How many books have you read in the last year? Month?
Week?
I’m always curious what people are reading and how much they read. As a veracious reader, I can sometimes find it difficult to find good books that I can really sink my teeth into. I am a fast reader, most of the time and I tend to intimidate other readers that can’t read three books a week on average….but then they may have a life and I have reading! In Austin, I was a member of three different book clubs….all different styles and personalities. The Culture Club, chosen for the number of social, non-fiction or historical novels that we read. The Classics was a club that was determined to re-read all the books that they rejected as teenagers or young adults. And then there was The Ladies Club, a club of readers….plain and simple.
The Culture Club was a group of women from Austin. We had a lobbyist, an environmental engineer, lawyer and a social worker. I worked for a church then….they wouldn’t let me in if I had still been working for the car dealership. They were all socially, politically and biblically minded so the choices of our books leaned to anything that might be considered controversial in any other setting. I have to admit, and they all know this too, that I would have never chosen 75% of the books we read if choosing on my own. And yet, I loved the books we read…for the most part. I learned so much about myself… why I have the opinion that I do on certain subjects and where it came from in my own family and history. I’m not shy, but this group could be intimidating….and I was quiet and rarely spoke unless I was absolutely convinced of my position. I learned to listen…and now I seek out those books on my own.
The Classics Club were a group of friends that wanted to read more….and not Nora Roberts. They had shunned reading in school and since and were looking for a way to get back the lost knowledge and be able to win at trivial pursuit. We started with simple things, like The Scarlet Letter and The Outsiders. Both were books that we should have in our list, but for whatever reason many had not read them. In the beginning, we spent a lot of time catching those folks up that struggled to get one book read in a month and to help those others understand what they had read. It took some time but eventually this group was tackling Hamlet and other classics like Moby Dick. I was thrilled to rediscover these books and what was different this time than 25 years before. I also discovered that I just didn’t like some of them at all….classics or net.
My favorite book club, The Ladies Club was a great group of women from 25-65 years of age. You had to be a reader to keep up with this group. We would pick two to three books a month and our meetings would be 4 hour affairs full of everything from arguing to crying. The laughter was deafening and Benjamin used to arrange to be out of the house when they would come to my house for the meeting. “Why do you have to talk so loud about books?” We would meet, eat and drink some serious red wine and then discuss. The books were chosen to touch us in some way or another and we were fairly successful. This group was the “new release” group…it was hard to find books that we hadn’t read before or wanted to read again for the sake of discussion. We attempted some classical work…but no one really took it seriously. We wanted heart stories and that is where found each other…in the depths of friendship and holding on to a piece of each others heart. I miss these women. Though I know that the chemistry we had was unique, I crave that in my search for another Book Club.
Talk to me about what you are reading…and if you haven’t been reading I have a great list of books that you might like.
The Culture Club was a group of women from Austin. We had a lobbyist, an environmental engineer, lawyer and a social worker. I worked for a church then….they wouldn’t let me in if I had still been working for the car dealership. They were all socially, politically and biblically minded so the choices of our books leaned to anything that might be considered controversial in any other setting. I have to admit, and they all know this too, that I would have never chosen 75% of the books we read if choosing on my own. And yet, I loved the books we read…for the most part. I learned so much about myself… why I have the opinion that I do on certain subjects and where it came from in my own family and history. I’m not shy, but this group could be intimidating….and I was quiet and rarely spoke unless I was absolutely convinced of my position. I learned to listen…and now I seek out those books on my own.
The Classics Club were a group of friends that wanted to read more….and not Nora Roberts. They had shunned reading in school and since and were looking for a way to get back the lost knowledge and be able to win at trivial pursuit. We started with simple things, like The Scarlet Letter and The Outsiders. Both were books that we should have in our list, but for whatever reason many had not read them. In the beginning, we spent a lot of time catching those folks up that struggled to get one book read in a month and to help those others understand what they had read. It took some time but eventually this group was tackling Hamlet and other classics like Moby Dick. I was thrilled to rediscover these books and what was different this time than 25 years before. I also discovered that I just didn’t like some of them at all….classics or net.
My favorite book club, The Ladies Club was a great group of women from 25-65 years of age. You had to be a reader to keep up with this group. We would pick two to three books a month and our meetings would be 4 hour affairs full of everything from arguing to crying. The laughter was deafening and Benjamin used to arrange to be out of the house when they would come to my house for the meeting. “Why do you have to talk so loud about books?” We would meet, eat and drink some serious red wine and then discuss. The books were chosen to touch us in some way or another and we were fairly successful. This group was the “new release” group…it was hard to find books that we hadn’t read before or wanted to read again for the sake of discussion. We attempted some classical work…but no one really took it seriously. We wanted heart stories and that is where found each other…in the depths of friendship and holding on to a piece of each others heart. I miss these women. Though I know that the chemistry we had was unique, I crave that in my search for another Book Club.
Talk to me about what you are reading…and if you haven’t been reading I have a great list of books that you might like.
