Canton Book Club
Many thanks to Arlee Smith of Farmington, CT and Joanne Pierce of Canton, CT for sharing their reading group with us.
Q. Does your group have a name? How long has your group been in existence?
A. The name of our group is the Canton Book Club. It was formed in 1965.
Q. How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?
A. Over the years the membership has ranged between ten to fifteen. No men are in the group. When the club began all the members were young mothers about the age of thirty. At present everyone is over fifty.
Q. How often do you meet? Where do you meet? Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?
A. The club meets once a month about ten to twelve times a year. We meet in the homes of the members. Before the book discussion we have dessert and coffee served by the hostess.
Q. Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?
A. Each member takes a turn leading the book discussion. Reading group guides are used occasionally when they are available. Otherwise, we use literary sources form the library.
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. Our book club meets regularly the second Monday of the month. When the club began, we met at 7:00 PM. The meeting time was changed to mid afternoon when the membership aged and retired. We have one lunch meeting, usually in June, to plan and organize our schedule for one year. Each member recommends two to three books. The members vote for one of her suggestions. She is then responsible to lead the discussion of the book chosen by the group. At the lunch meeting the schedule is put together assigning date, book, hostess and reviewer. One member volunteers to type and send it to everyone in the club.
Q. What kind of books do you read? What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?
A. We read mostly fiction and occasional biographies, poetry and plays. Our best discussions and favorite books are the classics and current books of literary merit (Booker, Pulitzer, Nobel Prize, etc.) The new translations of The Odyssey and Beowulf were recently discussed accompanied by professional readings from the recorded audio versions. As a general rule, we avoid books on the "Bestseller" list.
Q. How do you keep things fun?
A. For fun we plan outings of a cultural nature: Tanglewood (summer Boston Symphony), New York City and Hartford Stage (plays we've read), University of Hartford (author/lecture series), etc.
Q. What advice would you give to other reading groups?
A. Our advice to other reading groups: Read the classics and worthwhile contemporary books written by authors of distinction.
Q. Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?
A. Our group is unique in many ways. We are old friends and our husbands do not know each other. Some of the members live in surrounding towns, and we choose to keep the name of the Canton Book Club. There is a strong sense of loyalty. We are an active woman's group who love to read and share our book experiences with each other.
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