My roommates and I started a book club quite awhile ago, maybe even a couple of years ago now. It started out just the three of us, and now it has grown to a whopping five! We’ve had some people drift in and out from time to time, but the five we have now are steady. I like it to be small like this though, because we can be flexible with each other and the discussion is much more interactive with less people.

We read a book a month, then meet over dinner or coffee to talk about what we read. Pretty simple. Some books we talk about for an hour nonstop, and others we find ourselves out of things to say after about ten minutes. Our discussions are rarely literary or high-minded. It’s just our thoughts and impressions spilling out. I find that I enjoy books much better after having talked about them with others. I gain so much insight this way.

For example, tonight we discussed the book Atonement by Ian McEwan. It was definitely one of the better books we’ve chosen. It was beautifully written, suspenseful in its own way, haunting, sad, hopeful, and surprising. I loved it, but after our meeting tonight I realized I had totally missed a couple of important points. Now I feel its impact even more.

Other book club favorites of mine:

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Stardust by Neil Gaiman