My book club met yesterday afternoon. We’ve been meeting and reading books since about 2012 and our book club has grown over the years. Since its inception, we’ve added about 5 or 6 people to our monthly gatherings. I joined initially when one of my co-workers from the first temp job I held after moving to Seattle said she was putting together a book club and asked if I wanted to join.
Of course I said yes right away. And now I can’t believe we’ve been meeting for over 5 years!
Here’s why I love my book club:
1. Everyone has a chance to pick a book: I’ve heard that some book clubs vote on books or take recommendations. In our book club, we take turns picking the books. We have a list of everyone in the club and we go in order; each time we meet, the next person on the list picks the next book to be read.
2. Everyone has opinions: There have been some books that we’ve read that no one likes. Some books everyone likes. A couple of times everyone but 1 or 2 people have liked a book or everyone but a couple of people have hated a book. The good thing is that everyone is comfortable sharing their thoughts. It’s really interesting to hear different book opinions than my own. Besides, it would be boring if everyone felt the same way about each book.
3. We always meet on a Saturday (and occasionally Sunday): When we first started meeting, we met on Friday nights. But this turned out to be too difficult to get to the meetings after work. Now we usually meet on Saturday afternoons. It’s nice because we know in advance what day we are meeting and there’s no hurry to rush out of work to get somewhere. It’s gives me something to look forward to over the weekend.
4. Wine! Of course there is wine – what is a book club without wine?
5. We take turns hosting: We usually rotate between 4 or 5 people’s homes. We’ve even met at a couple of restaurants. This is nice because the pressure is not all on the same person each time. Having different people host makes it fun. Each person has their own spread they put out and we’ve become very friendly with all the different pets at the different homes. Unfortunately I’ve never hosted but that’s because I live in a studio apartment and can barely fit 2 people in my apartment, let alone 7 or 8. People would be sitting on the floor and on the bed. Not good.
6. Friends: Let’s be honest. We usually only spend about 15-20 minutes discussing the book (and that’s only if enough people have read it to have a conversation). The rest of the time is just spent hanging out and chatting and catching up with everyone. Even if I don’t read the book, I still go to the meetings just to see everyone. I’ve met so many wonderful people through our book club and I’m so happy I can call them all my friends.
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