Deb Marks is a member of the “First Wednesday Book Group” in Sioux Falls, SD. In this interview, Deb talks about how “keeping it simple,” in terms of food and drink, allows her book club to direct their main focus toward the literature. She also discusses ways in which the group members challenge themselves, such as encouraging everyone to take part in the selection process and reading books from a broad range of genres.

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

A: We have come to call ourselves “First Wednesday Book Group,” simply because we meet on the first Wednesday of each month. This is our sixth year.

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

A: We currently have six members, all women. Our ages range from 47 to “80-something.”

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

A: We meet once a month. We gather at 9:30 am and end when we end (usually sometime between noon and 1:00 pm). We meet at members’ homes and rotate turns as host.

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

A: We eat a snack and drink tea or coffee. We try to keep it simple for the host and not make food the main focus. One exception is in January, when we share lunch together. One particularly wonderful woman feeds us a wonderful homemade soup at that meeting.

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

A: The group members take turns as discussion leaders. Most of the group leaders do make use of reading group guides to at least some degree. Everybody has their own style, however, and other resources are sometimes included.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: We make an effort to read a variety of genres, including fiction, nonfiction, historical fiction, regional authors, science fiction, biography, mystery and classics. We don't always cover every genre, but we do make an effort to cover a range and to read things that we might not normally find on our own bookshelves.

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 meet from September to May. Usually, during the April meeting, we select books for the following “reading year.” Usually, every member has suggestions/contributions, and we try to incorporate these while still addressing our effort to cover the range of genres. In May, each member receives a printed copy of the new schedule, including book title, author, host and discussion leader, as determined at the previous meeting.

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

A: We surprised ourselves by our lively discussion of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card. Nobody had read science fiction before, and we were pleased to be so drawn into the stories and impressed with the writing. We have had good discussions of a couple of Margaret Atwood books as well: The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace. Other great discussions included Cry, the Beloved Country and The Good Earth.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: I cannot honestly think of anything that we purposefully do to keep things fun. We have a general social time with our snacks for the first half hour. This seems to help us “clear the air” so we can focus on the book discussion afterwards. However, this social time of sharing has also brought us closer together as a group, and I think that the caring attitude we have towards each other simply makes the gathering positive. Also, we feel good about reading and discussing books.

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

A: Since we all take turns hosting the gatherings and leading the discussions, I think that we find it easy to appreciate the contribution that each person makes to the group. Also, since everybody contributes to the reading list, we are all challenged by the material at some point. It gives a good balance that works for us.

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

A: I really have no extreme moments to report. We were fortunate to meet with a local author on one occasion, which greatly enhanced our discussion of her book, the emptiness of our hands. When I think about it, I'm glad to realize that I have no horror stories to tell. Amusing moments are simply a built-in feature of our group.

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

A: We meet on the first Wednesday of each month. After the first year, we realized that it was difficult to read a book for the meeting in January. So the next year we started watching a movie in January --- a movie of one of the books we have read. This has been a good solution for us.

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