I have joined a book club that a friend of mine has just started. Our first meeting was a couple of weeks ago and there were only five of us there, which I actually think is a good group. If there are too many there begin to be groups within the group.
I really need to do this...I need the motivation not just to expand my reading, but I think that the discussions will help me put what I read more firmly in my mind (i.e., "Wait...have I read it? No. Wait. Maybe I did. Wait. What's it about? Oh no. I haven't read it. Oh? Maybe I did read it...yes. I definitely did. Wait. I don't remember that...maybe I'm thinking of some other book...). You get the picture.
I also need to expand my acquaintances here on island. I'm a great one to know [enough to call them friends] only the people I go to church with. That's it. I don't work outside of my home and most of the people I know from my kids' school are also people who go to my church, soooo...well, it's good for me. It's easy for me to let my life involve only my own family and to be perfectly honest I have such an interesting and compassionate friend in my husband I rarely feel like I have a need for other close friends as confidantes or companions. I've kind of overlooked the idea that as well as having friends it's important to be a friend...the ladies in the book club are very nice, intelligent women and I really look forward to hearing their insights and opinions.
Here are some of the books discussed at our first meeting where we basically came with titles we wanted to suggest:
Much Ado About Nothing (we're starting with this since it's so easily available--we have to allow adequate time for shipping any books that we may have to order.)
Les Miserable
My Name is Asher Lev
Promise
Chosen
Devita's Heart
3 Swans (I loved this book when I read it several years ago.)
Man's Search for Meaning-Frankel
Agony and Ectasy- Stone (One of the few books I've actually read twice, but about 25+ years ago!)
Salt- Mark Kavanski
Fire in the Bones
The Shelter of Each Other
7 comments:
The Agony and the Ecstacy is one of my all-time favorite books! I remember starting it and then putting it aside 'cause I thought it was boring, and then deciding a few months later to give it another shot and I loved it! It's so good!
I bought Man's Search For Meaning a few weeks ago 'cause I've always heard you talk about how everyone should read it, but I'm finishing up The Iliad so I haven't had the chance. I'm looking forward to it though. For sure.
Another good book: The Long Walk, by Slavomir Rawicz. I think you'd really like it a lot!
That looks like a great list! I'll have to look up some of those because I haven't heard of them. You've got a lot of Chaim Potok there. My favorites from our book group this year have been Three Swans of China, The Road from Coorain, and Cheaper by the Dozen.
Good luck!
"Man's Search..." changed the way I think about several things. I was so intrigued by the description of foot binding in "Three Swans" that I read that part aloud to my kids--I bet Mallory remembers that even though she was probably only about 10 at the time!
Yes, it is an interesting list. You have fiction and non-fiction mixed.
Do you have many problems in getting books? I wish it wasn't so expensive to ship things from here. I have tons of classics from the University that get tossed. You know, books that were published before 1927 are often on the internet for free. Because you live outside the U.S. you can also download even more. If you want I can e-mail a bunch of sites where you can download free books. If a book isn't large (like Much Ado About Nothing) you can print it off and photocopy it.
Yes, some of us (me) are more interested in non-fiction and some more in fiction, so we do have a mix there.
Easy availability(via internet or otherwise)is why we started with Shakespeare. It takes quite a while to have something shipped, but we should be able to books from Amazon within 2-4 weeks.
if you want to join the reading blog www.fottenreaders.blogspot.com send me an email. can i post your club's reading list? I'm in a club too and have our list posted. the blog is for anyone who loves to read, talk about books, write about books etc. when do you meet? are you open to any other members?
also check out www.bookmooch.com you can exchange books with people all over the world for the cost of postage. I get most of my books that way now. only a couple have to be purchased. you should be able to find most of the books on that list since they are older classics.
we could even get books for Ladera that way too. i got almost all of the reading list for 9th grade from SIS that way.
also, what time is your church service? I have a new teacher from Tinian staying with us for the weekend and he's LDS. He'd like to attend church on Sunday.
I'm not sure this is the actual list--we were just brainstorming titles at our first meeting. As soon as we have something firmer I'm sure we would be glad to have it posted on Fotten Readers.
Right now our meetings are on the third or fourth Tuesday of the month. (Still up in the air a little on that too!)
Thanks for the "Book Mooch" info--I'm definitely going to check that out--Auntie Lee (in the Netherlands) might be interested in that too.
Sorry I didn't respond in time to give the meeting time, but I think your friend was there today anyway...the meeting(s)start at 9A.M.
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