“Nothing bonds two people so well as loving the same books.”
--Lena London, A Dark
and Stormy Murder
I am a
member of two informal book clubs. One is a four-times-yearly gathering of
interested faculty at the school where I teach. I am the unofficial “leader” of
the club because I always come with about 30 typed questions that I hope will
generate interesting discussions. These aren’t downloaded from book club sites;
I always write my own because that is more authentic to my reading experience,
and—well—I’m a bit obsessive.
The group
has enjoyed many wonderful conversations, and in two cases we Skyped with the
authors themselves and directed our questions to them. Those were wonderful
experiences that allowed us to take our questions about text straight to the
creator, the generator of that text for some deeper insight.
In every
one of our meetings, I find myself getting to a point at which my heart beats
faster, my face grows hot, and I become sort of enraptured by the way that
literature can lift us to higher understanding. We learn things, discover
things, TOGETHER—in a way that only this type of gathering can achieve.
And so I
would conclude that for the same reason I love to discuss literature with my
students (who are themselves amazing, insightful observers of human nature), I
love to discuss a good book with my book group.
My other
book group is a recent creation, born of an e-mail that I sent to people on my
block. It said, “Is anyone interested in starting a block book group? Not the
kind where people just use a book as an excuse to drink wine, but the kind
where we actually read and discuss a book?”
To my
great pleasure, many people responded. I have nothing against wine—my husband
sells it for a living—but when I have a book gathering, I want us to focus on
words, on chapters, on thematic meaning. And many other people wanted to do
that, too! Our first meeting was a
gathering of five women (a few more couldn’t make it). Our second had only four
people (again, schedules were a problem), but our third looks like it might be
a very large gathering because word has spread—we met to talk about books, and
it was fun!
I don’t
always feel as if I have time in my schedule to prepare for book group. But
when I read the book and then meet with my book friends, I am always glad that
I made that time.
If only
more people knew how much joy, how much deep satisfaction was at their
fingertips at any given time in the form of a good book, and how even more
wonderful that experience can be when enriched by the insights of other people
who have studied the same text.
This
Thanksgiving, I’ll be grateful for many things, including (as ever) books, the people
who write them, and the people who read them, and the powerful culture of
learning, sharing, and insight we can build together.
