Bargain Book Club

We had a moderately successful first book club last Thursday night. My daughter, myself, and the two younger moms who met to pick the book, plus a woman newer to town who moved to be closer to her adult children. My sister is joining next month. We all either had to buy or download a copy of the book we read, The Winter Loon, by Susan Bernard, which could get expensive over the year. One of the gal's researched that the library has book clubs in a bag, a set that comes with 10 books, one of which is large print, plus an audio version. Pretty cool! We can check out for 30 days. We are now going to read A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. Free book club books instead of spending money is great, and since none of us were in a club recently, it doe snot matter that the books might be a bit older. We may have to shuffle around to time the books with other groups that have them out, but since we are supposed to be a low key book club, that is just fine. 

If this isn't available in your library system, there could be other ways to keep them low cost. A few clubs could partner up and exchange books, cutting the costs in half of purchasing. I'm sure any library system might also help order, if enough exit, and reserve a certain amount. It sounded like our local librarian was thrilled to help with suggestions, and pronunciations. We were all calling the man Oh-Vee, but it is pronounced just Ohv, not like love or move. since we are just getting to now each other, we've been meeting in  public places, with food and drink. Maybe over the months we'll shift to someone hosting. Getting the books for free helps keep this a low cost monthly activity. 

We seem to be an odd little group, but that is OK. Three, four if you county my daughter, newbies to town, and my family members! We range from 28 to what I would guess is early 60's. I think at this point, we won't be growing, but maybe someone interested back in November will resurface. Six seems a nice number to talk about the book, pick a new one, and have conversations about other things going  on in life. I'm trying to build those empty nester hobbies!

Have any of you used book clubs in a bag and was it successful for your club? If you're in a book club, how did it form and what makes it successful or challenging? For any readers, what are you reading now that might be worthy of a discussion?