Monday, April 23, 2007

DailyLit is back, Book Group fun

Ah, the world is back in balance--my daily dose of The Age of Innocence came via email this morning (from DailyLit) and I read it immediately. One reason, at least, to like Mondays (besides the fact that the kids are back in school--ahhh).

My book group meets this week, and I'm very excited, because we'll be discussing The Post-Birthday World, by Lionel Shriver. I don't think we've had enough time to read it, so I'm pretty sure not everyone will be finished. But we never postpone meetings, because we love to get together, even if we don't talk about books.

This book should be really interesting to discuss, though. It's about a 40ish woman making decisions about her romantic relationships, and reading it has been a bittersweet experience. I'm very curious about my fellow book groupers' opinions on this one. And I'm happy to have anyone else weigh in...

And we have a policy that if you haven't read the book, you have to throw five bucks into the kitty. At some point, when we have enough cash, we'll all go out to dinner. My husband thinks that is just too much incentive NOT to read the books!

Does anyone else have any book group rules or policies they want to share? Any interesting ways to pick books?

6 comments:

a.book.in.the.life said...

I love the kitty idea! I am going to my first RL book group meeting next monday and I have to say I have read only a chapter. It is an Anthony Trollope and I am finding it hard to get into! Once I get stuck in I should be ok though.

Gentle Reader said...

a.book.in.the.life--Let me know how your book group goes! I love mine, we've been meeting for about 3 years. And to be honest, we tend to chat about everything--books sometimes take a back seat.

I went on a Trollope jag once, and got through a few of his books--once they get moving, they're pretty good. Which one are you reading? I almost signed up with DailyLit to get Barchester Towers, but then I went with Edith Wharton instead...

Anonymous said...

That's such a great idea! I really try to get books read in time for book group but every once in a while it just doesn't happen. Our book group memebers are pretty good for the most part but I always wonder about the one person who never gets the books read. Do they really enjoy book group? Or maybe they just need more incentive to finish the book :)

Gentle Reader said...

iliana--my group is pretty good for the most part, too--so it's going to take us awhile before the non-reading fines add up to dinner together!

Quillhill said...

My group members each nominate a new title, and then a vote is cast. Last time we each wrote our final choice on a secret ballot and tallied them.

The Slaves of Golconda began selecting books by decree, but recently the Slave elected to choose has offered up a few nominations from which a general concensus is sought. No rules, though.

Gentle Reader said...

quillhill--I like your book group's procedure. Especially the secret ballot!

My group is much less organized. We're lucky if we pick next meeting's book before we're out the door. And if not, it means many email exchanges before we come to consensus. But somehow it works...

Looking forward to reading with the Slaves!