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I give book clubs a hard time. To me, a book club should be about reading something interesting and challenging and then having a fairly intellectual discussion about what you've read. None of that comes to mind when I think "book club."  At best, they're a thinly veiled excuse for women to relax with a glass of wine (or two) and chat with their girlfriends.  They need the book club as a cover/excuse to to allow themselves to indulge without feeling like they have better things to be doing.  Nothing wrong with that, but nothing really "booky" about it, either.  At their worst, book clubs are awful excuses for people to feel learned and well read without actually learning or reading anything.  Oh, so you've read all the New York Times best sellers and adore everything Oprah tells you to adore? That's swell for you.  What did you get out of them besides a sense of accomplishment and something to mention at dinner parties?

That's right. I'm a hater.

To be fair, my exposure to actual book clubs has been hearing about them second hand from my mother, my aunts, and their friends.  When not full of interpersonal drama, their book clubs seem to be more about getting together with neighbors, reconnecting with friends who have otherwise grown apart, and filling long, beachy, retirement days with something to do.  None of those are bad reasons, mind you, they're just reasons that keep me from tagging along.  Everything else I've "learned" about book clubs come from the media blitz that follows every Oprah announcement and from the occasional books that I read that have a built in "what to talk about in your book club" section.  Even though that's added by publishers who are trying to create a built-in market for the book, it still reeks of pretentiousness and turns me off of the whole concept.

Then things changed.  A local book store recently started a monthly book club at their brand new shop a few blocks from my home.  I found out hours before the first meeting and hadn't read the novel, but I decided to stop by and check it out anyway. Full of hypocritical pretentiousness myself, I wanted to see if it would be worth the investment.

Two months later, I'm hooked.  When done a certain way, a book club can be a very great thing.

Although mostly female, the discussion groups have been impressively diverse.  There are a couple of young 20-something corporate cogs, several women women who worked and/or lived at libraries, a couple of recent college grads, and a handful of others. Some people worked downtown and some people lived here.  Nobody was a 30-something house wife with one small child who lived blocks away except me.  With such diversity of backgrounds, everyone came at the novels from a different angle, and those perspectives illuminated aspects that wouldn't have occurred to us as individuals.

A book club is a built-in discussion once the book is over.  Aside from Harry Potter, it's rare that I read something at the same time as anyone else.  You can shove a favorite book into your friends' hands, but you can't make them read it, and when the timing is off, conversations are stifled.  One of you has all the details fresh in her mind while the other is "over" the book and has moved on. It's lame. I'm not extroverted by nature and I don't "need" others to have complete thoughts, but having a group of people to chat about what I just read makes everything more interesting.  

I have a hard time finding new books to read.  I have a definite favorite type of book. When I get bored, I try to find something different, but everything else that's offered, especially "new" fiction all looks the same to me.  I can pick out the obvious drivel, but beyond that I'm at the mercy of pretty covers and word of mouth when I want to branch out.  The book club keeps me well-rounded, ensuring that once a month I'm reading something I wouldn't have read otherwise (I mean, I doubt Neil Stephenson's going to be next month's pick).  Although the books aren't pre-screened, in this club they're chosen by a woman who's owned a book store for decades and they're all things that look interesting to her.  So far, she's picked winners. Not that I'm surprised.

The book club really does have everything.  Twelve new books a year, new people, interesting conversations, and something akin to homework that gets me reading a book a month. If you're a bit too much like me, having homework is almost the best thing about it.  I'm a complete convert. If I can keep this momentum going, I may seek out opportunities to join other book clubs that cross my path.

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