Yay/Nay on Book Clubs ...

You could list a thousand negative opinions/reactions/thoughts on book clubs and i would still say this: Reading is always good. And if people want to get together to discuss books, god bless them. It keeps people off the streets and out of their cars. thus, less pollution, less crime, etc, etc. These are all good things. Snobs will always make fun of what other people read. it's their job. that's why they are snobs.

But it begs the question: What are we going to read for this month's ILB book club? I'm afraid no one will read Sentimental Education.

I'll read Sentimental Education, if that's the consensus, but I'm more inclined toward Cunningham's The Hours 'cause I don't want to get stuck in a world of only Flaubert references.

But I'd be game for anything with a parrot as a main character.

Book Clubs are ace, especially the MikeyG Bookclub which Oprah recently called "the kind of bookclub I can only dream of."

Basically, me and some mates and a couple of ringers get together in a pub once a month, tie the pub into the theme of the book (i.e pub on the Thames for Three Men in a Boat, talk about it for a while and drink a lot of booze.

Any thoughts of becoming well-read are negated by the number of brain cells killed by wine and beer. The day after, we can barely remember which book we've discussed, let alone what it was about.

So, er, ace. And I've just broken the first rule of bookclub which is never talk about bookclub.

I am constantly starting book clubs and then abandoning them. (If anyone in Chicago is interested, I'm starting another alcohol-soaked book club, first meeting on Monday.) I like the idea of them, but eventually I get bored with reading books other people tell me to. Especially when someone wants us to start reading horrible Southern women fiction.

I think the key is informality. If the discussion gets too pretentious (however intellectually valid), people lose interest and start yakking about something else.

Booze is also the key. Not just for bookclubs either.

I will read sentimental education scott. prob won't have much to say on it.

i would read it. and ann is gonna read it. should i start a thread? will it just be us 3? Oh, wait, Ms.Laura. Sorry, Ms.Laura.and maybe a couple more on the other thread. okay, i'll start a thread. maybe we can get more. yeah, if i remember correctly, there were only a couple votes for The Hours. i think the original point was that a lot of the people who had read Flaubert's Parrot had never read any Flaubert. so it seems logical.

I want to join, vicariously, the MikeyG bookclub! I'll even bring noshing material to the next gathering (the better to stimulate the tummy for more alcohol, of course).

Jessa, I just have to ask, what constitutes horrid Southern women fiction? I ask because since I moved (against my will, kicking and screaming all the way, of course) everyone's been sending me Southern women books, like Lee Smith, and ....(sorry, drawing a blank on the author's names). Anyway, they tend to drive me batty, but I've found a few that make me chuckle - so long as I don't take any of it to seriously or pretend that it has any great meaning. And it helps to drink mint-juleps or something like that while reading the crap.

Hmmm - The Hours - oddly enough, the S/O just turned that on in the other room - maybe I should go watch it.

Well, Kay Gibbons is really bad. White Oleander. (Is she southern? For some reason I think she is...)

*laughing* From the title of the book I'd guess that she's southern, Jessa. Have you read any of Fannie Flagg's stuff? I'm not entralled with ehr recent offerings, but was quite amused by Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, and, of course, Fried Green Tomatoes.

I'm currently filing bookclubs under "shit I considered stupid when I was an alcoholic 20-year-old and should probably give a shot to before I'm too old to enjoy it."

Seems nice so far.

("NICE!?!?!? ANN SMASH!!!" screams my inner 20-year-old)

*laughing* I remember a lit teacher complaining about the word "nice" - she said it conveyed absolutely nothing and therefore wouldn't allow it to be used in any of our compositions. But sometimes I think it is the perfect word for a situation.

I was once in an erotic book bookclub - but that was odd and there were many arguments of porn/erotica and other absurd things, so it splintered, repeatedly, and now we all just read on our own, I assume.

That's my only experience with bookclubs so far.

I have not read Fannie Flagg, but I'm guessing at some book club or another I'll be forced into reading it. Maybe I'll actually read it instead of taking it as my cue to abandon them. (Although I did read the Gibbons and the White Oleander. God, I want those hours of my life back.)

