VANCOUVER OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE SOCIETY

The Book Club started in 2019, and has been going strong since its inception. We meet
monthly at 7:30pm, on the last Wednesday of each month.

Pre-COVID, we met at one of the houses of members. The venue rotates through our members, thereby sharing the host burden. Having said that, we recognise that not everyone has space to seat the club, so the rota of hosts is a bit smaller than the list of regular attendees.

During COVID we switched, seamlessly, to Zoom meetings. We have just gone back to
predominantly in-person meetings. Predominantly, because not all our members are yet comfortable with indoor meetings. We therefore currently have a hybrid, in -person and Zoom format. This hybrid format is likely to continue for some time.

Hosting duties are not onerous. They are limited to answering the door, providing seating, and
(importantly) tea, coffee, wine and (most importantly) cake. Meetings are usually over within a
couple of hours or so.

We tackle both fiction and non-fiction, and the only requirement we have is that the books are
readily available, preferably in Vancouver Public Library, although this latter point is not
essential.

Books are selected 12 months in advance, and are selected democratically. Towards the end of each year, each member is asked to propose 2 books they would like the club to read. Members are encouraged to select a “classic” as one of their books. “Classic” is loosely defined as being written by a dead author most of us have heard of. In reality, some members prefer not to suggest books, and others suggest up to half a dozen.

The club then votes on which 12 books from the list will be read during the forthcoming year.
Lists of books we have already read can be supplied to anyone interested in learning more
about this club.