The optimal book club
I spent the day with my two good friends, P. family mom and W. family mom. We decided that we needed some time away to catch up and just be together. The trouble is we live so far away from each now that either I'm driving for over two hours or they are. We tried something different today. We all ended up driving and met at a very cool knitting and spinning store. We spent a long time ogling the yarn and wool, wishing we had boatloads of time to make beautiful things, then all opted to go with the extremely simple, yet satisfying project of knitting a cowl with this amazing yarn made of a mix of alpaca fiber and silk. It is so soft. Truly it's one of the softest yarns I've ever held. So, we are now beginning our own little private knit-a-long. As I work on it I'll show you pictures. I also picked up some new roving to spin into yarn since I'm almost done with the blue that I'm working on.
After our knitting excursion, we headed into town to lunch. Well, first we stopped at a thrift store because it was there. I scored one chicken centerpiece, one youth sweat shirt, and one pair of youth long underwear for $2.50. Yes, you read that number correctly. They were having a sale. So after this unexpected diversion, we found some lunch and sat and ate and talked for the next four hours. Clearly, we had a lot to catch up on.
As usually happens, one of the things we talked about was books. Books we were using for school, books we are currently reading, books we just read and recommend. As we were doing this, it occurred to me that this is the kind of book club I want to belong to... the book report book club. Where there is not one book everyone is supposed to read (because the second someone tells me I have to read something that is exactly the book I don't want to read even if it has been of interest before), but instead everyone just comes with a book that they just read and tells everyone about it. If others have read it, then it could generate some discussion, and at the end, everyone goes home with more books added to their want to read book list.
Personally, I think the idea is brilliant. It would accommodate all types of readers. It wouldn't matter the genre; it wouldn't matter how long the book was; it wouldn't matter how many books you read in a month, because each person would just be sharing a book that they read and why the liked it (or not). It would also solve the vaguely forced book club discussion aspect that everyone always seems to participate in the same way a child approaches a cooked vegetable... something that has to be done, but isn't going to be exactly enjoyed.
What do you think? Would you like this type of book club? If you live close to me, would you want to join? Surely there are other avid readers here in my new home who just like to read and talk about the most recent books they read.
After our knitting excursion, we headed into town to lunch. Well, first we stopped at a thrift store because it was there. I scored one chicken centerpiece, one youth sweat shirt, and one pair of youth long underwear for $2.50. Yes, you read that number correctly. They were having a sale. So after this unexpected diversion, we found some lunch and sat and ate and talked for the next four hours. Clearly, we had a lot to catch up on.
As usually happens, one of the things we talked about was books. Books we were using for school, books we are currently reading, books we just read and recommend. As we were doing this, it occurred to me that this is the kind of book club I want to belong to... the book report book club. Where there is not one book everyone is supposed to read (because the second someone tells me I have to read something that is exactly the book I don't want to read even if it has been of interest before), but instead everyone just comes with a book that they just read and tells everyone about it. If others have read it, then it could generate some discussion, and at the end, everyone goes home with more books added to their want to read book list.
Personally, I think the idea is brilliant. It would accommodate all types of readers. It wouldn't matter the genre; it wouldn't matter how long the book was; it wouldn't matter how many books you read in a month, because each person would just be sharing a book that they read and why the liked it (or not). It would also solve the vaguely forced book club discussion aspect that everyone always seems to participate in the same way a child approaches a cooked vegetable... something that has to be done, but isn't going to be exactly enjoyed.
What do you think? Would you like this type of book club? If you live close to me, would you want to join? Surely there are other avid readers here in my new home who just like to read and talk about the most recent books they read.
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