The start of something big: the first national conference of book clubs convenes.

Billed as the "world's largest book club meeting," the first conference of reading groups from all over the nation convened in Atlanta, Georgia, this east August.

The National Book Club Conference. chaired and founded by Curtis Bunn, says its mission is to promote reading by enhancing adult book clubs and promoting literacy in public schools. Bunn, along with a board of directors that reads like a "Who's Who" of black publishing, says he hopes to "capture the energy" they had encountered while meeting with Book clubs individually.

"It was important that this be a celebration of what book clubs are all about--a gathering of like-minded avid readers coming together on a national scale," Bunn told BIBR. Bunn, a resident of Atlanta, is the author of the highly popular Baggage Check (A&B Book Publishing Distributors, September 2001).

The 237 attendees representing 39 different book clubs from 23 states reveled in the discovery that they were not alone in their love of literature. "I was shocked to see so many people who were as passionate about books as we are," says Laren Jones, a member of Ebony Eyes Book Club in Baltimore, Maryland.

The gathering allowed the 27 popular authors on the schedule to share their perspectives on their works with attendees and gain valuable primary feedback from their readers. Erica Simone Turnipseed, author of A Love Noir (Amistad Press, July 2008), a first novel that has been well received by critics, says, "Book clubs are such a driving force for books and black books in particular."

Bunn has scheduled the next conference for August 6-8, 2004, again in Atlanta. For more information, log on to www.nationalbookclubconference.com.

Michelle Gipson is a, freelance writer and an editor for the Atlanta Daily World.