Now comes the good part: meeting with your book club! Invite members to the first meeting at least two weeks before the date you've selected. Whether you contact them by phone, e-mail or the web, let them know when and where the first meeting will be held. Recommend that everyone has read at least one chapter and has at least one question they'd like the club to discuss.

Before everyone arrives, take a look at these ideas to help make sure everything runs smoothly. You and the other members will be deciding on a few important issues:  

• Who will lead the book club meetings?
• Will it be the same person every time, or the person who suggested the book?  
• Is there a price limit to the books you'll be reading? Paperbacks only, for instance?  
• Who will keep a record of all the books read, when they were discussed, and who suggested them?  
• And if you are meeting in person:  Where will subsequent meetings be held? In the same location, at the home of that meeting's leader, or in a community room somewhere else, like a library or bookstore?    
• Will refreshments be served? (We certainly enjoy them—try these recipes!) Who will provide them? Will they be connected to the theme of the book being discussed?