How about a Magazine Club instead of a Book Club?
Posted by: Rebecca Vnuk
You know, the more I think about this, the more I like it… This article from the Washington Post talks about a woman in Washington, DC, who didn’t enjoy her book club, and really just wanted to talk with others about the The New Yorker... so her friend organized a discussion club!
What do you think? Would this only work with a magazine such as The New Yorker? Would this appeal to people who didn’t have the time or inclination to read a full-length novel every month for a book club?
April 30th, 2011 at 10:21 am
I think it could work as long as there was interest – just as with any sort of club.
There are several different methods that come to mind. You can discuss a single magazine (such as the New Yorker, or Utne, Mother Jones, The Nation, etc). Or you can do a different magazine each month – like we do with our books. Or (and this would require a great deal of coordination) folks could discuss how different magazines reported on a particular topic. For example, how did the Nation and Mother Jones each react to the Japanese earthquake?
A significant challenge for this would be getting enough copies. My library club relies on interlibrary loan to get enough books and as a result we don’t do the latest/greatest releases (well, at least until they’re no longer late or great). A magazine club would almost require patrons to purchase the individual issues themselves. Even if you used the last format – everyone reading a different magazine on the same topic – since most libraries do not circulate the current issue, they’d need to come into the library to do their reading.
May 3rd, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Alex, you make excellent points. Getting enough copies could indeed pose a problem. I really like the notion of comparing how different magazines report on the same topic – intriguing!!