*laughing really hard* So are you going to form a bookclub that bans all references to southern women writers, Jessa?

I'm going to kick anyone out of the book that insists we read "The Bean Trees" or whatever. I'll just stop telling them where we're meeting.

Oh, but Barbara Kingsolver isn't a southern women's writer! She's a south-western women's writer - totally different orientation and not a lot of those annoying southern belle-types, wandering around and complaining about their various beaus. (Actually, some of Kingsolver's stuff is quite good, some isn't - lots of it is what I'd think of as being "Chick Lit. Lite").

Actually, maybe that's the problem - do you not care for all of the "Chick Lit." (sorry, I don't know how else to categorize the genre - basically stuff by/about contemporary women that has the overall feeling that the author thinks the work is deeper and more meaningful than it really is) books in general? (I can't stand the Brit. Chick Lit. stuff myself, except for Bridget Jones - and even that gets on my nerves after a while.)

Book Clubs are ace, especially the MikeyG Bookclub which Oprah recently called "the kind of bookclub I can only dream of."
I feel embarassed to not have noticed your nickname, so I ended up googling.
http://www.spaghettibookclub.org/student.php3?student_id=3895

Wellywellywell!

Anyhoo, I've been a fairly steady reader most of my life, though the number of books vexes quite a bit. I have a tendency to feel guilty about all my reading, because I should probably spend more time studying. But then I go into the school libarry and get one book of curriculum and ten of novels and random things that seem interesting at the moment (like at the moment I have three books about the Norwegian language and about translation, plus the feminist-tome "The second sex" and "People's history of America")
It's just TOO MUCH FUN! But I've never had anyone to talk with about the books, something I've always wished for.
Lately my synapses have been snapping at me for not just trying to start a book club at my school, so maybe I'll at some point convince myself to do it.
I fear that a book club would be started and we'd A) Have no idea what to discuss, B) Never agree on books to read (ie fokof people who want us to read Brett Easton Ellis) C) Hate each other.

Not to mention that I have a track record of being a hermit-hamster who always regrets any attempts at getting into social situations.

O well, back to finishing up The Sorrows of Young Werther, which is beginning to read like a Swans album.

Hermit-hamster, that's perfect for me too... mostly I just feel panicked when I'm out with people, cuz I'm thinking all the while "oh god I have a million things I want to get studied and read and done and before I know it it'll be time to get forced to work again and then pretty soon I'll be dead so why am I wasting this precious hour listening to a friend of a friend's pointless girlfriend go on about her diet and her new shoes..." So this on-line book club seems just ideal: I can talk about books and leave the room whenever I feel I must without being A. rude or B. stuck in the cold three miles from home.

Three cheers for MikeyG's on-line book review! Hip-hip-hooray and all of that.

Hermit-hamster - I like that image. I'm just plain solitary and grumpy and anti-social and I don't like many people. So it's hard for me to get excited about having to be nice to a bunch of people that I don't really care about and to have to read books that someone else has picked. (I sound pissy, don't I?) I have a best friend who's reading tastes are pretty close to mine, and he's my outlet for in-person book discussions.

I'm a grumpy-hedgehog.

MsLaura: Yeah, I'm not too big on "women's" literature. I like female authors, but if it's a book about relationships or family ties or domestic life at all, I put it right back on the shelf.

Notable exception: Hell by Kathryn Davis. Love that book. It's a treasure.

I think that's why I have such a hard time with book groups. I can be unbelievably picky. I have a policy of "I'll read anything" as far as genres go, but if certain words are used in the description on the back of the book, it's like someone told me the book is a pox carrier. My resolution, however, is to stick with this new group for a year, no matter what they make me read. Something has to shatter my preconceived notions.

I just read my online book review. Mrs Smith was very happy and she said I was a clever boy.

Many thanks, Øystein H-O. Cracking find.

Hmmm - okay, I can see that, Jessa. But didn't you read The Corrections and kind of like that? I recall that that's a book about families. (Sorry, don't mean to seem like an inquisitor here, at all - just interested in where you'd draw the line - I have lines myself, when it comes to romances and [too] lots of the "women's lit" stuff that strikes me as being little more than fluff.)

