What Would Jane Austen Read? Book Club Experience

I chose to visit a book club with the name: What Would Jane Austen Read?  The premise is to use your knowledge of Jane Austen and read books that she might find enjoyable in today’s day and age.  The book club is led by a member of the Public Library Board of Directors. The day I attended there were only 4 members present.  Each person is to read a book that fits the theme of the book club, then at each meeting discuss what they read and why.  The members do not read the same book, but instead try to interest each other in different books and viewpoints. 

For this meeting, they were to find a list on the internet that had to do with What Would Jane Austen Read? and choose a book from the list that they found.  I wrote down the title of the book, the website they used, and the list they chose from.  Later, I went back and did searches to find the links to include in my report.  They are included in the What Type of Questions Were Asked section below.

The following are my observations:

Who is asking the questions, is there a leader or do people take turns?

The leader of the group was the Board of Director’s lady.  She welcomed everyone and asked how their month was and how they were doing.  She had a casual conversation with them to ease everyone in to the meeting.  She leads the group every month.

If there is a leader, does the leader answer the questions as well or let the attendees respond first?

The group is pretty informal and she started off the discussion. There were no set questions each person went around the group and discussed what book they read, if they enjoyed it, and why they thought Jane Austen would enjoy it.  They did have a method this time of choosing their books this month.  They were to track down a list on the internet that had something to do with What Would Jane Austen Read? and choose a book from the list that interested them.  The other members of the group were Bre who loves horror novels, Carolyn who likes cozy mysteries, and Jill who reads anything.

What types of questions are asked? Any involving just yes or no answers?

The conversations were a lot of monologs. The most popular questions were if there was sex, strong language, or a lot of violence in the chosen books. 

The book choices were:

Cindy, Board of director’s lady:

She used Bookbub to choose her book this time.  There is a list called “13 New Books to Read if You Love Jane Austen”.  https://www.bookbub.com/blog/new-books-like-jane-austen

She chose a book called Belgravia by Julian Fellowes.  She loves Downton Abbey and the author is the creator of that series.  She enjoyed the book as she stated she enjoys reading books set in the early 1800s.  The characters were enjoyable and she recommended the book.   She thought Jane would enjoy reading it to see another side to the London society.  She also thought she would enjoy the character interactions with each other.

Bre who loves horror novels:

Bre chose: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.  (Everyone burst out laughing at the surprise of the book chosen.)  Bre laughed too and began her explanation.  She did not use a book list but she had heard about some of the mashups of taking books and giving them a horror twist.  She thought Jane might get a kick out of seeing Elizabeth Bennet as a “bad ass” zombie killer.  She answered a question that even though there was gore, a lot of the story was still close to the original.  Bre did enjoy it but she still likes more “horror” in her stories.

Carolyn who likes cozy mysteries:

She did a search for “cozy mysteries Jane Austen would like”.  She stumbled across an actual cozy mystery series called Jane Austen Mysteries which has 13 books in the series.  She was very excited to share her find as it gives her a new series to read.  She started with book 1, Jane and the unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, by Stephanie Barron.  She didn’t talk too much about the book itself, but more about that she was fascinated with the author actually using Jane herself as the title character.  She thought Jane would enjoy seeing herself as a sleuth. She chattered quite a while about her find.  She plans to read the rest of the series. 

Jill who likes to read anything:

Jill used Goodreads to choose a book.  She went to the list search and typed in Jane Austen.  She went with Best Jane Austen FanFiction.  https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/405.Best_Jane_Austen_FanFiction

She got excited when she found Austenland; she had watched the movie but did not realize it was based on a book.  She also was excited to find out it was a series.  (I was personally excited by this myself because I enjoyed the movie and didn’t know it was based on a book, either!)  But then she read the books… there we two in the series and while she enjoyed Austenland by Shannon Hale, she did not really enjoy the sequel; Midnight in Austenland. She was even more disappointed there were only two in the series.   So she had read both books but really enjoyed the first one more. 

After Austenland, the meeting went off the rails on a tangent of places people can go that feel like a book or a movie (Harry Potter at Universal, the Ice Castle Hotel that was just featured in a Hallmark movie, etc.)  This discussion went on about 20 minutes before the Director lady realized it was really time to finish up for the night.     

 

Do all attendees actively participate?

Yes, they all participated.  There were a couple of extra chatty members.

Do any attendees swoop in and steal all the spotlight?

Bre and Jill led the tangent on going to places that feel like the movie or book.  Although it was an entertaining conversation, it really excluded the other two and they looked a little frustrated as they started looking at their watches.  Finally, Cindy piped up and said they need to wrap it up. 

What is the atmosphere of the discussion, where is it taking place at?

The meeting took place in a small meeting room at Cindy’s library.  It looked like it might hold 12 people.  It was relaxed and there was room for people to feel like they had their own space.

Are snacks or drinks provided?

Members are encouraged to bring any snacks or drinks they would like.  In the meeting room, there is an option for a small donation to get bottled water, Keurig drinks, and microwave popcorn.

What types of books does this book club normally discuss?

The book club just really seemed to be what the members enjoyed and try to fit it into the category of what Jane Austen would read.  They actually did set an interesting challenge for the next meeting.  Since they found out there was a lot of Austen Fan Fiction out there, they decided to pick a book that fell into that category for the next meeting.

After reading the “Reads Well with Others” article, the book club I attended differs by the members reading books of their own choosing instead of everyone reading the same book.  Even though there is a general theme, the members could literally read anything they wanted to and make it fit into the theme.  At my library, I have formed a few friendships with authors on Facebook and one of them; she sent me several copies of her books, autographed for me to use as prizes and one set as a Christmas gift for me.  It might be fun to take her book, have a group of us read it, then do a Facetime with her unless we can talk her into visiting!  After reading this article, this is something I will put down in my Future Plans notes!

I also quickly compared the group I attended with the “Starting a Book Club” article.  There were ten main questions that it suggested the group use to start a club.  They nailed questions 1-8, I won’t go back and answer them as they are pretty well covered in the questions above.  The last two questions are where the group could make some changes:

Question 9: How does the group keep memories?  From what I could tell, no one took notes (except for me) and it didn’t seem like there was a way for members to track what they have read.

Question 10: How can the group give back to their community?  Since no money was taken in, there was not really a monetary way for them to give back.  I would suggest maybe trying the “all read the same book” and really promote it to the public.  Maybe everyone would read Sense and Sensibility then come and watch the movie and discuss!  I don’t know, just seems like that would be fun to me.

Until I read those articles, I had not really thought about having a structured group.  At my library, we have a private group that uses the meeting room for a book club but there is not a group sponsored by the library itself.  When I asked our Director, she said that group USED to be the library book club but they didn’t want just anyone to come so they decided to be a private group.  Maybe after our expansion is complete next year, I can try to revive it! Overall, I enjoyed the book club experience and may join one after my MLS is complete!

            Class Articles Referenced:

• Goldstein, Bill. (2005). Reads Well with Others. Publisher's Weekly, 252(21), 30-34. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.
• Starting a Book Club. http://www.ilovelibraries.org/booklovers/bookclub/bookclub