Book Group Confessions

My friend, Faraway Steve, recently asked about our book group.  Are we still together?  What are we reading?  Good? Bad?  How are all the ladies?  This got me thinking about my book group history and my relationship with each, and how differently groups of people with the same purpose can function.  For a while, I belonged to three groups; I don’t recall ever reading that much in college except for the one dreadful summer session Shakespeare Tragedies class when we read a play a day.  That whirlwind tour of destruction and death still haunts me.

I have enjoyed all three groups and although the reading load challenged me, I never once faked my way through a discussion.  “Bolter” lived a short life.  We named this on-line group after the first book we read together.  In my mind, we would  use our
FaceBook page to post spontaneous comments (Wow, that sure was a steamy scene on the kitchen table),  insights (that Sartre, what a guy!), or questions (Is there a difference between the radium the girls used to paint watch dials and the radiation given to cancer patients?).  Of course, no one read my mind on how I saw all this and, generally, people read the book and posted a two or three sentence comment and moved on. It died a quick death after just two books, but Steve, same guy as above, and a person much more cerebral than I – still chat about what we’re reading, so I continue to count that as a book group.

One evening, I walked into my piano lesson where I found  my teacher, Connie, seated at the piano, clutching a book two fisted, shaking it at me.  “Have you read this book?  I mean, have you read this book?  I need to talk to someone about it.  Peter (her husband) says I need to be in a book group.”  And so, the Connie group was formed with the premise that each of us would invite one person – we would be small group of four.  Before long, that group of four more than doubled.  I left the group a few months back - the  the meeting schedule seldom worked out for me.  I keep in touch with group members and try to read what they are reading when possible.  Once you belong to a book group, sharing stories, insights and laughter, it's hard to close the door.  

That took me right back where I began, with a colorful group of women who have been meeting at the store once a month for about 18 years.  Of course we have had several defectors along the way.  We even had two men in the group who disappeared in short order.   Right now there are seven regulars – a perfect number.  We have quirks – one member reads the last chapter of each book first, another can find any way to slip politics into the discussion.  We have the monthly Royal Family updates and critiques of the latest awards shows.  We drink  wine and eat  chocolates and Cheetos.  This is a nice group.  This is where I am happy.

Thanks for stopping by.