Last I left off, I was still struggling through "Tropic of Cancer" and re-reading the Harry Potter series. Well, I am currently on book 5 of Harry Potter while "Tropic of Cancer" still sits on my nightstand bookmarked to the same sad spot. I've decided its time to abandon it at least for now. I'm sick of talking about it and I'm sure you are sick of hearing how I can't get into it so goodbye for now Henry Miller. I find sometimes that if I walk away from a book and go back months or even years later, I have a whole different experience with it. So much depends on where you are in your life when you read a book. Everyone brings their own opinion, their own experiences and their own feelings to a book depending on who they are and what has happened in their life. That's why I love book clubs. And no, not the ones that Oprah made famous with suburban housewives sitting around drinking wine and complaining that they don't understand the point of the book. I'm not even trying to knock her book club - I actually saw an episode of her show where a bunch of women who seemed to be intelligent enough couldn't understand, "One Hundred years of Solitude." - in my opinion one of the best books ever written. They thought it was too hard. Well then pick up the latest Jodie Picoult and get on with it!
When a book club is done right it is an amazing experience. A few years back, my sister Anne bought copies of "Anna Karenina" for my other sister, my parents and me so that we could read it as a family and discuss. It was one of the best ideas she ever had and it turned into quite an enlightening year of reading for all of us. We each rotated picking the book and the only rules we had were that it had to be considered a classic and it had to be something no one had read yet. We would read the book and then pick a date and time to discuss - usually with dinner and wine involved (at least the housewives got that part right!). During this time I really got to know my family that much better because we each had such unique opinions and perspectives. "Dracula" (my pick) brought out a particularly lively discussion about religion and "Vanity Fair" (my sister Teresa's pick) brought out the boring in all of us. (Sorry Teresa but that book really sucked!). My favorite moment of all though was when we read "Taming of the Shrew." Every summer in Boston, there is a production of Shakespeare performed for free in the Boston Common and the year of our book club was "Taming of the Shrew" so we decided to read it first and then go see the play together. During our vacation at the Jersey shore that year, we all got up really early one morning and sat on the beach to read. We each picked a character and read the part out loud. We must have looked like total dorks sitting there reading from Shakespeare in mock British accents but it was one of the best experiences reading I have ever had. The beach was deserted in the early morning sun and the waves crashed at our feet as we read and laughed and talked about the plot. Dad, as always pretended he didn't know what was going on, Mom kept rolling her eyes at him and of course my sisters and I just laughed.
The book club ended shortly after that. I'm not really sure why, I guess time and life crept in and it slipped away from us. It's too bad though because I learned so much about my family through reading and sharing. Instead of our usual rehashing of reality shows and complaining about work and life, we actually had real discussions about religion,("Dracula"), marriage ("Jude the Obscure"), betrayal and revenge ("The Count of Monte Cristo") and of course love which was a theme in all of the books we read. Maybe someday when life slows down a little more for all of us we will start it up again because it sure gets lonely reading books by myself. (hint hint)
When a book club is done right it is an amazing experience. A few years back, my sister Anne bought copies of "Anna Karenina" for my other sister, my parents and me so that we could read it as a family and discuss. It was one of the best ideas she ever had and it turned into quite an enlightening year of reading for all of us. We each rotated picking the book and the only rules we had were that it had to be considered a classic and it had to be something no one had read yet. We would read the book and then pick a date and time to discuss - usually with dinner and wine involved (at least the housewives got that part right!). During this time I really got to know my family that much better because we each had such unique opinions and perspectives. "Dracula" (my pick) brought out a particularly lively discussion about religion and "Vanity Fair" (my sister Teresa's pick) brought out the boring in all of us. (Sorry Teresa but that book really sucked!). My favorite moment of all though was when we read "Taming of the Shrew." Every summer in Boston, there is a production of Shakespeare performed for free in the Boston Common and the year of our book club was "Taming of the Shrew" so we decided to read it first and then go see the play together. During our vacation at the Jersey shore that year, we all got up really early one morning and sat on the beach to read. We each picked a character and read the part out loud. We must have looked like total dorks sitting there reading from Shakespeare in mock British accents but it was one of the best experiences reading I have ever had. The beach was deserted in the early morning sun and the waves crashed at our feet as we read and laughed and talked about the plot. Dad, as always pretended he didn't know what was going on, Mom kept rolling her eyes at him and of course my sisters and I just laughed.
The book club ended shortly after that. I'm not really sure why, I guess time and life crept in and it slipped away from us. It's too bad though because I learned so much about my family through reading and sharing. Instead of our usual rehashing of reality shows and complaining about work and life, we actually had real discussions about religion,("Dracula"), marriage ("Jude the Obscure"), betrayal and revenge ("The Count of Monte Cristo") and of course love which was a theme in all of the books we read. Maybe someday when life slows down a little more for all of us we will start it up again because it sure gets lonely reading books by myself. (hint hint)
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