Book Club

The NEW Book Club section of my blog is something that I am super excited about.  I hope you are too!

I haven’t always loved to read.  I blame that on my mom.  Sorry mom.  My mom is an avid reader.  One of those people who can sit down with a book and finish is in a day.  One, who can do routine tasks while reading.  One of my childhood memories is of my mom sitting in the “comfy chair” with a book, and my little sister standing next to her saying, “mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, momma, MOM!”.  Nothing would fase her.  We used to say she would keep right on reading even if a bomb went off next to her.  I used to do things like ask her ridiculous questions while she was reading, “mom could I have the numbers to your bank account?”, “Hey mom Scott Baio is at the door, I’m gonna run away with him ok?”.  No response…..or maybe a uh-huh.  It was so annoying.  So I think in rebellion I refused to pick up a book and miss what was going on in the real world.  Well, and I had a hard time sitting still to read.  Spaz.  I did read a few books.  Little House books, Otherwidse known as Sheila the Great ~ Judy Blume how could I not read that.  I liked fairy tales.  I had the Brothers Grimm Fairytale book that I read over and over.

Ok so jump forward….I had just finished high school, I moved to Germany to live with our former exchange student, Andrea’s family.  My German was extremely pathetic…embarrassingly elementary.  I decided to go to the library and find something in English to read, to pass some time.   There was only about 10 english books in the local library.  I grabbed the fattest one….The Lord of the Rings.  No small feat reading that.  I think I had it finished with in the week.  That began my true love of reading.  I did however eventually have to focus on being emersed in the German culture, and by the time I left I was able to read novels in German…not quite as quickly, but I could do it if I wanted to, or had to.

I actually read quite a bit in my single years…then I met Kenny…got hitched…had babies.  I continued to read while my kids where little, it just was different stuff, like Shel Silverstein, and every Dr. Seuss book ever published.  One thing I have never denied my kiddos is books.  We have tons of them, and have always utilized our local library.   It’s just been in the last five years that I have really returned to the adult reading world.  I’m not a fast reader, like my mom, or my friend Heather or my other friend Tina…hate you guys..not really, just kidding.

I’m also not great at starting a conversation with someone I don’t know, but I’ve found that if I ask these questions:

Do you like to read?  What’s your favorite book?  What’s the last book you read?

I can usually start a converstaion with most people.  My husband on the other hand can talk to anyone anywhere…not me if I can’t get you talking about food, books, or movies……well then I start sweating!  Profusely.

I’ve always been intrigued by the Book Clubbers, but intimidate by the thought of actually being in one. The pressure of having to read a prescribed book, gave me the hives. My sister has been in a book club for a few years, different friends of mine have been in book clubs, but I had never gotten myself into one.  Until…..

Last Spring I was blessed to spend a long weekend with a group of friends and our daughters, we were all reading, and talking about books we had read, someone said “we should start a book club together”.  It would be a great way to read books we have wanted to read, get new ideas on books, have a scheduled girls night out, and basically do what we love to do most eat, drink, and discuss what we’ve read!

So it all began.

A few weeks after we returned I sent out an email to the three ladies and said I was willing to be the organizer if they were serious about starting a book club together, and maybe we should each ask a couple friends.  They were serious.

So now we have ourselves a bonefide, full fledged, Book Club!

I quickly found out this Book Club stuff is serious business!!  Ooo-wEeee.  There are actually websites and blogs on how to start a Book Club!  Go figure. Well, and then the queen of book clubs you know who, has alot of information on her site.  I found alot of good information here at the Book Club Queen. If you just google Book Club you will get enough information to write your own book on book clubs!

A few things I learned about book clubs…..

The first time we met was to get to know each other, because we had each asked a couple friends.  We threw out ideas of how we would like our book club to function.  Every book club is different, we had to make ours work for us, so it would be something we all looked forward to.  So first thing you need to do is figure out what works for you and then go from there.  How often do you want to meet?  Where do you want to meet?  How many people should be included, what’s the max, how to go about inviting?

a NAME

We had to actually come up with a name for our Book Club….geeesh…who-da-thunk?  A name was very important apparently.  I called my sister…does your book club have a name?  Oh yeh, she says, ya gotta have a name.  The Book Club Queen even goes so far as to say its “vital to a book clubs success”.  Pressure.  I just was thinkin… some gals, a book, and a few bottles of vino.  But now we need a name?!  We came up with Babes Under the Covers. Hopefully I don’t need to explain….I jokingly said “BUCs” for short, cause it sounds like how I would say “books” after a few glasses of wine.  Teehee.  My sisters book club is named W.O.R.D Women Organized to Read and Drink….very clever.

WHEN

Our club decided because we are all super busy moms that we would meet bi-monthly instead of every month, and we could decide to meet more if we wanted at a later date.

WHERE

We also decided that we would rotate hosting. The hostess would provide drinks and munchies.  We also set the rule that there would be no hostess gifts.  We didn’t want there to be any hard feelings or undo pressure on anyone to always bring something to the one hosting.

WHAT to read

For our first book we wanted to find a book that had not been read by anyone.  That was not so easy, since we have some heavy weight readers in our club.  We all threw out names of books and and then if someone had read the book it was crossed off the list.  Our first read was: Paris Wife by Paula Mclain. After we read our first book and discussed it, one of the girls suggested that we pick a few books out in advance for the up coming book club dates.  It’s for the over achievers that want to read ahead. Wink…you know I love you over achievers…I’m just envious of your ability to plow through books.  I want to be like you when I grow up.

The books we chose are:

Room by Emma Donoghue

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

Distant Land of my Father by Bo Caldwell

We meet this Monday to discuss ROOM.  I can hardly wait.  I’m hosting.  Tuesday I’ll share with you what we ate, because that’s super important, and what we all thought of the book.

I would love to hear from you!

Are you in a Book Club? What you reading right now? What was the last book you read?

Stay-tuned for Tuesdays follow-up!

Have a great weekend,
Sheila