The public radio station is experimenting with the book club formula, moving it out of living rooms, libraries, and church basements, and onto a social networking platform. Bookworm host Michael Silverblatt will lead the invitation-only group, which currently has about 250 members. There are no plans to include the club in Bookworm programming, but depending on how the experiment goes, we may see crossover in the future.

The first book on the roster is Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion, which Silverblatt describes as “perhaps the most dazzling and dissolute Los Angeles novel, a good way to talk about how style can become content. Since Ms. Didion has a new book coming out soon (I’ve read it, it’s amazing), it would be a good way to begin a broader discussion of her work.”

Anyone interested in joining the book club should request membership via Facebook.

Commie Girl (aka Rebecca Schoenkopf) needs no introduction. She’s famous in Orange County and infamous around certain drinking holes. But what the former OC Weekly columnist did need is a book deal. So she went out and got one. Just like that.

Now her collection of columns is all bound up and purdy and coming out in June. Titled Commie Girl in the O.C., this Verso paperback is sure to make you laugh and cry… and then cry some more about the fact that you still haven’t written a book.

We all want to write a book. Well, we really want to write award-winning screenplays and sit back and let the tide of global adoration come lapping at our toes. But barring that, we really want to write a book. So we asked Commie Girl how she did it:

“First, you have to quit your job and not do anything for two weeks. Second, be friends with Mike Davis. Third … that’s about it.”

Before you throw things, read on. She’s really a lovely person and we’re betting her compilation of favorite musings will make for a good read. So don’t hate. Buy.

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