In this interview, Sheila DeChantal of Brainerd, MN, shares details about her reading group, The Bookies. Sheila explains their criteria for choosing and rating their monthly selections, and discusses their annual potluck picnic, which benefits charity. She also reveals the reason behind their humorous aversion to classics that begin with the letter "W" and describes a unique method of recruiting new members.


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

A: We are called The Bookies, and we started in August 2001.

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

A: We have 10 consistent members and 5 occasional members. We are all women, although we've never excluded men --- it is just the way it happened. We have many husbands who read along with us but do not attend the meetings (we think they are chicken --- ha ha!).

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

A: We meet on the second Tuesday of each month at a restaurant, and we each take turns choosing where to hold the meetings.

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

A: We eat at the restaurant where we meet. Occasionally, we will meet at someone's house and potluck to the theme of the book. This means that we will center the meeting around food items that would have been eaten in, or that follow the culture of, the book.

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

A: Sheila DeChantal usually leads the discussions. The reading group guides are fantastic, and we use them whenever we can!

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: We read everything! We even have a "Classic" Month every October.

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 choose by vote, and each member there receives two votes. I don't why we each get two, but that's they way it's always been done. We follow certain criteria when choosing books: it must be a fairly new release so we can all find copies of it; we stick to paperbacks to keep our cost down; it is usually fiction, but nonfiction is allowed. We choose one book per month; the only time we pick ahead of time is in July, when we have an annual book sale and potluck. We pick our October classic then, as sometimes they are harder to find and harder to read.

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

A: Our first book club book meeting was in August of 2001, and we read Dance upon the Air by Nora Roberts. That book, which lead to a trilogy, is still one of our favorites. We also really enjoyed The Summer House by Jude Deveraux and Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard. These books lead to the best discussions! There are so many that I just can't remember them all.
 
In The Summer House we had such a great time discussing where we would like to go back in our lives and take the path not chosen. This was huge. We laughed and cried, and some shared things that never would have come out if not for this discussion.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: We change up meeting places, and we hold an annual summer potluck at a nearby park. We bring all our extra books --- the book club reads, as well as any books we wish to pass on --- and sell the paperbacks for 50 cents and the hardcovers for $1. Then, we donate the money to a charity that we voted upon. We also will have a movie night if a book we've read is made into a movie. There have been a few, like The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks.

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

A: Keep on going! I am so surprised when I think we have done this for 6 years!!!  New people join, some fade away. It is always exciting! We love to talk books, and when we all enter a restaurant with the same book, we have had great conversations with other customers and the wait staff.  We even have had a couple of waitresses join the group!

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

A: Our first classic we read as a group was Wuthering Heights. The group as a whole hated it. I rated it a 2.5 (5 is the best) just because I was thrilled I got through it.  One thing we learned about classics is that they may be difficult sometimes, but they sure are fun to review. We had a great time diagnosing Cathryn's character, created in the late 1800s, in modern terms. We found her to be bipolar and Heathcliff a total mental-abuse case. When we read Walden the following year, it was decided that we could read no more classics that started with a "W.” 

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

A: We started our group to get us out of our book ruts. Years ago, we would only read new releases by our favorite authors. When the book club started, we all came in with only those favorites. We quickly learned that we needed to step out of that box, so now we will read an author only once a year.

By doing this, we have expanded our reading to authors and topics we never dreamed we would read, and we love it! I couldn't pick a favorite author if I tried!

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ReadingGroupGuides.com interviews special reading groups around the world, spotlighting a different group each month. We hope that you enjoy reading about their experiences and might find some new ideas to try with your group. If you belong to a group that you think should be spotlighted, click here to answer our interview questions.

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