New Improved Book Club

Once upon a time I belonged to a book club. Two, actually, but I'm talking about the first one. It was mostly the 4 of us, with a few extras from time to time. It went for years, mostly monthly. Someone would suggest a book, and most of us would read it. All kinds of books. Some quick and easy. Some really hard, The Name of the Rose, and Gravities Rainbow, for example. Nobody got through those two. One of our group takes a run at The Name of the Rose every bunch of years and has never made it through.

The joy of it is that it wasn't just a book club. It was a life club. We talked about everything under the sun, which often but not always included the nominal book of the month. Movies, restaurants, stage plays, who was working where and with whom, what schooling was happening, kids activities, it could be anything. It was delightful. All good things come to an end, and my involvement petered out for reasons I need not go into here, and are not relevant to the long time members.

Two serendipitous things happened at the same time, all unknowing. I had lunch with one of the people from that book club, and suggested starting it up again. One of the other permanent members had lunch with a sometimes member, and they suggested starting it up again.

The difference is that we don't choose a book, and everyone read it. We bring the book we are currently reading, or read just recently, and we talk about the various books. It's entirely likely that someone else has already read the book, or has it on their list, or wants to add it to their list.

Here are the momentous choices for the inaugural meeting.

When the Flood Falls is by my buddy Jayne Barnard. I was involved to the extent of taking some photos for it and the sequel. Linda loves it, and two of the book club made a note of it because they want to read it. (Available at Owl's Nest books and other fine bookstores including Chapters. Ask me nice and I can arrange for you to meet up with Jayne for an autograph, but don't expect it to happen in a rush. She's a busy author.)

The other is the sequel to the first book about the 100 year old man that climbed out a window and disappeared. That was delightful, and I laughed all the way through. This one, the first half was good, but not delightful. The second half didn't work out for me at all. Maybe another time.

We borrowed the book one person had been reading, some short essays by Umberto Eco. I'm looking forward to reading those.

I'm not sure what I'll read next for the book club. I've worked my way through a couple of photography books, one useful and one pretentious, but they wouldn't be of much interest to the others. I'll think of something.

Part of the problem with reading other authors when you're working on your own books is that you might have your own writing voice altered. I've seen it happen with me, so I've dialed back on reading over the last few years. I've mostly been editing lately, so maybe that will change.

But.

A buddy reminded me about NaNoWriMo, coming up soon. Hmmm. If I disappear in November, that might be why.