Each member of our group takes a turn selecting a book. We have one member that is in charge of keeping track whose turn it is and what the upcoming books will be.

That person is also responsable for notifing our book store in time that they can order the book.

We limit our selection to books that are in print. Local libraries may have enough copies, but we do not count on that. Granted this means that many great out-of-print books do not get selected, but we don't all have easy access to used book stores.

In my group we try to keep an on going list of two books per member.

We also have a website for our group so the order of who actually picks the reading selection is always saved on the site. When it's your turn to pick a book you can choose any book on the list, even if it's one that someone else placed on the list.

Bobbie

We do it more like Mooncrest. Each meeting is hosted by a different member. The host picks the book.

We like that option because of the variety. We initially tried to agree on books or on a list of books, but it was difficult to get agreement. When the host is free to pick anything she wants we end up with a wonderful variety of books.

We are fortunate to live within a wonderful library system. Almost all of the books that we choose are available through the library. We ask them to gather 9 copies of a book. The library system ships all of the books to one library where we can pick them up. They'll allow us to renew them too.

We utilize Yahoo Groups as our online resource. There we keep track of whose turn it is and upcoming selections. I can also use it to notify the group of special interest items (usually movie openings that we're all interested in), meeting minutes, and reminders.

We have a good library system here as well and many of our members use their resources (we don't force anyone to buy the book). Our group was founded by two staff members at our local B&N store, so we stay out of loyalty and it is centrally located, whereas the nearest library branch is not so convienent.

I've tried to host extra events at my house, but turn out is not usually that great.

Cheers,

We use Yahoo groups for our book club too. We rotate with those members who want to select books. When it thier turn they put three of their choices up on a poll...then the rest of the group selects one of hose choices. We do a book to movie selection and I pull three choices from that database and then poll them. We also do three weeekend meetings with books that are 600 pages or more and I pull three from that database to be polled.

I think Yahoo databes feature is great for a book club. We have several: monthly books, larger books, books to movies, good books with no guides, beach reads (light humorus books) and one that shows all our past selections.

We meet at a restraunt...but the person who picks the book can choose to host that month at thier home if they choose.

I’m the true “book lover” of our group and all of us have known each other for many, many years so every six months or so I gather a list of books with summaries and reviews and we select from the list I compile. I choose several genres and books less than 400 pages or so (a couple of our members don’t want books longer than this unless I prep them that this is a true, not to be missed book). The retired member of our group always hosts and we often get takeout from a favorite Chinese restaurant, pizza, or everyone brings a dish to pass.

Currently we are reading a book series so we read the next book of the series every other month. We have really enjoyed reading the series and will be sad when we finish it. I hope we can find another series that we enjoy as much :-)

Our group also has a yahoo group at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SATX_ReadersCircle

We have a different genre every month (listed at our group site above); members make suggestions; and a poll is then created in which all vote for their 2 favorite choices.

Sally
Moderator
SA ReadersCircle

I am in 2 book clubs and choosing the book seems to be the biggest challenge in both. A friend (who is not even in a book club) made a suggestion that we are going to use in at least one club-- each member writes one book that they REALLY want to read on a slip of paper. Then we just pick them out of a hat for the order we will read them in. We hope to eliminate some members monopolizing the book choice and make others who have made no prior suggestions do some "homework' and have some input in the process.

We've tried several ways to chose books. Picking out of a hat, the host chooses the book, and picking books during a discussion. Recently we decided to circulate the books through an email to each member, similar to a newsletter. The email includes a picture of the book jacket and a brief description of the book. We like to choose booiks for months ahead since we all love to read more than one book a month and this offers us the ability to read ahead. Some of the members who "belong" aren't always able to attend discussions, and this was a way for everyone to participate. Moslty it offers the time needed to make an informative decision since we've been stuck with some impromptu choices that weren't worth the read.