1. What kind of book club?
Decide on a club orientation: somewhere between highly social and seriously academic.
2. What kind of books?
Choose a literary genre or a mix of genres: fiction (current or classic), poetry, drama, mystery, sci-fi, current events, history, or biography. (See Selecting Books.)

3. How many members?
8 to 16 members are best: enough for a discussion if several are absent, but not too many to make discussions unwieldy.

4. Meeting—how often and when?

• Frequency—once a month works well for most
  clubs. Some meet every 6 weeks—if a book is
  particularly long (but it can be hard to reschedule).
  Many don't meet during the summer. Whatever you
  decide, pick a schedule and try to stick to it.

• When—weekdays: mid-morning, lunchtime, dinner,
  evening. It depends on jobs, childcare, family
  dinners or difficulty driving at night. Weekends:
  Saturday morning, Sunday afternoon or evening.

5. Where should we meet?
Homes, clubhouses, public libraries, churches, Y’s, cafes and restaurants—all make good meeting places.

6. What about food?
Never be without! Decide whether you want meals or appetizers. And of course you want food themed to the book, right?

• Check out our Book Club Recipes—more than 200   from around the world. And we're adding more.

• Home meetings—some clubs recommend letting
  the host do all the cooking—so members don't have
  to prepare a dish every time a meeting rolls around.
  Host & cook once a year—then it's over. (Or let the
  host partner with another member to share the
  cooking.)

• No compete clause—try not to make serving food a
  competition, a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses thing.
  Who needs the pressure? So establish that from the
  get-go. Chips & dip or artichoke flambe...it's okay.
7. What should we call ourselves?
Give your club an identity — Brookville Book Babes, Reading's Red Hat Readers, New London Literary Lions. Or simply the Lakewood Book Club — that works.

8. How do we keep in touch?
Send out monthly meeting reminders. If not everyone uses email, mail postcards. Distribute a complete list of phone numbers, home addresses, and e-mails.

9. Keeping memories
Keep a club journal—a 3-ring binder to keep track of the books you’ve read, plot summaries, discussion highlights, and members’ opinions. It's especially to bring new members up to speed.

10. Giving to Community
Collect dues for a scholarship or an annual literacy award at a local school. Purchase books for your local library, or become involved in a tutoring program.