Science Fiction Book Clubs

The Science Fiction Book Club

In the first category falls the venerable Science Fiction Book Club. This organization has been in existance for at least forty years, and operates much like all other book selling bookclubs. Each month they designate a featured title, and perhaps one or two alternate titles, which they advertise in their mailing. If you don't respond, you receive the featured title automatically. You can send back the card to select another title, or no title at all. These kinds of book clubs (and record clubs, for those of you old enough to remember 'records') are famous for taking advantage of their customers' procrastination. A certain percentage of people simply forget to return the form, and thus receive the book they may not have otherwise purchased.

The Science Fiction Book Club is now on the web, of course, at www.sfbc.com.

Meeting Other SF Fans

The other kind of book club, often called a science fiction society, is a group of people who get together on a regular basis to discuss science fiction books. The gathering can have a selected book which members are encouraged to read prior to the meeting, or be more open in format, with members reading what they will, and describing them to the rest of the group.

These societies typically meet monthly, or bi-monthly, at someone's home, or now more characteristically at a bookstore that includes a coffeeshop that can be used as a gathering place.

Science Fiction Societies sprang up in the 'fifties, the Golden Age of Science Fiction, out of a need for people who enjoyed an esoteric topic to find other like-minded souls who shared their passion. Some of these literary societies have been in existance for decades.

The True Genesis of the Sci-Fi Con

Long before there were Star Trek conventions, local science fiction societies were organizing and hosting science fiction conventions. Unlike the media-intensive conventions today, dependent upon the ability to attract a few actors who appeared in some incarnation of Star Trek to draw the crowds, the original science fiction conventions celebrated the written word. Authors were the big draw, and fans relished an opportunity to bandy words with the authors whose books meant so much to them.

Many of these societies' science fiction conventions are still being organized and held today. They are less 'commercial' than the television-centric conventions, and often much more interesting. The Baltimore Science Fiction Society, for instance, will be hosting its 40th Balticon convention in 2006. Balticon is notable for the extent to which the attendees are into costuming and roleplaying.

The ultimate science fiction society, of course, is the World Science Fiction Society, which yearly produces WorldCon and is the body responsible for granting the Hugo Awards. WorldCon '06 is in Los Angeles in August.