We approach the book talmudic-style, around the table. You're more conscious, more attentive, more critical. Rachel Jacobsohn, director of the Association of Book Group Readers and Leaders, headquartered in Highland Park, Ill., produces a newsletter which reaches 800 book groups worldwide. The proliferation of book groups is partly due to the explosion in continuing education. Once you graduate from college and leave the world of academia, you don't want your education to stop.
Book groups speak to the desire to make more valuable, meaningful connections.
Elaine Petrocelli, owner of Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera, which advises more than 50 groups, agrees. There's something important about book groups in this world where we are all so scattered. Many people come into a book group not knowing a soul. But after a while they share common ground. They know and understand where each person is coming from.