Comments from May 31, 2007, meeting

• Give the library a list of books that will be read during the year in, say, September. Then, perhaps, the library can bank titles that will be in demand.
• Access to discussion topics for a given book would be useful. The ones provided by the publishers are sometimes juvenile. The library does have a link to book discussion topics:
[information incomplete - stay tuned]
• How many clubs are there in West Hartford or with West Hartford members? [over 60 and counting!]
• Can the library help us get authors to town?

o This already happens through The Friends of the Library in April annually.
o Book clubs should get themselves onto the library listserve; see:

• http://www.westhartfordlibrary.org/events/index.htm which also provides a calendar of events

o One group (Karin Stahl?) has had conference calls with authors.

• They prepare questions so that the conversation flows.
• Authors enjoy it.
• Check author and publisher websites for contact information

o Library also has writers groups: poetry, fiction, memoirs, screenwriters:

• http://www.westhartfordlibrary.org/writers/index.htm

• Can there be a book club librarian who notes what is on the lists, gathers the books, provides the professional contact with the library
• What to do with those books you read for last year’s book clubs? There is a book swap site that is free but for the postage:

• http://bookmooch.com/
• An in-town book swap via the library with volunteer management and a small fee for the exchange as a Friends project?

• Pat Holloway, Library Director, suggested trying books to go, modeled on the library book bags from the Public Library in West Bloomfield, Michigan:

• http://www.wblib.org/read/bgkit2go.php

• Look out for those community reads, like the one book for Hartford or Books 4 West Hartford
• Should the book clubs coordinate their reading to avoid draining all copies of a title in the area?
• Program at Bushnell, Literature to Life, is a theater group that performs books:

• http://www.bushnell.org/index.cgi/24132