Has your group ever been influenced by an upcoming movie based on a book, or perhaps a brewing topinc in the media and used that impetus to pick a book for your group?

One of my groups took the interest we all had in the news about the bird flu to take a look at a novel that came out that was set during the flu of 1918. 'Wicket's Remedy' was a good book, and I'm not sure we'd ahve taken it unless we had done a library search using the term 'influenza.'

We've also thought about doing a short discussion on the short story that was used to make 'Brokeback Mountain" and then go together as a group to see the movie and compare the two.

Has your group done something similar?