Like any gathering of people, book clubs can be tough to sustain. They depend on the entire group’s ability to play by the rules and honor the mission of their club. Nonetheless, most readers dream of having a lively, intellectually enriching book club — if they don’t already have one, of course. There’s just something comforting about getting together with like-minded people to share a love of words and stories.
The pitfalls to book club success are many — too much wine, too little commitment, internal dissension over reading materials, and so on. You can’t fix an irretrievably flawed club, of course, but you can make sure that you are the best possible member you can be, doing your own small part to sustain the health of your little literary community. We here at HuffPost Books haven’t always been book club all-stars ourselves, but our failures have enlightened us as to the keys to success.
