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Today's [url http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ ]Shelf Awareness[/url] noted this unique book discussion being held at [url http://www.regbook.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp/ ]Regulator Book Store[/url], Durham, NC.

Cool Idea of the Day: One Book Group Meeting, Many Books<p>
The Regulator Bookshop, Durham, N.C., is launching a reading group "where everyone decides to read a different, but similar book." The first session will be held February 27 and will be led by David Carr, professor of library science at UNC-Chapel Hill, who suggested the program to the store. The theme of the first meeting of Books in a Bunch is "memoirs of early life." Participants are being asked to read at least one or two of these books:


Blue Blood by Edward Conlon
Cherry and The Liar's Club by Mary Karr
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
Dreams from My Father by Senator Barack Obama
Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julia Scheeres
This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army by Tobias Wolff
A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel
The Tender Bar by J. R. Moehringer
Falling Through the Earth by Danielle Trussoni
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Scribbling the Cat by Alexandra Fuller
My Detachment by Tracy Kidder
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Have any of you done a book discussion like this and if so, could you share how it was received? Sounds like a neat idea.

We had a long running program here at the library (that is currently on hiatus, but likely to return soon) that was called "Book Bites". It was a brown bag book discussion group held during lunch one Wednesday each month. The idea was simple and worked very well -- people simply dropped in to share what they had read that month and give a capsule review. The sessions were open to both staff and public and it was a great way for staff to learn what patrons were reading and enjoying (or not enjoying) and also nice for patrons to hear about what librarians were currently reading.

We have put Book Bites on hiatus as we have several new book discussion initiatives under way for the spring and wanted to focus our energy on them. One of our new book programs is called "Book Journeys" and each month there will be a book discussion about a book with a related follow-up activity the next week. For instance, read "Eat, Pray, Love" and then have a yoga demonstration/lecture. This group is being led by our new Readers Services librarian who has lots of ideas. She does not post at WJ (yet), but I will try to bring her in to this discussion.

I really like your title for these lunch time discussions - Book Bites! As you stated this is a real nice way to learn what your patrons are reading and could help in collection development. It is also a neat way to get quick takes on several books which you can then use in suggesting books to other patrons; like a 5 minute read but from your patrons point of view. I'm certain your patrons also picked up new titles from those being read and then mentioned by staff. I hope you are able to reinstate this discussion.

Book Journey's also sound like a good way to promote books. In our non-fiction group we used to do something like this though have not had any speakers since reading <u>Shadow Divers</u> by Robert Kurson. At that discussion we invited a diver from a state diving organization. It added a great deal to the discussion. And at February's discussion of <u>Sweets</U> by Tim Richardson we will all bring our favorite candy sweet from childhood. Book discussion one week, a program the next, sounds like the best of both worlds.

We have also done what I call literary jaunts. We read the book <u>Mornings on Horseback</U> by David McCullough and then went to visit his home Sagamore Hill in Long Island, NY. After reading <u>The Perfect Storm</u> by Sebastian Junger we had a member of the Coast Guard Rescue Team aboard the Tamoroa and then went to visit and tour our Coast Guard Station in New London, CT. These jaunts add a new dimension to our discussions.

Thanks for sharing your ideas for a different book discussion!