Book club: Notes for next time.

I survived my first book club pick. I'm pretty happy at how it turned out, although I could've done better -- the discussion lagged a little bit and I take responsibility for that. Here's what I want to do differently next time:

• Arrive with more questions. Procrastination got the best of me and I had 7 or 8, but we could have used a lot more. (And it's neither here nor there, but I found the provided [SPOILERRIFIC] reader's guide questions to be incredibly lame in that they all boiled down to, "How do you feel?")
  

• Focus on asking better follow-ups for people who are speaking. I was determined not to be the kind of book group leader who interrupts people when they're mid-sentence, but I think I forgot sometimes that I was steering.

• Read about the critical opinion to the book, not so I could parrot those points but so they could inspire some discussion. I personally like to know what other critics are saying about what I'm reading (although if I'm reviewing something, I'll hold off until after I turn my piece in to see what the consensus is).
  

Anyway, the consensus was that THE POST-BIRTHDAY WORLD is worth reading, if you were interested. Next month: Sarah Vowell's THE WORDY SHIPMATES, which wasn't even my idea but is going to be awesome.