book group

tonight was book group.  we meet the 2nd tuesday of every month - well, most every month.  last summer we had to cancel a couple of times due to low (read no) attendance.  i love my book group.  this is the 3rd book group i have belonged to- i was in my first book group for about a year.  it was mostly attorneys & focused on the book very little.  it kind of fell apart after a year.  i cast about for a new group & my friend, susan o, invited me to join hers.  i'm not sure how long i have been going to this group.  i think it's at least 10 years- probably longer.  the group has gone through many membership changes & numbers go up & down.  there are 3-4 core people that were in the group before i was & then a core that has come along since then.   tonight we had 8 attending.  it's a woman only group & we have a great range of women- two MDs, one professor, a scientist (she runs a lab), four therapists (3 social workers & one psychologist), one who works at the art museum, a CPA, a full-time mom & one who just completed her 2nd masters degree & is in the non-profit sector as a developer.  for a brief time last year, i joined another book group- known affectionately as the smart book group.  my other book group took on the title of the "loosey-goosey book group" (& the loosey-goosey group is wildly smart).  now that i think about it, it may have been appropriate to call the other group the "overachievers" group.  that book group actually had a name that we came up with - SOAR- Society of Adventurous Readers.  my other book group doesn't have an official name & i doubt they would feel the need for one.

the smart book group designated a person to lead the discussion.  it was helpful if you had some background on the author & you were expected to have discussion questions prepared to lead the discussions.  the books were decided upon a year in advance (primarily by one person, who went to great pains to make it seem as though the process was a democratic one) & you didn't get a choice as to which book discussion you would be responsible for leading.  a good part of membership of the group was extroverts- be careful about creating a book group out of mostly extroverts.  i struggled to stay in it & made an agreement with myself to give it at least a year - in the year i was in it, i think we only read one book i liked.  finally, they chose to move the book group to a different night & they moved it to the 2nd tuesday of the month, so that made my decision for me. to give a bit of contrast to the structure of the two groups, the loosey-goosey book group comes by its name honestly- for example, we pick our books as we go along & we might make a change from one month to the next.  during the summer, a member may object to a suggested book - that book is really long- too long for the summer.  i want something shorter for lying on the beach.  you gotta love a book group with that attitude!

we have read some great books in this group & some real dogs.  there are the books that evoke lively discussion- two that come to mind are the reader & cliff walk.  the tortilla curtain elicited one of the most frank & honest discussions i've been a part of regarding prejudice & racism.  we read a real mixture of books.  some of us have strong opinions regarding what we read & what we don't read.  a couple members really like science fiction- some of us don't care for it.  then there is the fiction vs. non-fiction divide.  we mix it up pretty well, though.  non-fiction in the past year included the glass castle & the nine: an inside look at the supreme court.

my book group is very accepting.   i've behaved badly & been forgiven.  it's very easy to be direct & honest in this group.  i know i will always have a stimulating discussion on book group night.   this month we read the elegance of the hedgehog.  it was liked by most of the group.  our discussion tonight ranged from the book to unions & their relevance in contemporary american society, to the bipartisanship efforts of obama & the rebuffs he received, to how scary the current economy is & how the effects of it are getting closer to home & to holding onto hope & optimism.  politics almost always comes up at book group-  we tend to be like-minded, so this is not a hot spot.  i talked a little bit about rating mascaras...    & of course, we talked about the book.  one of the big discussions was whether or not we should talk about the ending of the book because there were some members who had not yet finished the book & those of us who had were reluctant to ruin an unexpected ending for them.   the ending was sad & unexpected.  (we decided to talk about the ending after receiving encouragement from the non-finishers).  

i believe there is little need to buy self-help books if you buy good fiction.  i can't imagine what it would be like to be unable to read.  i love nothing better than to fall into a good book, to make new "friends" in the pages & travel to places i've not been before.  i learn much from accepting the invitation to explore the internal landscapes of so many wonderful & interesting characters.  my greatest fear is that i will one day lose my sight.  i know i can listen to books- it is not the same.  i love holding a book, reading the printed page,  touching the pages, toting it around with me.  i love reading & re-reading a passage several times because it is so beautiful & i need to read it several times before i can take it in.  

i've loved to read since i can remember.  i got in trouble in 1st grade for bringing books home from school so i could read ahead.  we were in catholic school at that time & i had a nun for a teacher.  i don't need to say anymore, do i?  my sister & i shared a room & we each had our own side of the closet.  i remember my mother coming up & looking through the closet & finding the books where i had tucked them away.  growing up was not comfortable for me & i experienced a lot of difficulties socially.  books were my refuge, as they were for so many others.  

so i feel grateful to be in such an interesting & stimulating book group & love all the books i've read that i wouldn't have read otherwise- new authors, new types of reading.  i look forward to book group most months- sometimes it's hard for me to feel justified going when i am very, very behind in work.  the week of book group is always a busy one because my investment club meets on the 2nd wednesday of every month, so the two meetings are two days in a row.  the investment club is much more work than book group!  & not nearly as fun- especially these days.  we've watched our portfolio lose at least half its value.

so to my book group- thank you one & all.  i hope we meet for many years to come.