Booking It
After hoping for years that I'd be invited to join an established book club by an unknown someone (could have been anyone, really), somewhere (preferably within three subway transfers), and somehow (e-mail, posted letter, singing telegram, I'm not picky), and then pathetically failing at obtaining such an invitation, I caved. I did the only thing I could do: I pulled a classic nerd move and started my own. At our first gathering, someone pointed out that the subject line of my e-mail invitation was "Booking It." Have you ever heard anything so clever? Our second meeting is scheduled for later this month.
This, this is a good thing.
So what are you reading?
ReplyDeleteThe first was The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. It was his debut novel. I couldn't believe it!
DeleteThe second is Once We Were Brothers by Ronald Balson. Haven't started it yet, but I hope it's a good one.
Any book club that involves Starbucks is a good book club. My book consists of senior citizens who prefer to read Holocaust fiction and complain about anything written about 1970.
ReplyDeleteWe're taking turns hosting, but I was thinking of proposing to have meetings at local cafes to get around the pressures of hosting. We'll see.
DeleteSounds like your book picks could include some classics? Maybe not Holocaust fiction, but could you find something with similar themes?
I think I'd find chilling with a bunch of senior citizens every now and again very fun! I used to volunteer at a local residence in high school. The residents were so kind!
Written AFTER 1970. Not about 1970.
ReplyDeleteI would love to start a book club- sadly the good friends I have nearby aren't big readers. But I'll gladly read your recommendations and pretend I'm joining in :) xx
ReplyDeletePlease do!
DeleteAnother idea is to have a club focused on another type of publication - blogs or magazines, perhaps, if your local friends read those? It could be fun to use those mediums as an excuse to have small, in-person gatherings. :)
I am obsessed with my book club! we take turns hosting as well, but we kindof make it a pot luck. The girl hosting pics the book and makes the main course, everyone else brings a side dish, appetizer, desert... you get the idea. Everything is always wonderful! Everyone brings their a-game. So it's like a bonus dinner club as well. Another bonus is that the next month after you host, you don't have to bring anything!
ReplyDeleteAfter dinner, we discuss the book and everybody rates from 1-5. Just for some suggestions I thought i'd tell you a few of our highest rated books so far. Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Dubois, and Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray. Very different books, but all big hits in our group. Next up for this month is Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. I'm looking forward to starting it.
Congratulations. book clubs are the best (-:
Hi, Madeline. What a pretty name you have! Thanks for stopping by.
DeleteWow. Your group puts other clubs to shame. It'll be a while until it’s my turn to pick, but it's cool to know what everyone else is reading. Thank you for sharing the details of your club's approach! :)
Cold Mountain is, incidentally, a modern iteration of one of my favorite Greek classics! Have you read Homer's Odyssey? Its themes are timeless, mythic elements fascinating, and social / cultural reflections enlightening. Really extraordinary. I read CM way before the film adaptation was in the works, and remember enjoying it. This is very out of character for me, but it’s what immediately comes to mind when I think of the film, so I’ll bring it up anyway: there is a love scene with Jude Law and Nicole Kidman that was exquisitely done. SO passionate, SO emotional, SO tasteful. Uh. Mazing.
That's too funny that you listed a DuBois classic right next to a book with the words "Cracker Childhood" in its title! Our literary landscape is, without a doubt, a cultural reflection of our country’s unique racial history, wouldn’t you say? Man, now I’m wishing that I were part of your group. Just thinking about your book picks have gotten my wheels turning!
That IS funny. I didn't even think of it. I say it's a testament to the group that we can read and enjoy both. We are not all the same by any means, but we all respect each other and all view points are allowed so makes for interesting conversation and i often learn something or have my view points changed, or at least thoughts sparked. Another great thing about the diversity is that we end up reading books that we probably never would otherwise. It's a GREAT club and I definitely don't take it for granted!
DeleteI have read the Odyssey and recognized Cold Mountain's similarities immediately. Another of my favorite Odyssey adaptations is the movie O'Brother, Where Art Thou? I love it. The movie version of Cold Mountain on the other hand, I did not love. I didn't see it when it originally came out, but decided to after I loved the book so much. There is a line in the book that SLAYED me. When Inman and Ada finally meet each other in the woods, they look at each other for a long time and he doesn't know what to say, so finally he says what he said to her when he had dreamed of the moment, "I've been coming to you on a hard road, and i'm not letting you go" (it gives me chill bumps even just typing it out!!) It was so powerful and the movie LEFT IT OUT! I was furious, haha. I think that book will go down in history as one of my all time faves, it's one of those books that I wish I could read again for the first time.
Thanks for the compliment on my name. It gets prettier, my middle name is Rose. I think my parents did a great job (-: