WHY I LOVE BOOK CLUBS
I belong to two book clubs. The first one I joined was in the fall of 2006. It was a new book club started by Carol Baker, the local librarian and we met in a cafe with lunches and antiques and crafts for sale. It was called the Brew Basket. I think the first book picked was To Kill a Mocking bird, but I didn't keep a record then.
Eventually, Carol couldn't be with us because government funding for the library was cut back. She still had another book club at the library where she worked. We met there every third Thursday for several years until the Brew Basket went out of business. Then we went to several other restaurants for awhile and finally ended up at Roby Lee's, a larger restaurant where we had more room and where we still meet at 11:00 a.m. the Third Thursday of each month except wen one of our members has us meeting up at her cottage on Lake Erie in July.
 |
| Just one of the book shelves in my whole house. |
Then in December we meet at my house and each of our members comes with two or three books to pick from for the following year for January to November. The extra books are added to a list for anyone to read after they've read that month's book. We have a pot luck meal at my house, too.
When we meet at Roby Lee's we discuss the book of the month and then some of us stay for lunch. Some order take-out, or some like me order the meal for takeout, but stay there to eat from the salad bar which is really good and includes soup, dessert and delicious small slices of white pizza. Carol Baker is retired now and has joined us again. The waitresses who take care of us always bring coffee or tea and fresh baked bread with butter to nibble on while we're discussing the book or talking about what has gone on in our lives since the last time we met.
The other book club I joined was the Red Read Robin book club. It was started in February 2008 on the last Thursday of the month at 6:00 p.m. It's a larger book club with over half of the members related to each other and at least half of them go to the same Sunday Mass I go to and we sit together. With that one it's held in different member's homes or if they don't have room in their homes they choose a restaurant to meet in. If it's at someone's home they prepare and evening dinner for us. One of my friends who is a member has a small home and a husband with a disability so she always chooses a restaurant when it's her month to have the book club. This book club always serves wine with the meal, too.
The first book chosen for that book club was also To Kill a Mockingbird. Only three members have dropped out not because they didn't like us, but because they were too busy like Erin, who is a teacher and has two little children. Her husband is also a teacher and both of them have lots of papers to grade. Two of our members live close to fifty miles away so don't come quite as often and when it's their turn to have book club they have it on Saturday afternoon so we don't have to come home after dark and we tend to car pool, too.
My love of belonging to book clubs has so many positive aspects. First, it's interesting to hear everyone's opinions of a book you've just read. Some really liked it. Some had a few complaints and then there's one member who often hated the book which is kind of upsetting for the hostess of the book club that night who picked the book. (That member has dropped out now.)
Second, it's fun to be with fellow book lovers, who have become my friends over the years I've belonged to both book clubs.
Third, I'm introduced to books I might never have heard of or particularly wanted to read. I'm a big mystery fan and read more mysteries than anything else, but it's good for everyone to read other books, too. There have only been a few over the years that I didn't like, but that is because the person who picked the book didn't bother to read it first, too. I often pick a good mystery or a book I'd read in the other book club and enjoyed.
Today I will be at my Third Thursday's Book Club at Roby Lee's discussing the book Little Fires Everywhere, bu Celeste Ng. It's a book that will have a lot about it to discuss.
Do you belong to a book club?
If not, would you like to belong to one?
I belong to a mystery book club, and I love it. It encourages me to read mystery and crime novels I might never have selected on my own.
ReplyDeleteWe meet once a month, and whoever is hosting serves food related to the story. Sometimes that can present a problem. When I chose one of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael stories, I had to update the foods a bit. Oatcakes and mead, anyone?
We also go on fun field trips. After reading a Dick Francis novel, we went to a racetrack. March's book is Murder in the Library of Congress, and we are taking a trip there.
Sounds like a fun group, Kathleen! I'm in an on-line crime writers book club which pushes me to read outside my favorite subgenres. I've enjoyed Mystic River, the Poet, Winter and Night, Iron Lake, and a Brother Cadfael.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, Gloria. I always enjoy reading about your book club selections.
KM I'd love to belong to a mystery book club. Being a horse lover, I read all of Dick Francis'es books, too. Both of my book clubs meet once a month, too.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, I love the Brother Cadfael series. I think I've read all of them unless the author has come out with some new ones since I read the last one some months ago. Right now I'm reading a book chosen by my Red Read Robin book club which isn't a mystery. It's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I'm not very far into it yet. Upstairs I'm reading A Walk for Sunshine a non-fiction book by Jeff Alt who walked the whole Appalachian Trail. My sister Suzanne gave that to me because my other sister and I walked sections of the Appalachian Trail. I'm finding it very interesting especially when he hits places we walked. Of course, we didn't walk very much of it.
He covered more than 2000 miles of walking it from Georgia to Maine.
It sounds like fun. I'd like to be in a serious group. the one I know about wanders off into other topics.
ReplyDeleteWarren, we're not always serious. we tell jokes, too, and laugh about things. Today I went to the meeting of my Third Thursday Book Club and we discussed the book we had all just read and it was interesting to hear all the different comments about the book - what we liked, what we didn't like and what characters we liked and those we didn't like as well as discussing the author. We spent over an hour discussing the book while we ate some snacks, drank coffee or tea as well as water with lemons in it. that were brought to the table by a waitress. This club meets at Roby Lee (and yes, it's Roby Lee) After it was over I took the book back to the library.
ReplyDelete