Book Club Experience

For my book club experience I went to a nearby public library. The book club’s name is the South Haven Bookends. The club is led by Sarah, the branch manager. There were a total of ten people, eight attendees, me observing, and Sarah leading.

The meeting began at 7 PM, yet it took a moment for Sarah to reign everyone in from the conversations they were having. The first piece of business she took care of was informing them of their next book. Once that was settled, she handed out the discussion questions for their current book, Beloved by Toni Morrison.

Even before the meeting started, most of the ladies confessed to not finishing or not even starting the book. It seemed like only two to three people actually finished the book, one of whom was the woman who had read it before and requested it as one of the group’s reads. The biggest complaint from people was that it was too all over the place and very confusing. Even for those who finished the book, they did not understand what it meant. 

Once everyone had voiced their frustrations, Sarah began going through the discussion questions. They were mostly open ended questions. If anything was a yes or no question, it was followed by another question. Since I kept the paper, here are a couple of the questions:

• “Is Beloved a ghost? Is she a dead person come back to life? Or is she a random girl who’s been possessed by the spirit of Beloved?”
• “What would this story be like if Sethe and her kids weren’t African American? Could the story even exist?”

Sarah usually did not answer the questions, especially not first. There were a couple of ladies who consistently started off answering. One of them was the woman who had chosen the book and another was the woman on my left. Although these two would usually start, the others almost always joined in. There were only a couple of ladies who did not say much. And I did not say anything because I was observing, even though I kind of wanted to say something a couple of times. 

Overall, the atmosphere of this book club was very friendly. Everyone seemed to be having a great time hating on the book together. There were several times they got sidetracked on other topics and Sarah had to bring them back to the questions. I had been warned of this possibility by the woman to my right. She had begun talking to me before the meeting and told me a bit about the way the club usually goes. She also told me how this book club compared to the one she went to when she lived in Illinois. That one had been in a home, yet still organized by the library. She was surprised when she moved to Indiana and found that this one was actually at the library.

Since the book club was quite enjoyable, even though I had not read the book and was only observing, I would really like to return someday and actually participate. One of the ladies was talking to me after the club and let me know they do a variety of books. I feel this would be a great opportunity for me to read new books and step out of my comfort zone. It helps that this group of ladies were so friendly and welcoming. So, even though I get nervous in group settings, I feel I could get comfortable with this one. And then we would all be discussing books! What fun!

Readers' Advisory History - Special Topics Paper Summary

For my special topics paper I looked at the history of readers’ advisory (RA). 

In “Rediscovering the History of Readers Advisory Service,” Bill Crowley discusses the RA’s development through the twentieth century. He believes that RA has always been around, but it began to get its name in 1876, the year the American Library Association (ALA) was formed and the Library Journal began its publication. Both Crowley and Joyce Saricks agree that some of the biggest developments in RA occurred between 1920 and 1940. The biggest difference in RA from then to now is that nonfiction was the focus whereas fiction is now. Adult education was very much the reason for RA during the early to mid-1900s. Yet, this seems to be why patrons’ reading lists were very didactic and librarians seemed to quickly pass moral judgments on readers. 

By the time World War II came along there was a lot less time for leisure reading. Thus, RA began to die away until its revival near the end of the century. Crowley points to 1984 as the revival year because of organizations such as the Adult Reading Round Table (ARRT) forming and librarians writing more about RA services. One of those librarians was Joyce Saricks. Saricks is most known for her concept of appeal. 

A more recent article by Keren Dali challenges Saricks definition of appeal. Dali argues for reading appeal over book appeal. She believes that it is more important to discover each reader’s personal interests rather than digging into what parts of a book they like. Challenges like this show that RA is still evolving and will continue to develop. Looking at this history shows how far RA has come while also inspiring future RA librarians.