PRINTBook clubbin’
Tradition battles new age
June 19, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
When Alex Goff found a cheap fondue pot at an estate sale, she bought it immediately but was not sure how her newest kitchen gadget would be useful. She had a light bulb moment, and the Fondue Book Club was born.
“We just thought it’d be cool to get to see each other a certain time every month,” says Beth Hoag, another member of the Fondue Book Club. “It was a social thing.”
Which books are best for discussion? The California-based Book Passage Book Club posted its top ten 2007 picks from a survey of readers.
1. Suite Française by Irene Nemirovski
2. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
3. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
4. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
5. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
6. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
7. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
8. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
9. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
10. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
--Salma Ahmed
Michelle Pruitt, a Columbia resident, also combined her loves of food and reading to create a book club, the Rowdy Readers. “I invited five friends over, and since that, it’s just grown,” Pruitt says.
In fact, the club is so popular now that Pruitt had to set its limit at 20 members. Every meeting, that month’s host makes food themed around the book the group just read. After reading Jewel by Bret Lott, the club enjoyed Southern-style cooking that represented the main character’s Mississippi roots.
The combination of food and social interaction created an entertaining environment.
“I noticed that if you don’t have someone to talk with (about a book you read), it’s not as much fun,” she says. “And apparently other people think so, too.”
But with the increased competition and convenience of the Internet, blogs and online forums, some wonder if traditional book clubs will survive.
Nora Tamm, a Columbia resident, enjoys her online book clubs on dearreader.com. She joined to read something new and not with the intention of interacting with her fellow readers.
“Most people join the face-to-face book clubs for social reasons, and I was just interested in reading some different books,” Tamm says.
The smaller time commitment makes the online book club ideal for her lifestyle. Through e-mail, subscribers receive five-minute excerpts from a chapter of the novel each day for about one week.
“If you’re too busy or on vacation, you can just delete those e-mails and see what comes up next week,” Tamm says.
Pruitt is considering joining an online book club just to discuss specific books. Although there is an online discussion board added to her book club, for her, the traditional meet-and-greet format is here to stay.
“What we really like is that we eat and we socialize, so we get to know each other really well,” Pruitt says.
And although the Internet is providing new outlets for book-lovers, one of Columbia’s oldest book clubs, the Readers, is evidence that the traditional book club isn’t going anywhere.
The Readers has been around for 80 years. Membership is based on nomination from current members, and members present their choices at monthly meetings to suggest the next read.
“It’s fascinating to hear about books (the other women) choose,” says Columbia resident and Readers member, Rachel Harper. “It’s just another community of readers.”
