal and share their opinions. The group had such a comfortable back and forth; there were never any signs of a single member, or the proctor, being too vocal, as they mostly monitored themselves. I believe this largely to be because of how long the group had been together (10+ years).

End of the Meeting:

Although the month that I chose to observe was discussing a rather lengthy, historical fiction novel, the group’s March book choice indicated that they were not centered on one genre. Their March book was the YA novel Dorothy Must Die. I must have given away my shock at the contrasting choices, as one of the members explained to me that they read anything and everything. For the most part, each month’s book was picked by a member of the group, and they could choose to either proctor it themselves, or let the main proctor handle the questions and biographical information. I felt that this was smart, because it gave everyone in the group a chance to participate and suggest reading material for the group, without feeling that they had to take on the burden of also proctoring and preparing if they did not have the time or feel comfortable doing that. They also do not generally put an age limit of the chosen materials, because they do not think that a book lacks merit simply because it was published more than five years ago. They were very vocal when explaining their choices in books to me.

Overall:

I had a wonderful experience with this book club, and would absolutely go back in the future.