What happens in book club... stays in book club
What a fun night! I have to say I was a little bit nervous about how it would all work out- but with good stories, good conversation, and gingersnaps... how can you go wrong?
What I enjoyed about the book club:
As the evening progressed I noticed a burgeoning camaraderie. It wasn't that we always agreed with each other, but we all started to understand each other's opinions and responded to each other's thoughts in turn. Some group discussions remind me of that old theater joke, "Blah-blah, blah, blah.... MY LINE- blah, blah, blah-blah-blah... MY LINE". That wasn't the situation at all for our group. We were attentive, we agreed, we disagreed, and we built a conversation around the texts we read- not merely contributing random and disjointed ideas and thoughts.
My biggest surprise of the night:
I was pleasantly surprised with how well all of our choices fit together. They all had a loose theme of "looking to the future"- whether more science fiction or a hope for a better tomorrow (literally). In every story, there were decisions made- or to be made- that affected each story's outcome. Maybe a better explanation of the theme that developed is "the consequences of our actions- good and bad".
-Complex stories that are also enjoyable
-A loosely structured format for time keeping and question asking
-Cookies
My main take-away from the experience:
Looking back, it would have been helpful for all of the groups to provide a quick recap of each story before we jumped into our questions. This would have helped to trigger our memories and ideas to share before we were asked to share them. In general, the group was more
interested in talking about broad concepts- and not always specific details about the text. Though I did notice when we became too far removed from the text, someone (usually the text's moderator) would highlight a specific line or a moment from the text. This was a good tool for getting our group back on track. Finally, I am reminded of my tendency to ask leading questions- so leading that sometimes I just -ooops!- provide the answer to my question as I am asking it. I need to be more comfortable with silence . . . . . . . . . . and trust my group's ability to devise their own answers.
I just had a thought, Chris and Amber- were we the only all-female book club?
I couldn't agree more--I felt like there was a lovely sense of cameraderie and we were all really interested and engaged with the stories we were discussing! In addition, I thought it was really nice that we were all so respectful of each other; even when stories occurred that we did have different opinions about, we could hold different views without anybody going, "Well, how could you possibly think THAT? Clearly *I* am right." Which is really nice and...not all conversations about stories I have had have gone so well, particularly in cases of divergent opinions.
ReplyDeleteWe were, in fact, the only all-female book club!
I agree, I struggled to avoid leading questions. I really enjoyed my reading and had opinions about it. While it is very important that the participants connect with the reading at hand, or have at least have a strong response, I wonder if it is almost better to have the facilitator be a little less invested in the reading...?
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question, Emma. I wonder if it might be better if the facilitator was not the "chooser" of the reading selection? This book club is probably different than most- though it was casual it WAS for a class and we all felt the need to uphold our choices academically. I'm guessing that in a library setting there would be less "defending" of a book and more open discussion about it.
ReplyDeleteI found myself biting my tongue quite a few times, too, while facilitating the discussion. Luckily, our group had a lively, comfortable conversation, which allowed Andrea and I to sit back and only interject when the conversation started to slow down. It helped that everyone talked to /each other/, as opposed to directly looking at the moderator every time they said something. A round table would've helped with this even more, as you suggested!
ReplyDeleteI think it's really cool that your group unintentionally selected texts that revolved around a certain theme! Did this influence what kinds of questions you posed to the group, in terms of improvising or coming up with questions on the spot about this theme?
Yes Claire- I know that I included some questions about what I felt was our common "theme"- it also came up in the discussion at the end of the evening- many agreed that we did have a common theme- but there was some variation on what that theme was depending on how the readings were interpreted. VERY interesting.
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