Balaklava Community Library Book Group
Kevyna Gardner talks about the serious nature of her book club, the Balaklava Community Library Book Group, and a disappointing encounter she and her fellow members had with an author.
Q: Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in existence?
A: We are the Balaklava Community Library Book Group, and have been in existence for 18 months.
Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?
A: We have 10 members, nine women and one man, ages 40-50.
Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet?
A: Once per month in the library.
Q: Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?
A: Just a dip and wine, or coffee and a biscuit. The librarian provides the food.
Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?
A: A few dominate the discussion. We will use reading group guides if we can find them on the Internet.
Q: What kind of books do you read?
A: Award winners.
Q: How do you choose your books? Do you choose one new book at each meeting, or do you choose the books for a number of meetings ahead of time?
A: We don't --- a city library, which has multiple copies of books for reading groups, sends them to us and we send them back when finished. We get only the new book at each meeting.
Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?
A: Youth by JM Coetzee, Three Dog Night by Peter Goldsworthy, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Q: How do you keep things fun?
A: We don't. We have serious discussions --- we are serious, not frivolous, readers who enjoy a "meaty" discussion.
Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?
A: Try to get a mix of people and books so you don't end up all agreeing.
Q: Do you have any horror stories, amusing anecdotes, or other special tales to tell?
A: We invited an author once and he was the biggest bore and we detested his books.
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