I loved the book clubs at MR and I was a heavy participant in the three main iterations. I like book clubs; it's talking about my favorite thing. Beyond that, I read more deeply when I know I'm going to be discussing a book which is very rewarding.
I've been thinking about this since I saw this thread and I think there are three main reasons why there's no longer an active book club. That said, I think the main clubs were successful and had good runs.
- Structure. Too much structure and a club collapses under its weight; too little and nothing ever happens. We kept tweaking and tweaking the structure at the various clubs, but eventually it stopped working. And of course everyone has a different opinion on the ideal format!
- Commitment. You need a core group that will always show up. Droppers-in are nice, but they won't sustain a club over time.
- Attrition. By the nature of things, people are going to drop out, but it's hard to pull in new punters. Groups by their nature take on a "closed" aspect and are hard to crack, no matter how much they want new blood.
Going forward? Much as I'd love to see a new book club, I'm not sure there are the numbers at MR to sustain one anymore. While that doesn't mean that book discussion has to be dead, it's the book club structure that has people proposing books and showing up in a timely manner.
So. I guess I have two points if people want to discuss books here (which I would love to see).
- The commonality of interest at MR seems to be SF/F. Propose a book in the Reading Recommendations thread! Or maybe something in the Deals thread will catch people's eye! I think ad hoc discussions are probably the way forward.
- That said, remember those MGM musicals with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney? "Let's put on a show!" Anyone is welcome to start a book club. And if you want some help especially in regard to things a mod can do, only ask.