Hey everyone, today I have a great blog tour post for you. Today I have the author of Jack Templar Monster Hunter here on Ali's Bookshelf and he is going to share a pitch for book clubs and give readers of this blog a special offer at the end. So let's get to it, shall we?
Hi Everyone,
I’m excited to provide a guest post to Ali’s Bookshelf as
part of my blog tour for Jack Templar
Monster Hunter.
I’d like to take the space here to make a pitch for book
clubs and give readers of this blog a special offer at the end.
One of the great enjoyments of reading the really big titles
that come out every year (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, etc.) is
the experience you have with your friends who have read the same book. It’s fun
to talk about the characters as if they are real people with real problems.
And, especially in the case of fantasy, it’s cool to talk about the book world
as if it were an actual place.
Not only that, but the experience of reading a book is a
hundred times more detailed and intense compared to going to see a movie with
your friends. Think about it. There’s a reason why we’re never quite satisfied
with the movie versions of our favorite books. Even with all the spectacle that
the wizards of Hollywood throw at us, it can’t come close to the power of your
imagination as you create worlds in real time while reading a good book.
Book clubs are the best way to have that shared experience.
And it’s easy to put together.
Step One: Find
friends who like to read (or are at least willing to give a new book a try.)
Step Two: Have a
meeting (maybe just lunch one day at school if you’re a student or on a
weekend) and decide which book you want to read. Some easy ways to decide is
have everyone make suggestions then write the main contenders down on a piece
of paper and pull the name randomly.
Step Three:
Decide if you want to read up to a certain point in the book and then talk
about it in or if you want to pick a date for everyone to finish the book by
and then meet to talk about the whole thing.
Step Four: Have
your book club meeting. Make it fun! Are there foods that relate to the book
you can make? For example, people have made Monster Cookies for Jack Templar Monster Hunter book club
meetings. (Recipe on www.jacktemplar.com) Is there music that
relates to the book? If you’re reading a book that takes place in a specific
time period, have everyone dress up in the clothes the characters would wear.
Brainstorm in your group on what people want to do.
Step Five: Have a
great discussion. You can find book club questions online to go along with a
lot of books. I’ve posted questions for Jack Templar on my website, but a quick
google search will turn up cool questions for many books you might be
interested in. This isn’t school. It’s supposed to be fun, so don’t make the
questions feel like school. Try to use situations in the book as a starting
point for conversations about real life. Have you faced tough decisions like
the characters in the book? How could characters have handled a confrontation
or fight better? Why did the romance between two characters fall apart? Are
there any lessons from your real world experiences with dating that you would
give the characters? You get the idea.
Step Six: Write
an online review and contact the author. We love to hear from people who are
taking an active interest in our work and love to hear feedback. One of the fun
things about reading authors who are not (yet!) on the bestseller lists is that
you can expect they will quickly respond to you and interact with your group.
So, there you go. Hopefully, you will give this a shot
because it can be a lot of fun. I’d be honored if you would choose Jack Templar Monster Hunter as one of
your books and, as a reader of Ali’s Bookshelf blog, I’d be happy to help you
with it. You can reach me at jgunhus@aol.com and on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/jacktemplarmonsterhunter and I promise to respond to you
within a day or two.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Do your duty, come what may!
Jeff Gunhus
Thanks so much Jeff for being on the blog today and sharing this great guest post with us. Alright so now we have a great giveaway for you all as well! Below you will find the Rafflecopter code for the giveaway! I will also be posting my review of this great book at the start of the new year so look for that soon!
