Windham is a town of readers AND discussers! Whether you are starting a new book club, joining your first club, or helping to lead a long-running group, Nesmith Library is happy to provide resources and suggestions to help you get the most out of every meeting. Read on below, or contact our book group liaison, Laura Montgomery with any questions.
We hope these links about virtual meeting services might be helpful for groups wishing to continue meeting while observing safety measures. Please email info@nesmithlibrary.org with any questions, or areas where we may be able to help!
- Zoom: The basic process requires creating an account, scheduling a meeting, and distributing the invite link/meeting ID to participants, who will need to download the Zoom app or access it in their browser, or call into the meeting using a phone.
- Wired compiled this advice and best practices for using Zoom. We also recommend this 10 Ways to Secure Zoom infographic to help you understand basic privacy settings in Zoom.
- GoToMeeting, Jitsi, Webex, Slack, etc: We recommend this thorough guide from ZDnet, which evaluates quite a few other meeting services. This guide from the Verge covers similar services, including free open source options like Jitsi Meet.
- Facebook Live: Easy to access for anyone with Facebook, but interaction is more limited to the presenter, with participants able to comment in text and send reaction emojis. This might be good for a leader who is discussing topics suggested beforehand by the book group, or sharing information from the author. Here is a guide from Facebook Media about using Live.
Advice for your book club, from picking books to ways to keep your meetings exciting:
- NoveList Plus, one of our online databases, contains book discussion guides, as well as a powerful platform for finding next things to read based on authors, narrative and character types, genres, and more!
- Hoopla has a Book Club Hub website, where you can get reading recommendations and more. Anyone with a Nesmith Library card can access the materials available digitally through Hoopla, simultaneously without holds or waiting, which can extend the ease of members having access to the titles you choose. Contact us at info@nesmithlibrary.org to get access to Hoopla!
- BookBrowse is an online magazine for booklovers - including reviews, previews, "behind the book" backstories, author interviews, reading guides, and much more.
- Litlovers provides excellent book Club resources with reading guides, suggestions for titles, and tips for running groups.
- This article from Nancy Pearl in Publisher's Weekly from 2013 sums up things to look for in a good book discussion, and how to pick great books.
- Reading Group Choices provides monthly featured book selections, as well as a blog with great Advice articles to help you guide and enjoy your book group.
- For those looking to start or reorganize a book club, The Reader's Circle is full of helpful articles about how to run book groups.
- Reading Group Guides is full of discussion guides, book group ratings of books they've read, and more.
- The organization for National Reading Group Month, celebrated in October each year, provides great book group selections and more!
- Visit the Nesmith Library Goodreads page to see National Reading Group Month recommendations on our shelves, as well as Nesmith Library-supported book group selections!
Each month our ILL/book group specialist, through the NH interlibrary loan system, obtains reading materials for book discussion group participants. To learn more, please email Interlibrary Loan Associate Librarian Laura at lmontgomery@nesmithlibrary.org.
READS-TO-GO is a service of NH Library Association that provides book discussion kits for groups within New Hampshire. Each kit comes in a canvas bag along with 15 copies (one of which may be large print) of a highly discussable title, discussion questions specific to the book, and a sign-out sheet for tracking. Contact Laura Montgomery to arrange to borrow a kit.