Book Club Observation

I observed the "Night Owls" book club that met in a less-than-year-old branch of a major metropolitan library system on a Thursday evening. As a "new member," I asked only to observe for the session and all were happy to oblige me. The title under discussion was "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens. The group was comprised of all women, save me. The ages of the members ran from middle age to senior citizen, with a librarian facilitator who looked to be in her late 20s or 30s. The group was happy to have a male attend, finally. There were two other first-time attendees, though I was not aware one of them was new as she not only was already sitting with the group when I arrived but also took part in the discussion like a seasoned member.

There was not a leader of the group, per se, but one of the members who was a "founding member" got things started by having us all introduce ourselves, gave a brief history of the group (having had to move from a closed location to this one after trying others), and started a brief summary of the book. The group did not have a formal question and answer format or prepared questions to follow; rather, it was more free-flowing, with the discussion going off into tangents and being brought back by various members after those discussions trailed off. The questions that were asked were open-ended and grew organically from the discussion, such as "Well, what did you think about  . . . ?" and "Did you get the idea that . . . ?"

All attendees did not participate fully, but most of the existing members did. It took a while for some of the members to warm up to speaking in a group, possibly as a result of three new people being present, and one woman's elderly mother rarely took part, but I suspect it was because she may have been mostly deaf and was at one far end of the table setup. There wasn't one member who took charge and became the focal point, but as with all groups, there were members who were more vocal.

The group was meeting in a small alcove of a room set along the wall of the main section of the library that was also under an upper section accessed by a long ramp into which the alcove was set. It was called the purple room by the group and they found out while I was there that it is officially called the purple room by the library. As the group had reached nine members (without me), plus the librarian, they would henceforth be meeting in a larger room. The room had two rectangular tables, separated, with a long, cushioned bench on the far side of the tables and chairs on the other side nearest the entrance. It wasn't the best set up for so large a group as members at either end of the table had to strain to hear or take part. There was not a door in the glass "wall" towards the main section of the library, so it was good the library was quiet that evening, without much noise or other distractions. Snacks or drinks were not provided.

The Night Owls is not a group that is designed around one particular type of book, it seems, as the books recently finished and the list of upcoming titles for the year varied. The next book was "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine," while they had just finished "The Goldfinch." Other titles they've recently read include "The River," "The Great Alone," and two non-fiction books about Tennessee orphans. With a classic, "Rebecca," on tap for this summer, the titles seem to be not one particular genre, but they do seem to be the regular types of books a women's book club would choose. And while the Night Owls is not necessarily a women's book club, the fact I was the first male to attend speaks to it functionally being a female book club and the book choices seem to reflect that. Anyone can recommend a title and the group voted on a slate of books for the rest of the year. This was interesting because an article about book clubs I recently read mentioned the owner of a book store who said men are more likely to plan out a schedule of books for a club than women, who are more likely to want to see what new books are published and "go with the flow."

The book club was a pleasant experience and they were all happy to have me and the other new attendees. We were happily asked back for the next month. It was nice the group felt comfortable enough with each other to speak freely, ask questions of each other, and not feel reluctant to say they didn't remember something from the book or not know what happened. There was not any ridicule of members who either didn't finish the book or who didn't know what happened, something that could and does make book clubs into unpleasant experiences.