2011 Reading Goals: Book Club With Laala

This year my best but long distance friend Laala and I did a joint reading project which included three books, beginning with Life Is Elsewhere by Milan Kundera, then Both Ways Is The Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy, and lastly How To Talk To A Widower by Jonathan Tropper. Inspired by the fun we had we decided to set an actual book club schedule for 2011, beginning this month. I've decided to post it here so I have a record of the commitment, and also don't have to worry about misplacing the list. In chronological order the titles are:

• December 2010: Room by Emma Donoghue (Review)
  2011
• January: Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart (Review) 
  *Note: Laala did not actually read this book
• February: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver (Review)
• March: New Selected Poems by Carol Ann Duffy (Review)
  *Note: Laala did not finish this book

And this was when we abandoned the book club!  Apparently we don't do well with schedules...

• April: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson 
• May: Dubliners by James Joyce (Review)
• June: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Review)
• July: Birds of America by Lorrie Moore (Review)
• August: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (Review)
• Sept: Jacob's Room by Virgina Woolf (Review)
• October: Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (Review)
• November: A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (Review)
• December: Eve Green by Susan Fletcher (Review)

I am really excited to read all these books with Laala, I think it's a great combination of non-fiction, poetry, short story collections and fiction. I also own all the titles already except two (Murakami and Haddon) which makes it a lot easier to organize, and those I can easily get from the library. I'd also love to participate in a few read-a-longs in the upcoming year, assuming I enjoy my first experience. I haven't exactly decided which ones I'll be doing but they will likely center on classics as I find those are the ones I am most likely to benefit from a group discussion for. The Lost Entwife and A Literary Odyssey both have a great schedule of read-alongs lined up so I'll definitely be checking those out. I'd love to find a local book club, but I don't know where to start, and online works better for my crazy schedule anyway.

How do you feel about online book clubs? Do you participate in any book clubs, online or otherwise? If you are hosting any read-a-longs for 2011 definitely leave me a link, I seem discover about half of them after they've already started.