Celebrate National Reading Group Month!

October is National Reading Group Month and to celebrate I wanted to investigate what makes a group endure. I located plenty of information on starting a group, selecting titles, and leading a discussion but very little on how to keep it going through the years. My book group celebrates its anniversary in the fall so as we are wrapping up our 13th year, I interviewed them and posed the question, what makes you keep coming? The answers not surprisingly resemble the qualities of any other long-lasting and good relationship:

• I keep coming because of the people and the chemistry of the group.
• The discussions are rich and varied.
• The group is respectful and agrees that completing and actually discussing the book is an important part of our gathering.
• The frequency of the group (six times a year) keeps me coming because my personal reading isn’t always being interrupted.
• The group is intimate because we’ve created trust which allows us to share things we otherwise might keep to ourselves.
• The discussion can really turn around my opinion of a book. Sometimes it seems we have each read a different book with the same title!
• I like the way the group selects titles (everyone takes a turn); it provides a variety of reading and makes each one of us take the roll of selecting very seriously.

The takeaway is, now that you’ve created a book group, how are you gauging their dynamics? Reading a book takes precious time and discussing it is an additional level of commitment.  Perhaps taking time to ask about your book group’s assessment might be worthwhile to iron out any kinks and keep it running satisfactorily for all.