I’ve always wished I could be addicted to something healthy, like running or smoothies or going to the gym. I’ve heard people talk about the addictive “runners high” but in all honesty, I have found more euphoria in a good piece of dark chocolate. I wouldn’t say I have any horribly bad addictions. In fact, I would call them more habits than addictions. A glass of wine most evenings. Putting on chapstick approximately 1027 times a day. COFFEE.
And then there are the book clubs.
My first real book club experience was when I worked at Barnes and Noble as a teenager. I started trading shifts with other people so I could work on book club nights and hover around the outskirts of the conversation. I lacked the self confidence to verbally participate but I loved listening to the conversations. College lit classes fulfilled my desire for literary companionship for a few years and then I became a mom and went through a period of only reading children’s board books. It wasn’t until my early 30’s that I became actively involved in my first, and favorite, bookclub.
The ladies involved all met through a moms group so I can’t say the group had a lot of diversity. We were similar ages with similar backgrounds and we all had young kids. We got together one evening a month, usually someplace where children were frowned upon. We would always start out discussing the book but the conversation would eventually, naturally meander to whatever topic needed to be discussed. Even a true piece of fluff literature could lead to learning so much about those women, and myself. My husband got to the point where he would alway put air quotes around the words Book Club. He did not understand how it could take 4 hours (and a significant bar bill) to talk about a 350 page book. He has obviously never been in a book club!
That bookclub was eventually disbanded after a period of intense turnover due to several moms going back to work and having no time to read. Ah time… the bane of existence for many a bookclub.
Since then I have tried to join a few different book clubs but the chemistry wasn’t there. Too religious. Too serious. Too sober.
I have also started a couple of clubs, in person and on-line. I have decided to tell myself that their failure is due to a lack of commitment and not a reflection on my nerdiness and possible over-enthusiastic leadership.
I have been trying to compensate by joining large, popular literature bookclubs on line. While I miss the intimacy, it’s nice to be able to just ignore comments from people who either didn’t really read the book or are just idiots. It’s much more difficult to ignore the idiots face to face.
Currently, my favorite clubs are the Reese Witherspoon book club Hello Sunshine and the Catch-up book clubs on Goodreads.
Because I am still overcoming that lack of self-confidence mentioned earlier, I do not often comment in the online bookclub chats. I am hoping to change! In the meantime I will begin posting my thoughts on book club reads here. I would love to hear your thoughts on the books as well!
Learning to Aim 