Book Club

When I lived in Toronto, I joined a book club at our local library. It was tons of fun. I have a habit of getting into a groove of reading either classics written more than 100 years ago, or historical fiction. And generally the books could be used as a paperweight. And so, in an effort to break out of this beloved cycle, I joined the book club.

The group was completely not what I was expecting. I think the average age was about 60 years! It was a mix of men and women. There was one other mom, and a student for whom English was a second language. We read books that had been on bestseller lists, along with a couple good Canadian books. Some of the books I loved, some I didn't even finish reading. But the conversation was always fantastic, delving into these literary works of art with others equally interested in reading.

When I moved to Orangeville, I checked to see if there was a book club. There isn't. There's been rumours about starting one, but nothing has materialized yet. The difficult part is having enough of the same books to go around. We have two small branches here - hardly a large collection to warrant 10 or 12 copies of books.

So, instead of a traditional book club, I've joined a book recommendation/trading club. We met for the first time last week. Each person brought a book they've enjoyed and presented it to the group. Afterwards, we borrowed those which were of interest to us.

Although it won't be a group in which we can discuss the literary merits and pitfalls of a common book, it will be nice to expand my book list from other people's recommendations, and perhaps start reading things written in the last century!