Book Club Exchange - Peter from Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations

I am so glad to welcome Peter from Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations to Book Club Exchange. I'm sure many of you are familiar with this website and all of its fantastic book recommendations, but for some of you it might be new! I hope you enjoy learning a little bit more about Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations, and I hope you will consider contributing your own list in the near future!

My name is Peter and I, along with my friend Eric, run the website Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations.

A few of you have probably run across me, but for those who haven't, here's what Flashlight Worthy is:

Hundreds of book lists (with new ones added every week)...

Each list is between, say, 4 books and 15 books (though a few lists are over 50 books)...

Each list on a specific theme (more on that later)...

And each book on the list has a short description of why it's so good (not a plot summary).

Did I mention that the books we recommend are so good, they keep you up past your bedtime? :-)

Now that we have that out of the way, I can explain why I'm so excited that Julie so graciously invited me to participate in her weekly Book Club Exchange: plain and simple, I need your help.

You see, my site is full of interesting and esoteric book lists. I have 12 of the Best of Steampunk (Yes. Steampunk. Have you ever even heard of that as a genre?) and Children's Books that Grownups Will Love. Not to mention Chick Lit Before There Was Chick Lit and this accessible list of Books on Madness.

But some of my genres, such as Books for Young Adults and Book Club Books, are sadly lacking. That's where you come in.

If you're reading this blog then I'll bet you're an avid reader, you have great taste in books, and very likely, you're in a book club. This makes you the perfect person to share a list of some of the best books your club has enjoyed. The list just needs to follow these 3 simple guidelines:

1. First and foremost, the books on the list should be appropriate for book clubs. That means books that are discussable.

2. Just as foremost -- the books all have to be flashlight worthy. In other words, they gotta be really, really good.

3. The list should follow a theme. And no, "7 Books that My Book Club Liked Last Year" is not a theme. :-) Some random ideas off the top of my head are "Memoirs of Strong Women," "Books That'll Make you Hungry" (food books!), or "Controversial YA Books We Should Examine More Closely."

Like I said, those are just some random ideas off the top of my head... if you want to run with one of them, great! Or feel free to suggest your own. Browse your shelves -- you'd be amazed at how many ideas will leap out. Look back over the books your club has read. Maybe take a look at my existing lists of Book Club Books for inspiration.

But once you have an idea, I'd love to publish your list... bringing you and your book club fame, fortune and endless cookies for the meetings. Okay, well, I can at least promise that I'll add it to my Book Club Books category and maybe that will bring a modicum of attention. Just drop me a line at info@flashlightworthy.com and we'll take it from there.

And if Julie is kind enough to have me back, for my next post I'll describe exactly how you can tell a book is Flashlight Worthy. :-)

*****
After spending 15 years working for doing internet work for companies such as AOL, Zagat and Meetup.com, Peter decided to dedicate some of his spare time to truth, justice and the pursuit of recommending excellent books. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and their dog, Henry.

I am so grateful to Peter for sharing some information about Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations with us. Of course, Peter is welcome back any time! If you are interested in participating in a future Book Club Exchange, please contact me at bookingmama(at)gmail(dot)com.