Book Club Love

I love book clubs. A venue whose entire reason for existence is to sit around and discuss a book that everyone in the group has read. Sign. Me. Up. Bonus points if snacks are provided and please be prepared to have to ask me to leave your house if there is wine provided. Now the book club model is pretty simple and something that doesn't require a whole lot of explanation. I, however, do love to complicate things and dream of themed book clubs. Here are some of them:

1. A Non-Book Discussion Book Club: This is weird one and honestly, I'm not even sure I would be able to figure out how to make it work in a sustainable way. The basic idea is that everyone reads the same book, but instead of talking about the book: characters, writing style, story, etc. and, they can talk about things that might be related to the book.  For instance, if the book was The Paris Wife, you can talk about high school and college romances  featuring horrible partners that were endless fascinating at 16 and now sort of make you want to smack your younger self.

2. A Young Adult Book Club for Adults: I have previously said that I love me some young adult literature. I have also very lightly touched on the fact that it is, at times, not as highly respected as I feel it should be. I feel like a book club for adults would give adults a venue to seriously discuss pieces of literature that are ignored as 'literature' simply because their genre contains the word 'young'. Despite the word 'young' these are works with incredible depth and emotional range, with a focus on a time in life that most people remember as transformative and meaningful, whether they were great or sort of miserable. Discussing these titles from a perspective of adult experience inspires a completely different discussion of what the story means than it may from the perspective of a teenager. I think teens should absolutely have their own book clubs as well, but I think adults who enjoy the young adult genre should also be have an opportunity to discuss their reactions.

3. A Wine Tasting Book Club: Enough said. If this requires explanation, either for format or why it would be amazing, I have to doubt your creativity, commitment to being awesome, and general intelligence.

4. A Read Anything Book Club: This is my dream. No really. DREAM. Basically, it's an opportunity to hang out and discuss what you've read lately. I particularly like this idea, especially for a library setting, as it would not require any type of preparation on the part of patrons, which I think would be an attraction for people who think they're too busy to commit to a book club (a claim I take issue with and will no doubt address at some point). I also love this idea as it would work for any age group and could be formalized and made more relaxed as would work in your library. For example, in a book club for children the theme could be siblings, and all kids had to do was find a book whose main character had a sibling. This would allow children to become comfortable talking about books and stories, something I think that increases pleasure in reading, as well give then an opportunity to find something new to read from their peers.

I myself am part of two book clubs currently and could definitely see myself joining more in the future.

Program Anxiety

I haven't been working in library very long. Just over 6 months in fact and although there are parts of my job I feel fairly comfortable with and confident that my response will be the right one, I am still struggling with nerves in regards to other responsibilities. The number one part of my job that is causing me stress is program planning.

Now for anyone familiar with current library philosophy you know that the library is no longer the temple of scholarship and silence it once was. In fact the library of today is downright noisy with singing from story time, questions from patrons about job searches and computers, and applause from lecture series. Part of my job is to provide the impetus for this noise in the form of programming. The nice thing is that a program can be almost anything and that my direct manager is all for trying new things. The point being that you never know what will work and will thus bring people to the library as a community center, but also that the worst you can do is fail.

And there's where I get caught- the possibility of failure. I really can think of nothing I fear more than the possibility of failure. I've done a few programs so far and most have been ok. At least one has been great (A Hunger Games Trivia Tournament). But my most recent one can be described as nothing but as failure, as no one came. Not one. single. person. It seemed like such a slam dunk too! It was Wii! For teens! I had chips and dip! Honestly, I would have gone, you know if it wasn't my program and further more deeply creepy for an adult woman to attend a library program aimed at teens. There were reasons the normal crowd of kids I get at my programs weren't there, including choir practice, first week back from spring break attributed lethargy, and a heavier than normal homework load,  but the fact remains not one kid played.

Now I feel shaky. I have another program this week that I know won't be popular (book spine poetry). I've questioned whether I should cancel or just do something like Wii, that I think will be more popular.  Maybe that's the smart thing to do. Truthfully, I've never been accused of being smart all the time, so I'm going to stick with my book spine poetry. In part because I think it will be so much fun to do, but further because although the library is a community  center, and a place for lectures, and games, and even the occasional game of Wii with some chips and dip on the side, at its core I do believe the library is still a place of scholarship and even more important than that a place where literacy and awareness of the larger world can be fostered. Even if my book spine poetry goes over like a lead balloon and if the book clubs for teens and college age students I'm thinking of starting have similar fate in the future, I'll keep trying the literacy based programs, because one is bound to work sometime. Until then I have trivia tournaments, Wii, and crafts to sustain me.