Simply Reading Book Club
Geneva Oladele from Dayton, Ohio talks about her group, Simply Reading Book Club. She and her fellow bibliophiles have developed a buddy system that allows members to get to know one another better and keeps the lines of communication open among them. Read on to learn more about this group.
Q: Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in existence?
A: The group name is Simply Reading Book Club. This is our second year.
Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?
A: We started out with 13 members; we currently have 9 members. All are women, and ages run from 30 to 50.
Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet?
A: We started in May the first year, but it was decided by the group to start in March this year. Each year it ends in October as we try to stay free due to weather and the holidays. It has worked out great!
Q: Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?
A: Yes, we eat food at our meetings. Usually the one who is hosting the meeting decides if we need to bring anything or not.
Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?
A: Madam Chair (founder of the club) leads the discussion.
Q: What kind of books do you read?
A: A variety of books.
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: The host of the next meeting chooses the book.
Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?
A: One of our all-time favorites is The Red Tent.
Q: How do you keep things fun?
A: The host usually has an opener. Once, the host told us to get some M&M candies from the bag, and we all got some. For those of us who were so greedy, we had to tell others about ourselves … boy, that was a lot of fun. After we told about ourselves, we finally got to eat them.
Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?
A: Just have fun!!!
Q: Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?
A: We give gifts and we have a buddy system, where each of us calls our buddy to say hi and let them know whether or not we will be at the next meeting. The buddy in turn lets the group know at the meeting.
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