Turn Over A New Leaf: Start A Book Club (NAPSA)—If you're thinking of starting or joining a book club, you’re not alone. There are mother-daughter book clubs, workplace book clubs and book clubs for people who love to cook. Book clubs not only get you reading, they’re a good way to meet your neighbors. They can (r) even help youngproShors fessionals network. —————_ For example, a group of production assistants formed a reading group to discuss books about the movies or television showsthey work on. Another group, this one of would-be playwrights, got together to read published plays and make suggestions on their ownplays. One man founded a Website book club to meet people after graduatingcollege. One woman, after moving to a new community, started one as a way to meet her neighbors. How To Start A Book Club Before you start your own reading group, it might be a good idea to see if there are book clubs already set up you might want to join. The public library could be a good place to begin. If you decide to start your own book club, the first chapter in your plan could be to recruit members. Think about how manypeople you want. The size will likely be dic- tated by the place where the group meets. Once you have solid group of people together, you might want | ca PAGE-TURNER—Many book clubs have invited the author of a best- selling novel about the magnificent Taj Mahalfor a chat. to provide the members with the unique and compelling experience of inviting a published author to talk about his or her book. A good example of this is the experience of John Shors, whois visiting book clubs across the country to connect his book with readers. Shors is the author of “Beneath a Marble Sky,” a work of historical fiction based on the remarkable story behind the creation of the Taj Mahal. The book is being made into a major motion picture and won a “Book of the Year” award from ForeWord magazine. By his count, Shors has spoken (via speakerphone) with more than 200 book clubs just in the past few months. Since the paper- back version of his book came out, he’s been chatting with three or four clubs a night. Shors supports his book clubs with a Web site at www. beneathamarblesky.com.
