I'd say ask at Porter Square Books, at work, and at the Library.

Amazon Books in Minneapolis used to run book groups (and may still). The way I remember it working was that the moderator brought in a description and a list of books to read, the store made a list of groups, then customers signed up for what they wanted. If enough people signed up the store hosted the group.

I'm in an informal book club, if you're interested :-) We're not very structured, so our meetings tend to consist of a free-for-all discussion, followed by figuring out what book people would like to read next and what the next meeting date will be. Then someone e-mails the mailing list to confirm the decision.

Are you thinking of fiction or non-fiction?

It matters whether you read The Fellowship of the Ring or The Two Towers first, so book groups are clearly nonabelian. :-P

There are still very affordable refrigerators in the $300-$400 range. The expensive ones are out front or featured in the ads and full of features you probably don't need.

Sears/KMart have a good selection, and Best Buy, but don't forget Home Depot and Lowes.

When you do find your group, I would like to know what book you are reading so I can read it too. I can't show up to the gathering, but maybe I can seed you with ideas, if you wouldn't mind.

Don't forget to take into account the fact that a new refrigerator is likely to use less energy - perhaps a back of the envelope calculation of payback time given electricity rates would be useful? (though I don't know how you'll figure out what your current fridge uses, since old fridges tend to draw more power than they did when you first bought them)

I think a book club can work however you want. I think the general idea is that you read a book (or part of a book) and then meet and talk about it. Some people like to have some discussion questions prepared ahead of time, others, not. Probably, the important thing is for everyone to have a common agreement on what to read, how often, and perhaps, what kinds of discussion is of interest. I have no time for book clubs, unless they involve board books, so feel free to take my suggestion with a grain of salt.

A lot of the fiction I read, when I have time for it, has a "reader's guide" or "book club guide" in the back with some questions, sometimes with answers. I have never done a book club, so I don't know if it's dorky, but it might be worth looking at to get an idea of what kinds of questions are asked.

You may want to line up some litcrit people or people who get off on researching that kind of thing; while yer average reader will find some interesting things to say about stuff, you may get some good ideas to talk about by finding some stuff people have written. I guess it depends on what you want out of it.