In this interview Cara Foran of Washington, DC talks about her reading group, Naked Suit. She explains the various ways in which members contribute to the discussions and provides fantastic advice on picking books for future meetings. Read on to learn more about this quirky club, whose members enjoy tackling lesser known titles, discussing culture and politics during their meetings, and...reading in the nude?

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

A: At our initial meeting 18 months ago, we realized that several of us had a secret passion for reading in the nude. One of the members mentioned it as something of a joke, and a few others admitted to a similar habit. The club became known informally as Naked Suit as a result of that revelation, and our blog can now be found at http://www.nakedsuit.com.

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

A: We've been as large as 10 members but have five core members: two guys, three gals. We're all in the 25 to 45 year-old range, except one member who just won't admit to being any specific age. Our members are from Washington, DC proper (and one from right outside the District --- in Alexandria, VA). We're desperately seeking additional (fun) members in a non-desperate way. And by "fun" we mean members who will put up with our lambasting approach to the deconstruction of both the book we have just read and anyone else in the immediate vicinity.

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

A: We meet on the second Thursday of each month. We have historically met at a teahouse in Washington, DC called "Teaism" (downstairs, where they put out free food) but recently have been meeting at a member's house.

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

A: Boy, do we ever! We typically eat ethnic food at our meetings, and drink beverages of various persuasions. The host usually cooks and the guests bring accoutrements. We have vegetarians, fence sitters, and a veg-sympathetic deer hunter in our group.

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

A: Our discussions are informal, wide-ranging, free-for-alls. We like hyphenated adjectives. We have strong opinions about the books we read. Some members write down interesting passages or page notations, or questions that occurred to them; others simply read, show up, and opine; while some don't read the book at all and appear with a strong opinion. Naked Suit uses reading guides occasionally, but typically prefers to create our own based on biographical information on the author, combined with any information about the topic we are reading, balanced with our own preconceived notions about what is right and wrong in literature.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: We think we read books that are "good," "quirky," occasionally "disturbing" and often "underappreciated." We read all over the map, but typically steer away from obvious choices.

Recent selections include You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers, Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, You Are Not A Stranger Here by Adam Haslett, When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro, Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre, Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut, Under the Glacier by Halldor Laxness, Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Air (or, Have Not Have) by Geoff Ryman, Killing the Buddha by Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet, and Child of God by Cormac McCarthy.

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: Members take turns nominating and approving book choices. We typically select books based on a recurring topic or theme in our rants. For example, we spend a great deal of time talking about religion and we have selected our September book to continue that exploration.

We like to have the upcoming month's book, as well as the next month's book, picked out as many of us buy books used online. Some logistical criterion includes page length (we try to stay under 350 pages), cost of book, and cover design.

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

A: We're lucky to have engaging discussions on almost every book we read. Each meeting ends with a Caesar-style thumbs up/down vote, and we record a group opinion on our blog. For example, we roundly hated Journal of the Dead by Jason Kersten, our only departure from fiction. The book simply could not elicit any emotion from any reader. We did not care for Small Town Odds by Jason Headley (even though he was kind enough to call during our meeting to discuss his book). We disliked Under the Glacier by Halldor Laxness and wished both he and Susan Sontag were still alive so they could have felt our criticism. We enjoyed Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap, and Air by Geoff Ryman. A "thumbs down" vote from Naked Suit is a sure career destroyer and all authors fear that even more than the advent of e-books.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: We uncontrollably stray from book conversations to other topics of interest: pop culture, organized religion, sex, politics, and Drew Barrymore. We're a left-leaning group and often find ourselves in violent agreement with one another and violent disagreement with the current Administration. To keep our meetings interesting we try to bring other experiences into our discussions. For Word Freaks we had the author attend our discussion and we ended the meeting by allowing him to beat each and every one of us at Scrabble. For Small Town Odds the author joined us by telephone and graciously answered every question put to him. We have several times questioned translations of books we've read and would be interested in getting a translator to enlighten us on their art.

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

A: Pick books that aren't obvious. Challenge yourselves each month to read things that are uncomfortable and outside the norm. Don't be afraid to use gimmicks to pick books: read seasonally, read early books from great authors or debut novels from unknown authors, read books whose themes mesh with current events, holidays, historical observances, members' life experiences, etc. Just make sure you read and meet each month!

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

A: Each member has ashamedly admitted to ultimately judging a book by its cover.

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