Where’d the readers go? Sunnie Lovelace, of the New Haven Free Public Library, is writing an online diary here about her efforts to organize a book club for teens. Her last installment can be found here. Read on for installment #2.
By Sunnie Lovelace
Hmmmmm, book club this month was…interesting. After our “book club diary” ran in the Independent last month, there was a lot of interest in what we were doing. Parents called and kids came by to pick up the book. It was great! I had every reason to believe that our book club could double in just one month! Maybe I was just slightly over- confident?
Even though I was sick and it was a rainy overcast day when the BNBC was scheduled to meet, I was still really looking forward to it. I got everything all set and skimmed back over the book to get excited about it again. When I was all set to go I ended up waiting, and waiting…
… and one person showed up.
Oh, sad day. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Giovanna and I had a good time hanging out. We ate a ridiculous amount of snack food. After we had talked about StormCatchers for awhile, we talked about a bunch of other books we liked, school projects, other library programs. We even ended up talking about food allergies for awhile.
Giovanna’s take on all this was funny and informative. The thing of it is that she and I could get together and talk about books anytime; that’s just not quite the same thing as a book club. The purpose of a book club is to get a bunch of people with different perspectives and ideas to read the same book and then find out what everybody thinks about it. We missed out on that this month, and I was a little disheartened about it.
Now, a couple days later, my fever is gone and my cough has subsided. My outlook on life is a little sunnier. OK, the fact that several people have called or e‑mailed to let me know they didn’t want to miss the book club and they’d definitely be there next time has helped too. You know, things just don’t always go the way you think they will. That’s probably something that should be covered in Library Programs 101. (Maybe I was sick that day, too.) Expect the unexpected and roll with the punches would be two very good lessons to add to the curriculum as well.
Back to the book club: Next month, we’ll be discussing “The Last Universe” by William Sleator. I know Giovanna and I are really looking forward to it, and I think this time around we’ll have some company. Feel free to join us, March 25 at 4 p.m. Our book club meets in the program room that’s on the second floor of the main library branch on Elm Street. For more info call me at: 946‑8130 ext. 234 or e‑mail me here.
Previous installment here.