Mark Rumreich of Indianapolis, IN talks about his book club, The Worms. Mark and his fellow members truly believe that "variety is the spice of life." Read on to learn more about this group, which has been in existence since 1987.

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

A: The name of our group is The Worms (as in bookworms) and our theme is "Cuatro ojos ven mejor que dos" (Four eyes are better than two). We have been in existence since 1987.

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

A: 8 members. We have 5 men (aged early forties to late fifties) and 3 women (aged forties to late fifties). Of course we were all seventeen years younger when we started!

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

A: We meet every six weeks or so. Originally the chooser hosted, but in recent years Jeff and Elaine have been our perpetual hosts.

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

A: The chooser brings desert. Coffee and tea are served. At Christmas, we have a pitch-in dinner.

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

A: The chooser loosely leads the discussion, but mostly the discussion leads itself. We use the RGG when they're available.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: All genres --- fiction, nonfiction, poetry, sci-fi, biography, some classics, etc. --- but mostly modern fiction.

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: At the end of each meeting, the next person in choosing order announces the next book and we then pick the date to meet.

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

A: Best books include A Death in the Family by James Agee (score = 9), Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner (score = 9) and A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin (score = 9).

The most controversial was Girl With Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace (score = 2.0)

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: Variety. Variety in our genre of books. Variety in the members themselves (gender, age, occupation). Variety in the format --- we usually have a "book tasting contest" at our Holiday dinner, where we match the author to an excerpt of an alternate work from an author from the past year. We score each book at the end and keep a list of the scores.

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

A: Variety (see above) and commitment.

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

A: I'm sure I'll think of something better later, but I remember once when the book was available as a 400-page annotated version and an 800-page unannotated version. We discovered the fact only during discussion as people made comments like, "I don't remember that happening" or "I didn't think it was a long read."

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

A: I think our longevity is unique. We have a website at
http://www.mfr-eng.com/worms.

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