In recent days I have found local politics so disgusting that when there is an article about them in the newspaper, my brain translated it into garbage and I sail past it. This leaves me plenty of time to now focus my attentions on the Michael Jackson case or Martha Stewart being released. This lead me to read an article in today’s Post Gazette about book clubs. Of these aren’t any book clubs, these are elite book clubs that you have to apply to, and wait on lists.
First off the idea of the book club is very intriguing to me. It always has been. Sometimes a book really opens up to me when I hear other people talk about it. However, I do not need a book club to actually motivate myself into reading. I find the elite nature of the said book clubs absolutely discussing. Book clubs should not be about hob-knobbing, they should be about exploring one particular text to great length.
The parties described in this tale or worse more nauseating than watching the Blair Witch Project on acid (I wouldn’t know.)
Josh said, “First off the idea of the book club is very intriguing to me. It always has been. Sometimes a book really opens up to me when I hear other people talk about it.”
I think that’s the main value of book clubs. So what you want is a club whose members are likely to have interesting things to say about the books they read. That leads to the conclusion that a certain kind of exclusivity is needed. People who sit silently during the meetings and people who just make inane remarks should be excluded from clubs, esp. those with limited space, since they aren’t adding anything to the value of the club.
A non-exclusive GLBT book club, sponsored by the Carnegie Library, meets the 3rd Wednesday of every month at 7:30pm at the GLCC.