Virtual Book Discussion Books and Resources: The Invention of Nature

I have been asked by a few libraries to help them find good titles to use for their Zoom book discussion meetings. Not only are regular book discussion attendees eager to get back to their book clubs, but many new people are interested in joining. One library worker told me they had double the number of participants sign up in the first day when they announced the virtual discussion!

The obvious key right now is to pick books that are easy to procure digitally [text or audio] through our streaming services and find ways to add them for multiple views at one time through OverDrive or Hoopla. Looking for older, award winning, extremely popular titles [again from a few years ago] is a great bet.

But one other important consideration that many are forgetting is to also find titles that can be discussed without someone having finished it.

[insert awkward silence]

Ahem....Yes, I did just say to pick books that can still be discussed by patrons who haven't read them.

Why? Well, in our current situation not only will we have newbies signup-- patrons who meant to finish the book but bit off more than they can chew-- but we will also have people for whom the idea of a virtual, live discussion with new people is just what they need in their quarantine life. They may not even try to get a copy of the book.

But guess what, if you choose the right book, that is okay.

Today I have a suggestion that I have used with success in a nontraditional book discussion setting AND lead a discussion where some people did not read the book and yet, still contributed positively to the discussion because they had knowledge on the topic.

The book I am talking about is the nonfiction title, The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf. You can click here to read a series of posts I did about this book and the discussion I led of it at the Chicago Botanic Garden. There is even a post with the questions I created for this discussion and a long recap post of what happened during the discussion.

I discussed this book with a non-traditional book discussion audience. These were regulars at the Chicago Botanic Garden and volunteers for their library. These were fans of Humboldt and/or nature, no regular book club attendees. Most read the book, all had opinions about nature. We had plenty to discuss both from the book and through topics which the book touched on,

[FYI, I also did Lab Girl by Hope Jehren with this group. Click here for those posts and details.]

Feel free to use this book, my questions, and even my summary of our discussion as a guide. Or pick your own title. At the very least, consider that the book club participants right now are not all going to be those who are even familiar with how a book discussion works these days. It will be different, and not just because you are on Zoom.

In general, choose older titles, both so you can get multiple e-copies and because some people might have read the book previously. In fact, if you have a potential participant who doesn't want to re-read, provide links to in-depth reviews, interviews with the authors, Goodreads entry, and more; places people can go to "jog" their memories.

Also, nonfiction and/or books based on real event will also work well in an environment where not everyone reads the book because participants can discuss the situation, they can look up details, or they might have a connection to the source material outside of the book you are reading [that is what happened at my Botanic Garden discussion of Wulf's book; we had a published Humboldt scholar show up who didn't even try to read this book].

If you need more help running a Zoom book discussion or you need crash course training for new book club leaders, contact me. In the meantime, you should also check out the ARRT Book Club Study [which I helped to reboot a few years ago] or my "book discussion books" tag where I have archived hundreds of summaries of book discussions I have moderated over the years.