Help me find a book club in the city!

January 11, 2009 5:00 PM

San Francisco filter: Help me find a good book club for 20-30-somethings?

I'm hoping to meet some new people and make some new friends, and am also interested in getting back into reading more for pleasure. Are there any tips on a great book club in the city (or East Bay, particularly Berkeley/Albany/Oakland area)? My preference is a group of folks in their mid-late 20s, who meet regularly yet informally, and perhaps share wine, food, etc. over the discussion of a good book.

Thanks!

posted by mingodingo to sports, hobbies, & recreation (13 comments total)

I would also be interested in something like this, so I'll be watching the answers in this thread.

If nothing turns up, you should start one and I would join!
posted by Nickel at 5:35 PM on January 11

I've seen a few book club listings on Craigslist in the past, but none that caught my eye enough to follow up on them. It might be worth a little bit of time looking around there, in any case.

(If you start one yourself, I would also join...)
posted by not me at 8:53 PM on January 11

I'd be happy to help start one up if there's interest among Bay Area folks on MeFi! I've never done this before, though, so if you're interested, send me a pm with book ideas, places to meet, etc.
posted by mingodingo at 10:00 PM on January 11

Let me know if you find anything! I looked around Meetup.com for something like this, but, uh, it didn't work. At all.
posted by OrangeDrink at 10:12 PM on January 11

Now you have me all interested so I looked on craigslist and meetup and found the following:


1) East Bay Book Club (on craigslist)

We're a fun, but small group of 20-and 30-something professionals in the East Bay. We meet about once every other month or so to talk about a selected book. (Our most recent book was The Book Thief). We also spend time catching up with one another. We generally meet in Berkeley at Jupiter's, Ben N Nick's in Rockridge, or in Walnut Creek.

2) A different East Bay Book Club

This is a very dynamic group with many regular members coming from a variety of backgrounds. Our meetings are enthusiastic, as we discuss how each book effects us personally. We are currently reading fiction as our primary genre, but we introduce other genres on occasion too.

3) Not a book club, but this sounds interesting: Woman's Discussion Group

1. We gather the group in a circle—around a table or groups of couches & chairs.
2. Each person writes down questions (usually around 2-4) on small slips of paper and places them in one big bowl/hat/receptacle.
3. The first person chooses a question from the bowl and reads it aloud to the group. This person also gets the first crack at addressing the question. Then it is open to everyone to discuss until the topic has been exhausted.
4. The bowl is handed to the next person in the circle. Repeat steps #3 and #4.
posted by Nickel at 10:22 PM on January 11

But I still think you should start a mefi book club. There is clearly interest!
posted by Nickel at 10:23 PM on January 11

Yes, please start a MeFi book club. I would love to discuss books with Bay Area MeFites! I tried a book club here once but the discussion was more about fashion and gossip than books, so I quit. Hopefully MeFites are more bookish than that group.

Nickel's suggestion #3 sounds like a good way to organize the discussion, by the way.

I'm 48. Am I disqualified?
posted by Quietgal at 11:01 AM on January 12

I would also be interested in joining.
posted by muscat at 11:20 AM on January 12

Count me in as well!

I would offer to help organize it but I'm having enough trouble organizing my own life at this moment - maybe in February, though.
posted by needs more cowbell at 11:31 AM on January 12

I'm in too!
posted by easy_being_green at 3:37 PM on January 12

I'm interested.
posted by spork at 4:11 PM on January 12

Okay, so I've gotten a couple of pms expressing interest. I'm thinking it may be easier to start something up if I could send a group email to all interested parties. :) So, if you commented on this thread (or favorited it--I see you guys up there!) and have interest in joining a brand new book club, pm me with your email address. Once I've gotten a few responses, I'll send out an email so that we can start setting up a place/time/book.

Thanks!
posted by mingodingo at 5:13 PM on January 12

Actually, I thought I'd go ahead and create a gmail account for this fledgling group and post it in this thread, in case folks who are searching for a book club in the future want to check in and see if we got this up and running, and (if we did!) join. So, if you're interested but haven't yet pm'ed me your email address, you can send an email to [e-mail].

For those of you who sent me your email address, I'll try to send out a group email tomorrow!

Thanks again.
posted by mingodingo at 11:42 PM on January 12