I've not yet read Hell, though I recently read her Walking Tour - parts of which I loved (everything in the past) and parts of which I just plain didn't get (the whole near-future/present/ almost apocalyptic stuff).

As far as sticking with the book club for a year - I admire your resolution. I tend to avoid reading things if someone tells me that I "should" read them. I'll be interested in hearing your progress through the club this year - maybe it'll be the kick in the butt that I need to give them another shot.

I did read Corrections, but mostly because I felt like I had to. I waited until the buzz died down at least. But if it hadn't kicked up so much dust when it was released, you're right, I probably wouldn't have read it. Or I would have bought it and it would have collected dust on my shelves for quite some time.

I haven't read The Walking Tour. I interviewed Davis for Bookslut and so I read Hell, Versailles, and Girl Who Trod on a Loaf all in a row. I hear Labrador is good, too, but still haven't read it. I did like the three I read, although I liked Girl probably the least.

And we'll see how this book group goes. First meeting is tonight.

So, how did it go? Anyone cop off?

What was the most ridiculous comment of the evening?

I think the most ridiculous comment was, "We can't meet on Wednesday. Law & Order is on Wednesday."

Actually, it went very well. Lots and lots of people turned up, and we took over the entire coffeeshop room. We seem to be reading As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem next. (Still voting.) That's convenient, as I already own it.

Yea for Scott Seward!

I am reading If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things right now. (Seems like some of you have already read this). What did you think?

sp@m

my book club has only had two sessions. theyve been okay. i hate the book were doing at the moment (and i think im starting to dislike the person who picked it), and our meetings basically consist of one hour (max) talking about the book, usually with one person who really liked it (usually the person that picked it) telling us everything they liked/thought about it, someone else backing them up, someone else trying to say something smart about it and then someone else being overly enthusiastic about whatever everyone else is saying. after the hour, everyone splits into their little twosomes and talks about nothing in particular. this month i sat there slightly bored (partly my own fault, i didnt read the book in full but it was almost 1500 pages!) and left early.

I have to read The House of Mirth for my next meeting, but in all fairness I just made everyone else read Winter's Tale so I deserve whatever I get. We draw names out of a hat each time and the lucky name gets to pick the next book -- however if it's me again and I suggest hard sci-fi, there will a chorus of groans and NO ONE WILL READ IT, making the whole next month's reading/meeting completely pointless. So there's good incentive to compromise. If they suggest any more Alice Munro, though, I am SO out of there.

Also we are all pre-existing friends, rather than strangers reading the same book.

for my book, some people didnt even bother reading it! the nerve! (i am doing the same, obv)

I'm always concerned that a book club might be too confining. In fact, I much prefer conversations with a bunch of friends who like books. Much like the comments on this board, it is fun to listen to who love to read, and love to talk aout it. It always opens up I ideas for new books to hunt down.

Alcohol, of course, is welcome in any such discussion, although I have to admit that I occasionally irritate people when I'm reading in a pub.

Really? Have strangers confronted you about reading in a pub?

Actually, people in bars seem to think that a book is a sign you really want them to bother you, as if you were only reading because you didn't have anything better to do. Experience suggests that they also think it's hilarious to ask you if it's the bible if yr book is more than about 250 pages long.

Re booze in general: yes, book club is also wine & food club; everyone bakes or brings something. Last time there were rollmops and vodka in addition to regular fare like wine/cheese/bread/fruit/spice cookies.

Apparently some patrons think it is pretentious. I get sarcastic comments about trying to draw attention to myself, or alternatively that I'm withdrawing from the socializing.

Actually, some years back I read a book called "The Great Good Place", all about the sociological implications of a "third place", not home or work, and how necesary they are in society. I can't recall if discussed reading in a pub.

Pete McCarthy had a great comment in "The Road to MCarthy" or "McCarthy's Pub." Someone gave him some grief for reading in a bar ands told him to go to the library and he replied "... I love to read in the library, but I find it sooo hard to get a drink."