A Virtual Book Club

For a variety of reasons, I have had to leave my book club. As a result, I no longer have the opportunity to talk to others about books I read.

Those who love reading as I do know that part of the fun of reading a good book is being able to discuss it with friends. It never fails that someone will catch something in a story that I missed, or they will have a completely different interpretation of a scene in the book. They might like a character that I dislike, and they might have a compelling reason for feeling that way. The reason there are a cajillion books available to read is that everyone's taste is unique. I can't tell you how often I have loved a book, only to find that someone else simply detested it.

One of my sisters is in the same boat as I am. Her book club disbanded, leaving her without a post-book sounding board. Since we live an hour-and-a-half from each other, we decided trying to form a book club that would include both of us was not reasonable.

But, hey! We are modern women. We know how to use the internet to our advantage. Why not, she asked me one day, start a virtual book club? We could invite some of our friends and family to participate. If by chance, anyone else found us, either through word of mouth or sheer coincidence, they can participate as well.

So, I will coordinate the blog. The founding members of the book club (whomever they might be) can finalize the guidelines, and we will be flexible.

As I see it, here are current guidelines.

Members of the Ethereal Readers' Book Club will share one book every six weeks. The members will take turns offering the book choices -- a maximum of four books, fiction or nonfiction. The member whose turn it is to provide the choices will post the names of the book choices, and the members will vote via the comment section of the book. I suggest this process take three days.

Once we have selected a book, we will have four weeks to read the book.

The person who offered the choices will be the moderator for the month. It will be her/his responsibility to provide a synopsis of the book, and to post thoughts and opinions about the book four weeks after book selection is made. Since I am coordinating the blog (at least for the time being), the synopsis and thoughts will need to be emailed to me so that I can post it. Other members will interact via the comment section of the post. This part of the process will take place the sixth week of the book club process.

We will honor everyone's opinion. Being mean is not an option.

I am open to any other thoughts about the guidelines.