Book Club Survey

If any of my readers are or have been a member of a "book club" may I ask you to please complete the following survey so I can gather some field intelligence for a future posting on this subject?

SURVEY QUESTIONS:

1.) How many members typically attend your gathering?

2.) Does your book club have a "theme/subject" that guides your selection of books?

3.) If your club does have a theme/subject what is it? ______________

4.) How long has your book club been meeting together?

5.) Does your book club tend to be dominated by one or two members or is the conversation very free flowing?

6.) What is the average age of your book club membership?

7.) Which book have your club's members enjoyed the most from your perspective?

8.) Is there a certain book that was so bad you would encourage other clubs to avoid reading?

9.) Is your club membership increasing or decreasing in size?

10.) In what setting does your club meet -- home, library, university, other?


Thanks for your assistance with this basic research,

Todd

Book Club

Last night I attended my first book club meeting for the Minnesota Chapter of the National Association of Scholars (the trade group for conservative academics!). This month's selection is "Power, Faith, and Fantasy" by Michael Oren which I plan to count as two books on my 2007 reading list since it is over 600 pages long :-)

Overall the book club is dominated by historians - the one "futurist" in the room felt out of place I think but his presence was appreciated -- who are primarily retired and/or adjunct faculty members. I must note that I was a bit nervous as I drove on the Macalester College campus in St. Paul, Minnesota where the book club meets. Why? Because below the USA flag was a United Nations flag which is not on my short list of institutions I support. The baby blue UN banner was flying high (just a flag - no black helicopters!!!!) of course because former UN Secretary-General , Kofi Annan, is a Macalester alumni -- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/un/life/map2.html - with a degree in economics so clearly he did not read the same books I have in my life given his work at the UN.

Last night's discussion was active and wide-ranging so I look forward to our future gatherings. I had the pleasure of sitting next to a retired professor of Soviet studies so the Cold War Warrior in me really enjoyed our sidebar conversation. Ah, the good old days!!

It is great to have found a "home" in a new book club such as this one. I would enjoy hearing from blog readers regarding their own book club experiences.

Read with friends,

Todd

"O"

While I am no regular viewer of Oprah Winfrey's TV show - "Oprah" - I must say I am very intrigued by the influence of her book club so I had to check out the website today --

www.oprah.com/bookclub

Several immediate observations came to mind during my scan of this website:

• It does not appear to have any visitor feedback/interactivity -- why not replicate the "book club" experience of friends gathering in a living room by at least having a blog/bulletin board where readers/website visitors can "discuss" a book with each other?
• The chosen books for this book club lack any selections from the fields of - history, economics, global politics, entrepreneurship, etc. - unless I simply missed them since I did not recognize all of the titles. I would love to see her book club select a book like "The Mystery of Capital" by Hernando de Soto to get more people to appreciate the value of property rights.
• I would love to see Oprah take racism and censorship/book bans head on by selecting "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. I mention this book because it has been challenged by activist parents who find its use of the "n-word" for blacks offensive although Mr. Twain wrote the book to insult the racists.

I plan to book mark Oprah's website so I can at least monitor her book selections -- given her enormous influence all book lovers should take an interest in this vehicle for literacy.

Todd