Book club or fight club?

December 15, 9:45 PMSeattle Books ExaminerDanielle Dreger-Babbitt

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Are book clubs and discussion groups so 2005?  Does anyone still belong to one?  Or have book clubs morphed into knitting circles?   Earlier this month, the New York Times had a piece on book clubs and fights that often break out as a result of literary snobbery and smackdown. An example of this would be when someone in the group wants Oprah's flavor of the month and someone else wants Madame Bovary. 

The article reports that there are some four to five million book clubs in existence today.  I myself have belonged to exactly two book groups, though I'm sorry to say there were never any fist fights over title selections.  I think the biggest problem was that half the group hadn''t finished (or even read) the book and everyone wanted to gossip and eat guacamole rather than talk about character motivations and plot twists.  Both groups disbanded by the second or third book, leaving me disappointed.  But I didn't actively seek out another substitute.  The truth is, both groups made me feel a little dumb.  I might have majored in English and gotten my MLIS, but my literary tastes tend to be a little embarrassing.  I've got nothing against the classics, but we all know I'm partial to books with hot pink covers or ones about vampires.  I'm sure if I looked hard enough I might find a group in my own neighborhood that reads something closer to my taste.  But do I want to have front row seats to a book boxing match?

When I led book discussion groups for teens at the library I worked at on the East Coast there was none of this fighting.  Perhaps it helped that I chose most of the books and the teens were satisfied with what I picked.  Very rarely did they even offer up their own suggestions.  For the most part the teens were good about finishing the book before the discussion, though there were always a few who were there just for cookies and conversation.

Maybe the solution to the book/fight clubs is to have one selector or have everyone submit their choice and each month a different title is picked out of a hat.  Perhaps the variety of having Secret Life of Bees or Are You There Vodka?  It's Me Chelsea is what makes the clubs so successful.  Or maybe the solution is to read the collections of a particular author like Jane Austen (though I advise your to skip the book and the movie for The Jane Austen Book Club unless you really are looking for a time suck), that way you have fewer titles to fight over.