Book Club By-Laws

Book Club By-Laws

a.k.a. Words to Read By

In case you weren't around when these were established, or you've forgotten them, or you think OTHERS have forgotten them, here are the newly updated and expanded-upon rules and regulations for book selection and reading. Let me know if I've missed any.


1. Nothing over 1,000 pages. Consider length in general- if it's on the longer side but it's still an engulfing read, 700 pages might not be terrible, especially since we're establishing the books well in advance. If it's a dry biography, or even a fabulous book by a Russian author that has like 250 pages on Russian farming (I'm lookin' at you, Anna Karenina), 400 pages might be way too long. Use your judgement- but DEFINITELY don't EVER exceed 1k. Do I love Stephen King's Under the Dome? Heck yes. Will I choose it even though it's 1,096 pages and that's sort of barely over? Heck no. Sorry, Stephen.

2. No books that can be bought in a grocery store checkout line. Quality, people. No Twilight, no romance novels, and for heaven's sake, NO FIFTY SHADES OF ANYTHING. We want to become collectively smarter through this.

3. No books that require prior knowledge. Got a great book that's in the middle of the series? No thanks. Recommend the series all you want, but please don't pick it for club. Great book on something subject specific (medicine, science, history, etc) that you need to have a degree to understand? Sorry, it's not the right fit for group. This doesn't mean the book's not great, it means that it's not accessible for most people.

4. No Christian books. Sorry. I love Jesus, and so do many (most/all) of the people currently attending, but this will alienate visitors. This HAS to be a safe place to invite all kinds of people. Books about missionaries or with religious themes are fine, but please stay away from "Christian fiction".

5. Consider discussion. You may have loved a book, but if there's not much to talk about, leave it. Recommend all you want, but please don't choose it for club. For example- Stacy and I both LOVED The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and would highly recommend it, but neither of us has chosen it because it wouldn't elicit much discussion. But seriously, read it! It's lovely.

6. Don't choose a book that you feel so strongly about that you will be blind/deaf to the opinions of others. Here's a quote from my 4th favorite book of all time: "Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book, and then there are books which you can't tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal." Evangelical zeal= great! You'll spark some great discussion with people that have different views/opinions. "YOUR" books= danger! Some of us are extremely passionate about books and have a few that we can't hear other opinions about. DON'T choose those books. We want to be friends at the end of this. I'm a mostly rational person, but there are some books that I feel so strongly about that I have to resist the urge to punch people when they disagree. That's insane, I know that, and so I haven't chosen those books. End of story. On that note, some advice for readers...

7. Feel free to disagree/ skip a book... but challenge yourself. We want to grow from this, and reading the exact same type of book over and over isn't the answer to that. However... I sort of strongly dislike nonfiction, but I've grown to appreciate it because I took a few chances. I'm a better, more well-rounded reader because of it. Don't dismiss something because it's "not your thing". On the other hand, I chose to skip a specific book for personal reasons, but that didn't reflect on the book itself or the person choosing it. I just wasn't emotionally strong enough at the moment to deal. I also wanted to choose a book on the US's first serial killer using the Chicago World's Fair as a hunting ground, and I know that ruffled some feathers. That's okay- not every book is for every person. Respect the choices of others.

8. Bring your own questions/points to discuss. This is a new rule- but PLEASE bring things you'd like to discuss. The discussion questions we find online are generally surface-y and meant for book clubs that are more about the wine selection than the book selection. I've got nothing against wine at book club (seriously), but we would like to be more than that. Questions from everyone will hopefully start important, intellectual discussions. Think about quotes you love, symbolism/metaphors, author's purpose, all that jazz. It's like English class, but you don't have a really hairy old man telling you what Bradbury means and you aren't doodling in your notebook- you're involved because you WANT to be, and so does everyone else. That's kind of great, right?

And now, with that, don't forget to have your 2-3 choices for next month (May's) meeting. We'll get a variety, so choose whatever you want, and please respect what we end up coming up with. If your books aren't chosen, they'll go back in for consideration next year, and it may be just so we can ensure a variety. Thanks!

Happy reading!