How wild? How crazy? Maybe not so much, but some readers did share great alternatives to the common "talking circle" model of book discussions. And so, to my third test question:

What is the most innovative or unusual book group you've seen?

"The most unusual book group I know about is the e-mail 'cousinette' book group one of our customers belongs to," says Mary Gleysteen of Eagle Harbor Books, Bainbridge Island, Wash. "They select their books like other groups, read one a month, and have someone responsible for coordinating the round robin discussion. They have been discussing books this way for three or four years and, according to my source, it's a way for cousins of various ages and political persuasions around the country to keep in touch despite vast distances and differences."

Author Patricia Wood, whose novel Lottery was shortlisted for the Orange prize this year, checked in with an "aloha" from her sailboat in Honolulu: "I do about two book clubs a week all over the country by speaker phone, SKYPE, iChat and in person. Living in Hawaii and being so isolated has made my participation in these groups critical to my outreach as an author in the development of my career."

Wood has "met with a California group who did not disband when a member moved away, but who flew out here and met in Hawaii and chose Lottery as their selection. I was on layover in Seattle on my way to Calgary and met with the Northwest Airlines Book Club at a hotel in Renton. There's a network that is created. Author friends recommend my book to a club they have talked with and I recommend their book to my groups. My favorite group was one that met on a 50-foot motorboat moored across the harbor. Some had never been on a boat. It was a great evening."

She calls the Writerly Pause her "beta book club" because they were her first experience with the concept. Check out their video at the end of the post. Kanani Fong, one of nine writers and readers who comprise the group, says that from the beginning they "decided to see if writers would talk to us about not only their book but about writing. Some said no, others said yes. We read everything they'd written, including their most recent book. We went to great lengths to get things arranged, then we huddled around a speaker phone, usually filched from someone's work. As much as we wanted not to impose on the writer's time, we found the conversations often went on for an hour. So I think we're pretty lucky. I can't imagine a writer not wanting to talk to a book group, especially today when so much of the buzz doesn't come from either magazines, journals or newspapers, but from blogs."

Folio Literary Management's Ami Greko confessed that she is "always quite envious of the groups that meet to discuss a great work of literature in-depth over a long period of time. Pacific Standard in Brooklyn has a fabulous one that is currently reading Finnegans Wake."

Mary Alice Gorman of Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pa., is "not surprised to find these groups anywhere--courthouse, hospital, school, neighbors, affinity (sorority, club, occupation, etc) and more. One that we supply is parents in a school district."
 
Like any human endeavor, sometimes things can get a little too wild and crazy. Marie Leahy of the Northshire Bookstore, Manchester, Vt., notes that "one of the members of my book group belongs to another group that developed something appalling: bylaws! The guidelines require that everyone come with a typed list of questions to present; if you don't attend four meetings in a row, you may be kicked out; and there has to be a birthday celebration for each member. One person developed these guidelines and others went along with it, until my friend put a stop to it. People barely have time to read the book; how is everyone going have time to type up questions for each meeting?"

Variety spices book groups. Josh Henkin, author of Matrimony, has found "the whole enterprise eye-opening in the best sense. I went into the process with my fair share of prejudices about book groups--that it was a kind of ladies-who-lunch enterprise and that I would be dealing with some pretty unsophisticated readers. But what I've found is that I've met some incredibly smart and sophisticated readers in places that I wouldn't necessarily have predicted."--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)