Lindsay Waddell from Atlanta, Georgia talks about her reading group, The BF Book Club. This group keeps meetings exciting by making special dishes that match the book's theme and coming up with creative projects to help members get to know one another better. Read on to learn more about this self-described "rowdy and competitive" bunch from down south.

Q: Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in existence?

A: Our book club name is The BF Book Club. BF has a double meaning --- Best Friends and Berry/Furman (two private colleges that most of our members attended). We have only been in existence for 5 months, but we haven't lost a member yet and have even turned non-readers into readers!

Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?

A: We have about 12 members --- all women. Our ages range from 24-30.

Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet?

A: We meet once at the end of each month and rotate locations between four different apartments in Atlanta, GA.

Q: Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?

A: Yes! This is a big part of our meetings. We all make one dish that coincides with the book we are discussing. For instance, when we read Middlesex, we made Greek food. For What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, we had southern food. Everyone loves getting creative with cooking and we all love hosting the meetings at our respective apartments.

Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?

A: The person who selected the book (we all take turns) leads the discussion. We all try to come with three questions before the meeting to help us ease into a great conversation. We have never used the reading group guides because this is a new discovery for us. But I am sure in the future we will be using these great guides.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: We read all sorts of books. To date we have read Wicked, Bergdorf Blondes, Middlesex and What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day. We are currently reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The person picking the next book "reveals" it at the end of each meeting. It is exciting for us --- complete with drum rolls!

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: My friend Meghan --- who is the co-founder, along with me, of our club --- picks the person each time. I don't think she has any rhyme or reason to how she picks. People feel honored when she picks them. We reveal the book at the end of each meeting and then decide on the date for the next meeting. So we pick one book a month.

Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?

A: Most people's favorite book has been Middlesex. Everyone really liked it, despite some of the disturbing content. It really opened our eyes to subject matter that we knew very little about. The discussion lasted a long time and everyone had a lot of questions --- this always helps the "mood" and flow of our discussions.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: We keep it fun by coming up with creative projects. This helps us get to know other members better and keeps things interesting. For our first project, we all drew names and made bookmarks for the person we drew. For our second project, we drew names again and interviewed the person we drew and each made a "bio" about them to put in a book. Everyone did theirs differently and was very creative. We try to assign these projects every other meeting so people don't get burned out on them. Even though we are a creative bunch, we all have full-time jobs!

Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?

A: I would just tell them to be open to every book selected --- don't pick and choose what you read because you could be pleasantly surprised. I have read several books that I would have never read on my own that I enjoyed. Also, depending on how creative your group is, try to incorporate some fun projects --- like the bookmarks. It really makes it fun to give someone something that you made.

Q: Do you have any horror stories, amusing anecdotes, or other special tales to tell?

A: We don't have any horror stories really. We all mass email each other and talk about the book a little bit before the meeting takes place. Usually these emails consist of who finished the book first, different roles taken within the book club (like president, vice president, secretary, etc.) and about what we are bringing to the meeting. Usually these emails get pretty rowdy and competitive! It definitely sums up the nature of our group.

Q: Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?

A: My friend Meghan and I (the two co-founders) feel that we have turned a lot of non-readers into readers by starting this book club. Our friends joined for the social aspect and then "rediscovered" reading by participating. We feel that this is very noteworthy and a big accomplishment.

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