Reading Between the Wines

I FINALLY did it; I started a book club!  I have been forcing my book choices upon my friends for years but we never actually got together specifically to discuss what we read. Usually we would chat over IM and those conversations typically went like this:

Me: Did you read (insert random book here)?
Random Friend: Yeah
Me: Good, right?
Random Friend: Yeah

This did not a book club make.  It was time to take the bull by the horns and turn this little hobby into a real book club, with myself as president of course. My first order of business was to pick out ten top rated books of different genres and styles.  The books range from Sedaris short stories to a Vonnegut classic to the poetic writing of Bukowski, with a few fun novels in between.  There are currently 8 people (I will stop taking new applicants after we reach 10) in the club and some of us are friends, some acquaintances and some of us never met. I took the liberty of creating a Facebook group where we can all post questions/comments/thoughts about the books as we read them.  There is also a schedule for meeting times for the next seven months, which will not change unless at least 50% of the book club is unable to attend. The only exception is if a key member (say the president) is unable to attend then surely other arrangements can be made.   The meetings will be held at various restaurants and I will bring handouts for everyone with a list of questions up for discussion.  Last, but not least, I had to come up with a great and catchy name but since I am not that original I stole one off the web and that is how Reading Between the Wines was born .  As you can see, I am taking this quite seriously.

When I  told  Gene he made a confused face and said, "This sounds like English class." OK, so not everyone understands my passion for reading novels but ever since I was a little girl I adored books and even before I knew how to read, my earliest memories are of my parents reading me bedtime stories.   By the time I was 4 years old they read entire novels (one chapter at a time) before bedtime.  I remember looking forward to bedtime knowing that I will soon learn about the adventures that await Pippi Longstocking or what crazy antics Karlson will be up to next.  There is nothing like submerging yourself in a great story that can whisk you a thousand miles away and make you feel warm and fuzzy (technical term) all over.

Gene isn't the only one that thinks I am loopy.  After talking to some of my friends over drinks yesterday, I learned that they all think I have jumped off the deep end.  Luckily they are still participating in what they now call their school assignment. If they keep up that sour attitude, none of them will be getting the extra credit. Besides making fun of me for taking this way too seriously, they are also sure that this club won't make it past 1 or 2 books.  While that is the fate of many book clubs, I assure you Reading Between the Wines will lead a very long shelf life.  Who knows maybe one day I will even loosen the rules of this little dictatorship and let the  members pick the books they want to read.  I said maybe...