“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”
Rules of the Meldreth Book Club
At the formation of the Meldreth Book Club in 2005 in the sitting room of Mr Red, the earliest rules were discussed and agreed. Using the unhappy experience of a now redundant all-female book group in the village as a guide, the earliest agreed rules were:
- All members have to be present for the meeting to be quorate.
- The Club aims to meet monthly over dinner in a restaurant or public house, never at home.
- One volunteer is the Holder of the Golden Spreadsheet responsible for administration, communication and all records of the Group for an indefinite period of time until he hands over to another member of the Club.
- By rotation, one member produces a short-list of books, another reserves a venue and provides door-to-door transport for the others,
- At each meeting, all members vote for each book on the shortlist, the exception being the proposer, who is understood to vote for all titles. Members may vote only once for each title, but there is no limit to the number of titles for which he may vote.
- Books have to be works of fiction published in English (including translation from another language) as a novel or novella. Plays, graphic novels or other obscure forms are forbidden.
Over time, the practices and usages of the Club have become codified as generally accepted but unwritten rules. Exceptions have been made to the rules – both by accident and design – and occasional misunderstandings or differing interpretations have been resolved swiftly by general agreement at the meeting.
The current rules and conventions can be categorised under the following headings:
Book and Author
The book must be a paperback novel or novella[1] written in prose, published in the English language, and readily available from online sellers either new or second-hand. Although there is no page limit,[3] most books shortlisted are usually less than 400 pages long, and the length of a book may legitimately affect voting. Traditionally, the HoGS procured and distributed the books although this arcane practice has ceased due to logistical difficulties and the inability of certain members to recall whether they have the work in question in their library. Today, members are expected to procure, borrow or download their own books in whatever format suits. Following the Auto Da Fe incident[4], a rule was introduced stating that all books must be read in their entirety before the meeting. Happily this has been adhered to and at times exceeded (see Robinson Crusoe incident under Infamous Books).
Logistics
The key logistical tasks are (a) producing a shortlist of books (see below), and (b) booking a venue (see below). The latter traditionally included driving members to and from the venue; however, due to the exodus of three members of the Club from our home village, this responsibility has now been dropped – it is up to each member to organise his own transport arrangements. The HoGS informs members of their turn either by email or more latterly via the calendar on the website. As more than one book can be selected from the shortlist, the rotation is not predictable and there have been occasions when both tasks (a) and (b) have been undertaken by the same member.
Shortlisting
There are no rules governing the number of books on the shortlist although 5-7 is normal. Proposers are expected to provide a printed list on the day. This must include the title, author, length and brief plot summary and should be no longer than two sides of A4 – photos of the book cover are optional. At some point, it was decided that in the event of a tie all books would be read that tied for the highest score – attempts to re-score on the day proved unsatisfactory and led to complaints of unfairness. Unfortunately, this led to some dissatisfaction over a lack of representation when some members were not called to provide a list for over a year due to the number of ties. The tie rule was modified in Aug 2018 after the infamous all-football list (Mr Orange) when four of the six books shortlisted scored equally low votes (2 each) due to the lack of interest of the other members in the topic. It was unanimously decided that for this and all subsequent lists only three tied books would be read from any one list. The re-vote occurred on the four tied books with the lowest scoring book being eliminated.
Booking a Venue
There are no rules governing the booking of a venue other than it cannot be a private residence. The convention has been that the venue must be either a licensed restaurant or public house that accepts bookings within a reasonable driving distance[5]. The dates of meetings are agreed on the day or via email and are usually weekdays. The start time and the venue are decided by the member responsible; the end time is largely down to the speed of service and the scale of the order – two or three courses. No guidance is provided over the style of cuisine or the budget; however, fast or cold food venues are largely eschewed in favour of establishments that provide at least three courses and a separate table. Members choose individually and the bill plus tip is split equally regardless of individual order. Bills should normally not exceed £40 per person including alcohol. After the bill is settled, HoGS takes members’ ranking of the restaurant on a scale of one to five, the mean average of which is recorded for posterity.
Scoring
Initially the Club did not score the books[6], but this changed in Apr 2007[7] and has carried on ever since. At a mutually convenient time during the dinner, taking into account the number of books needing to be scored, each member in turn will be asked for his opinion of the book in question. The person sitting to the left of the shortlister starts and the order continues clockwise with the shortlister offering his opinion last. After all individual opinions have been aired, there is usually an informal, general discussion over the books’ qualities before HoGS asks for scores following the same rotation. Scores are out of five providing a possible total score range of 0-25. Half-points (e.g., 3.5, 4.5) are permitted, but not smaller fractions. Minus scores may not be awarded (although it is sometimes tempting to award one). The lowest score to date (Nov. 2020) is 4.5 shared by four works, the highest (23) held by The Siege of Krishnapur (Sep 2008).
[1] Non-fiction, plays and graphic novels have always been forbidden. Poetry was banned immediately after the unfortunate nomination of Sir Gawain & the Green Knight (Mr Red) in Dec 2009
[2] The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens (Mr Green) is the largest book read at +750 pages.
[3] This refers to one member (Mr Green) failing to finish reading Auto Da Fe (Mr Black) in Oct 2005 before the meeting, thereby shocking the Group into an early rule change.
[4] On special occasions, such as the celebration of the 100th book/10-year anniversary weekend in Dublin, the conventions have been ignored.
[5] 17 books from the first meeting Sep 2005 to Mar 2007 went unscored. As this included several Book Club classics, such as Auto Da Fe and The Ginger Man, many have speculated on the possible scores the Group would have given had this rule been in place.
[6] A Handful of Dust (Mr Orange) in Apr 2007 was the first book scored (15).