So what about a Book Club?

Those of you that follow me on Twitter (and if you are interested you can find me as @sunglar, but be forewarned I do ramble on) will know that besides RPGs I work way too much, been called a workaholic, and literature. Currently I’m participating in the second book club I’ve belonged to and loving every minute of it. I think books clubs are great opportunities to share ideas, discuss topics and engage in social interaction sometimes with people close to you, other times stretching your wings and making new friendships.

Book Clubs are certainly more prominent in popular culture, from being the butt of jokes like in the recent comedy Date Night, to appearing in the first episode of the third season of LOST. I recall somebody telling me they did not know of the concept of a book club until they watched that episode of LOST. I belonged to a book club in 2004 and we read some bestsellers, literary classics and lesser known books, but the composition of the club was mostly “lay people”, i.e. not role players. The current book club has only been together for a couple of months and we’ve read various popular books (Shutter Island, Wicked, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl who Played with Fire) but this time around the mix includes fellow role-players, geeks and scientists so our reading options are certainly more varied!

If you have never participated in a Book Club group I greatly encourage it. To me role playing games are first and foremost a social activity, the interaction, sharing fun times with friends, are amongst the highlights of gaming. All that being said, the idea of an RPG themed book club has been buzzing around in my head; I’ve thought of the possibility of selecting books of interest to role-players or maybe even selecting an RPG rulebook and discussing it. It could be via a message board, a chat room or even an actual conversation using the communication services out there in the internet.

There are virtual Book Clubs out there, and I know there was even an RPG book club in EN World at some point. So the question is; are any of you out there interested in a Stargazer’s World RPG Book Club? Would you rather we read a novel of interest to gamers or a rulebook and discuss it? If there is interest we could organize something…

Let me know what you think!