Anne here, pondering book clubs.
Years ago a friend invited me to join her book club. I refused. Nicely, but firmly.
"Too much like my work," I said, attempting diplomacy. At the time I was teaching English and English Literature and the thought of reading and discussing worthy books that other people chose — in my own time! — was not my idea of fun. In those days any time I had for free reading was precious and I wanted it to be entirely untrammeled, unregulated and with no need to justify my choices to anyone.
"But it's great. It makes me read," my friend said. "I have to read books that I otherwise wouldn't. It's good for me."
I shuddered. Spare me books that are good for me. Too Victorian-era for words. Besides, I don't need anything to make me read. I read constantly and always have. To me reading is a joy, not an ought-to-do.
"It's fun," my friend persisted. "We all meet at each other's places and bring food. You'll make new friends."
"Sorry I just don't have the time," I lied.
And for years I've maintained that position. That original book club has continued to flourish and once a month my friend reads her book (or not) and happily heads off to the meeting. It's a social occasion as much as anything and over the years strangers have become good friends. And I've met some of them socially and they're lovely. But I'm not sorry I refused the invitation.
I can't claim to be entirely outside the bounds of book clubs. I've been a member of an on-line Georgette Heyer reading group for more than ten years. But I've read and reread all the Heyers so often it doesn't really count. I join in the discussion if I feel like it and remain silent a good part of the time.
I'm not saying I don't enjoy discussions about books. I love books and love talking about them with other people. It's the organizing of it I recoil from. Oh, I know if you're in a group you need to be practical, but for me planning to read in advance takes the joy out of it. I usually have several books on the go at any one time, and a teetering to-be-read pile standing by to tempt me to stray if the mood strikes for something different.
Most people assume the book club is a fairly modern phenomenon, and in some ways it is. Certainly book clubs are more popular now than ever, nourished by the internet, but it's by no means a new thing.
According to Lisa Rufle, the origin of the bookclub can be can be traced back as early as the 1720s. And K.A. Manley writing about the Sedbergh Book Club (1728—1928) here said: "Country book clubs...mark a transition between the informal lending of books among friends and neighbours and the desire to instiutionalize and formalize such a practice." He (she?) adds: "Reading is a personal and intense experience, but the book club added a social and sociable, dimension."
The earliest documented book club existed in Meppershall, Bedfordshire in 1704 and contained twelve gentlemen who subscribed one pound annually and divided the books among themselves at the end of each year. Since this is the first documented book club, it's very likely that others existed in earlier times, but as Manley points out, "the idea of a group of men meeting in private to discuss the latest productions of the printing presses would have been considered subversive, and, in the previous century, heretical."
In the Regency era, circulating libraries were extremely popular, and formal and informal gatherings of readers to discuss the latest offerings became common.
Rachel Jacobsohn, author of The Reading Group Handbook, wrote about a reading group comprised of " white glove-wearing, hat-wearing, tea-drinking, elitist old white women" from the late 1800s. This exclusive group was restricted to members who inherited a place among the coveted club. These early book clubs were formed for a mix of educational and social purposes, and were exclusive, open only to the educated, moneyed classes. (Pic: Olathe Ladies Reading Circle, now celebrating its 125th anniversary.)
However I would argue that there was another kind of book club, where ordinary unprivileged people gathered to share and discuss a story. These were people who could not read, who came together so that an educated reader could read aloud to them.
The stories of Charles Dickens are a case in point. They were serialized, and as each new episode was released, unlettered folk would gather to hear it read, perhaps as they were working, perhaps in a tavern, or in someone's home. Being read aloud to was a common pastime then, for all walks of life, and you can be sure the listeners would discuss each episode thoroughly afterward.
Dickens, knowing this widespread practice, wrote with that in mind, honing his writing to sound well to the ear, to conjure up images that would be taken up by listeners, by using punctuation and spelling to assist the reader to grasp the accents and expressions of the characters, and by using life-like dialogue to bring alive the characters to a greater extent than many writers before him. It certainly expanded his fame far beyond an audience of educated readers.
It wasn't only fiction that was spread this way. The Mechanics Institute Movement was begun in 1799 when Dr George Birkbeck conducted a series of free lectures for the working men of Glasgow. (In those days "mechanic" meant any man who worked with his hands -- ie an artisan or tradesman. The movement spread throughout the British Empire, as well as the USA, and part of the program was the reading and discussion of books, ideas and technical matters in groups, for literacy was still an uncommon skill for working people. (Pic: Cigar Makers Being Read To in a Cuban cigar factory. Ca. 1900-1910.)
So book clubs have a long, varied and honorable history. I can appreciate their benefits, in the past and now, but I've never been tempted to join one -- until recently.
So do you belong to a book club? If so, tell us about it. Is it organized formally or informally? Is it internet based or face to face. What do you like about it?
Or are you still going it alone, reading as the whim takes you, unregulated, untrammeled and free?