In my first blog, I related some suggestions on creating a successful Star Wars book club. Today, I wanted to expand upon one of those suggestions - writing discussion questions before the club meets. Read on to learn the numerous advantages of a book club meeting guided by specific questions.

Your first advantage in writing questions before you go to a book club is in how it changes the way you read. By reading a book and thinking about interesting questions to bring to your fellow Star Wars fans, you become a more active participant in the book. What I mean by that is you will think more critically about the story you are reading. You'll pay closer attention to the plot, characters, themes, inadequacies of the author, and any number of additional aspects of the novel. By the time you get to the meeting, you are going to have a better and more critical understanding of the story than you would have had otherwise.

Writing questions will also make you a more active member of your discussion group. When you arrive, you are going to have a lot of interesting and thoughtful things to say because you took the time to think carefully about what you were reading. Writing good questions forces you to do that.

Beyond the individual benefits, there are advantages for the group as well. Using questions is a great way to keep your discussion on track. When the book club I participate in first started, we roamed all over the place. At times it felt as if we talked about everything except the novel we wanted to discuss. We also tended to have dozens and dozens of side conversations. While tangents and the occasional side conversation aren't criminal, too much and you degenerate into just a group of people hanging out. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you really want to talk about a novel, it won't be what you are looking for.

Furthermore, discussion questions can be a great way to ensure that even the shiest members of your club gets the chance to say what they think. Somehow, more space is provided for someone to speak up and put in their two cents. Additionally, for certain questions you may want to hear what everyone thinks. In Errant Venture (that's the name of our book club), we usually start by going around the circle and letting everyone give the novel a basic thumbs up or down and talk about why.

Lastly, this blog isn't meant to suggest that everyone needs to write discussion questions. Even if only one or two people do it for your group, you'll enjoy your book club a whole lot more.

If you aren't exactly sure how to write a good discussion question, my next blog will contain some sample questions we recently used in my book club for Republic Commando: Triple Zero.