Start a Summer Book Club with Artistic Flair
Thinking about starting a summer book club? Here are some ideas to bring artistic finesse to your book club and even a few suggestions for books to read.
Summer is a great time to catch up on your reading, crafting, and relaxing. This summer, I’m hoping to finally make it to the end of “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo. I’m on page 374 of 798. It’s going to take perseverance, but I’m ready to have this book checked off my reading list. Unfortunately, I couldn’t convince anyone to take on the challenge of reading an almost 800 page book, so I am going it alone. Next time, I’d like a partner.
So for my next book, I was thinking that a book club would be a wonderful summer activity when the heat of the mid-afternoon sends us all indoors and we look for the solace of a good book.
Here are a few ideas to get your book club off the ground:
Invitations
Nothing will convince a person to spend hours of their life reading a book with you than a personalized invitation to make them feel special. This project from The Studio was originally meant to announce a book exchange, but it would be perfect to invite people to your book club as well. Wrap the first book they’ll be reading in kraft paper and attach a library card with their name on it and information about the group’s meetings.
These invitations are sure to thrill the recipients. Plus, they can put the library card on the inside of the book to remind them of the date and time of meetings or they can jot notes about which chapters they are reading next.
Setting the Mood
Book clubs should be fun! It seems obvious, but I’ve seen one too many book discussions where things turned ugly or the entire group was unable to finish the monstrous number of pages that were assigned (I read 250 pages in a week for one of them). Even if you only discuss four pages that week, the priority should be on enjoying yourself. Provide snacks, kick off the shoes, dress collectively in sweatpants — anything to add to the pleasure and enjoyment of reading a good book.
Another option for bringing the fun up a notch is to craft together. Make a group t-shirt or create these customized book covers. If the book gets too overwhelming, have a free week where you just hang out. In fact, you could even make it a game that anyone who says the word “book” has to do something crazy, like hop on one foot. Or, you could create a project that is inspired by the book you’re reading, like these Alice in Wonderland-themed bookmarks.
Picking a Book
Picking a book for a group of readers can be a daunting task. However, my advice would be to start with a classic that your members haven’t read in a while or that some members haven’t read at all. Classics seem to always be on everyone’s “to read list,” and assigning one for a book club could be the perfect motivation to finally tackle it. Picking a classic also means that there are more resources when something doesn’t make sense or needs explaining.
A bad book can spell disaster for a book club. If you pick something that was just released, make sure that the book you choose has some good reviews before committing.
Here are some classic titles to start a book club with:
- “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
- “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett
- “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte
- “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen
- “The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain
- “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain
- “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger
- “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf
- “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
- “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens
- “The Other Boleyn Girl” by Philippa Gregory
- “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck
- “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley
- “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert
- “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie
- “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift
I hope your book club is a huge success. As C.S. Lewis once said, “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
Are you reading a great book right now? Have an idea for how to artistically motivate other readers? Leave a comment below to tell us!
Posted: Tuesday, May 12th, 2015 @ 2:10 pm
Categories: How-To Project Tutorials.
Tags: book club, book exchange, book projects, bookmarks, Books, bookworm, crafty, creative, DIY, How-To, Inspiration, project, Projects, summer book club.
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If it is a really good friend, I will buy him/her a copy, make a fun bookmark, and let my friend know, we will go for lunch and discuss it and gossip, after we have both finished reading it, and I will pick up the tab! He/she can leave the tip!
That’s a great way to get your friend to read the book with you! I’ll have to remember that. I’m thinking I’ll need a partner when I try to tackle “Madame Bovary.”