Multicountry Book Group?
So there are several of us interested in reading Three Cups of Tea. I was just reading a blog I visit sometimes, of an aid worker (formerly) working in Afghanistan, and she just read it. And then one of her commenters also had written a review about it. And I had an idea: let’s start a book group together! We’ll read Three Cups of Tea first, in December or January, and go from there. I love the idea of a book group focused on nonfiction books like Three Cups of Tea, but am open to other inspirations too. And maybe we could talk about it through emails, or through a discussion group of some kind, or even all get together on the phone or Skype. How many of you have been in a book group before? I’ve always wanted to, but never found (or started) the right group.
What do you think?
Tags: book group, three cups of tea
November 7th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
I’m in a very active book group here in Sweden that is a sub-group of the local AWC. It’s great! We did try to have a message board version for members that had moved away and still wanted to participate but it didn’t work very well and petered out rather quickly.
I also have another friend who tried a Facebook book group which went well for one book and then again, petered out. Too hard to keep it all together, I suppose, and people really need the in-person dynamic to make it work, I think.
November 7th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Thanks for sharing… I’d only been part of one other book group effort that tried something online, and it petered out too… but am optimistic. Need to seek out a local group here in Barcelona too. What is the AWC?
November 8th, 2009 at 7:06 am
Glad to find your blog again through Juan’s facebook post! I like the multicountry book group idea. We do not have to commit ourselves to do this for a long term. We should just focus on this first book, and I think it would be great if the bookclub takes place even only once for this book.
I think “Three cups of tea” was the first book chosen by the the ICE alumni bookclub in SF. I thought that was a really neat idea, but I never participated (bad!) I might prefer doing a bookclub online as it will give me more time to reflect. It also gives a fair chance to those who are not vocal (like myself) to contribute : )
November 8th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I like your idea that it could just be this book Yukie. So maybe the question to pose my readers is this: Who’s in for reading this book in December or January? We’ll enjoy it and see how it goes. I’m kind of excited about the idea of starting an email thread that we all keep going for the month we’re reading it. How about it?
November 8th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
I read this in my little book club in Santa Cruz when it first came out and found that it was an excellent book club choice given the complexities of the situations that Greg finds himself in. Even though I’ve already read it, I’d love to refresh my memory of it and participate in an online book club/discussion. December or January would work well – I’m excited about this!
November 9th, 2009 at 1:18 am
I vote for December! I think a yahoo group might work well. That way people can control how often they want to get updates or decide just to manually check our activity themselves. Another option is a simple blog (through blogger maybe?) which we could keep private if we wanted to. The more people participate, the more likely a successful online community will develop as there will be more people to keep the conversation going! Can’t wait!
xo
November 10th, 2009 at 3:23 am
I am not sure I am cool enough to join but I would love to. I also have wanted to join a book group but my schedule doesn’t allow a physical book group. Ping is great for groups…I am sure there are others as well. I love non-fiction so I am huge fan of that idea. I have of course read this book but I can skim through it to refresh my brain and would love have a conversation.
November 11th, 2009 at 4:55 am
I am in–and I really like the idea of posting thoughts as we read together. We did this in college and I loved reading the comments and discussions between classes. I’m terrible at setting stuff like that up though, so Rose or Willow I am relying on you! This will be fun. People can participate or not on the next book or books–or maybe we split off at times and a few of us read different but related books and report on them to each other for a different kind of discussion–that could be fun too.