Glen Ellyn Area Book Club Profile: "Booked on Tuesdays"

"Booked on Tuesdays" is a Glen Ellyn book club that will be celebrating its 10th anniversary later this year. The club has welcomed a few new members over the years, but most of the members have been together since 1999.

Over the years, the club has developed a lot of fun traditions, including its annual Christmas party, featuring a hilarious White Elephant Exchange (favorites include a crochet toilet paper cover from someone's mother-in-law and the dried puffer fish wind chime!) and the annual summer backyard deck meeting with fabulous food and copious amounts of wine.

The club has a wide range of interest in books, from classics to biography to pop culture. Their picks have ranged from "Pride and Prejudice" to the beauty and style guide "How Not to Look Old." Its favorite pick of 2008 was Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. The club likes to adopt a charity when it fits with a book, such as a food pantry for "The Glass Castle " or the real Kenyan library foundation for "The Camel Bookmobile." If there is a movie tie-in to a book, the club loves gathering at a member's house with a basement theater. Plans are underway to read and watch Brideshead Revisited in April.

One tradition that works well for this club is the way they've agreed to discuss the books. Each member gets a turn to express their opinion (sometimes a quick rating system from 1 to 10) before the floor is open for more animated discussion. That way, everyone has an equal voice, and no one person can dominate the conversation.

The club has recently developed its own blog (on Google's easy blogspot.com) as a virtual meetingplace. Members can log on, check out the schedule, post comments and links about the books, and share photos from recent meetings. They've even used the blog as a way to vote on their next selection or their favorite book of the last year. For example, when they read "The Glass Castle," members were able to log on and watch a video of the author and her mother, which enhanced the book.

If other book clubs are interested in learning how to use a blog for their book club, e-mail The Bookstore at justbook475@yahoo.com, and we can give you some tips. If there's enough interest, we would be happy to offer a Book Club Blog Seminar. Also, please e-mail us if you would like your book club featured next month!