The Cozy Mystery blog got a comment from Margaret that so interested me, I just knew I “had” to post it as an entry. Something rather similar happened to me years and years ago, when I asked my library branch librarian about a mystery reading group. Her answer dissuaded me from even looking into the one that our branch already had!
Margaret’s comment is as follows:
“Just curious if anyone had a similar issue. This is way off topic but, because of your great website and all the new authors and series I have discovered, I am so anxious to start a Cozy Mystery Book Club. I thought about how great this would be for my Library, get more people in and not everyone can afford to buy their books. I really don’t use my Library because I prefer to buy my books, this might make me use my Library more. Well, I approached the Central Branch of my County Library (a County of 146k people and a City of 66k) and was told “well we already have three book clubs”. The three clubs are historical, non-fiction and fiction. They wouldn’t even let me explain what I wanted, they refused to even listen. I would handle it all myself, just looking for space and a little advertising on the website to annouce the club. I am not sure what the problem is. Cozy Mysteries are such a large portion of Mysteries and Mysteries in general are so popular. I am a member of Sisters in Crime and my local chapter, and see the interest in Mysteries. I can not believe all Libraries are all so “clique-ish”. It seems if it is not intellectual enough they don’t want to recognize it. Very frustrating, I thought any reading was better than no reading. I thought Libraries wanted to promote any type of reading. Sorry for the rant, just curious to see if others have any Mystery Book Clubs at their Libraries.”
In my case, the librarian told me that the group comprised of a very few “old” people. She said that the turn out was so bad, that sometimes they didn’t even have enough to have a meeting. I know I should have gone ahead and tried it, but at the time I already was a member of two thriving online mystery reading groups, so I decided to pass.
What about you all?
