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When Michelle Burtnyk moved from Coquitlam to Vancouver in 2007, one of the first things the self-confessed book addict set out to do was find a book club to join. It did not go well.

Burtnyk, 27, contacted a woman who oversaw a serious-looking club and was told there was a waiting list to join. In the meantime, the woman sent her a questionnaire that asked prospective members things like, What are the mandatory books everyone in society should read? and, Which books turn mediocre minds into great minds?

Taken aback somewhat, Burtnyk nevertheless filled out the form and returned it. She subsequently received an e-mail saying she was a promising candidate but was now required to answer questions via e-mail about her education, employment and career goals.

Burtnyk submitted to the interview and again apparently showed promise, because at that point the woman contacted her to set up a third interview, this one in person.

"That's when I said no, this isn't the club for me," Burtnyk recalls. Further investigation into the club, which had a website outlining its philosophy ("The more exposure to popular reading, the more irreversible the development of poor taste") confirmed that the club was "very, very pretentious," she says. "And that's when I decided to form my own book club ..."

Thus was born The Circle of Literary Judgment, a group of seven Vancouverites in their 20s who manage to mock literary pretension, have fun and operate a serious book club all at the same time.

Burtnyk, a health-promotions specialist at Simon Fraser University, teamed up with a friend, John Horn, who works at the University of British Columbia, to launch the club.

Together, they drew up a questionnaire for prospective members that mocks the one Burtnyk was sent (sample Circle of Literary Judgment question: "Please interpretive dance this paragraph from George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant").

They launched the club last August around some simple principles: Anyone could join, and there was no restriction on the way books could be presented and discussed.

The only requirements are that the members read the book (or there is no point attending the meetings; see below), and they must, as Horn puts it, "buy into this kind of community."

Which means the members have to be ready to perform and have a good time doing it.

Like a lot of book clubs, CLJ monthly meetings include a meal themed to the book (for Elizabeth Hay's Late Nights on Air, whisky and bannock).

Where the Circle of Literary Judgment strays from the pack is the theatrical challenges the members invent for each other.

When Burtnyk hosted the meeting for Milan Kundera's Immortality, she wrote down random scenes from the book and had members act them out in teams. The onlookers had to guess which scene they were seeing, hence the necessity to read the book (and, as Horn says, be able to get a word in edgewise).

For Dave Eggers's What is the What?, members had to answer 10 questions about the book in one minute, and also act out a five-minute skit aimed at persuading world leaders to intervene in Sudan, which is based on a scene from the book.

At every meeting, the host chooses the best performance and hands out the "Judgiest Literary Judger" trophy, an actual bit of hardware left behind by participants in a cheerleading contest at SFU.

One of the advantages of the irreverent approach, Horn says, is that discussions about the book go off in unexpected directions. "You can be playful and sink your teeth into good literature at the same time."

But the bottom line for the club of twentysomethings is enjoying serious books without giving off a whiff of pretension. "It's all in fun," says Burtnyk, who signed an e-mail, "Yours in revolt against literary judgment."

What other book clubs are reading this month

Brock House Friday Book ClubMy Life as a Fake, by Peter Carey.

Halifax book club (submitted by Marlene Mader)Can't Wait to Get to Heaven, by Fanny Flagg.

Book Group, Burlington, Ont.Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy.