I wonder sometimes if all book clubs are like this? Mine was or it became that way eventually. And my mother who is currently in two - complains about her's repeatedly. She's really tired of reading books about dysfunctional marriages or parents. In her club - she has one woman who always recommends non-fiction or fictional books about the Middle East - which like Africa - aren't that fun to read. This past month they were supposed to read the new Barbara Kingslover novel but it put everyone to sleep - so they switched to something else.
I joined one back in 1998 - which last 5-6 years, rather long for a book club actually especially in NYC, that focused on genre books. It was started by a genre book store in the neighborhood that focused on well, genre books. Two book clubs were started by the men who ran that store and I joined both of them, then the store went out of business. The cool literary book club that met in a bar imploded due to Underworld and Anderson's biography of Che - long before the book store went out of business. The other book club survived past that point, but it changed from genre (where reading Ender's Game would not have been an issue) to well..reading whatever book Oprah selected. I got so tired of buying and reading books I disliked, that I finally quit.
Interestingly enough both my book club (NYC) and my mother's (South Caronlina) had someone suggest reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged - which I successfully talked mine out of, and my mother talked her's out of doing.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-04-19 04:37 pm (UTC)In her club - she has one woman who always recommends non-fiction or fictional books about the Middle East - which like Africa - aren't that fun to read. This past month they were supposed to read the new Barbara Kingslover novel but it put everyone to sleep - so they switched to something else.
I joined one back in 1998 - which last 5-6 years, rather long for a book club actually especially in NYC, that focused on genre books. It was started by a genre book store in the neighborhood that focused on well, genre books. Two book clubs were started by the men who ran that store and I joined both of them, then the store went out of business. The cool literary book club that met in a bar imploded due to Underworld and Anderson's biography of Che - long before the book store went out of business. The other book club survived past that point, but it changed from genre (where reading Ender's Game would not have been an issue) to well..reading whatever book Oprah selected. I got so tired of buying and reading books I disliked, that I finally quit.
Interestingly enough both my book club (NYC) and my mother's (South Caronlina) had someone suggest reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged - which I successfully talked mine out of, and my mother talked her's out of doing.