I just signed off from my monthly online book club chat. I realize the previous sentence makes me sound like an enormous geek, but it is one of the most gratifying things I do, and I’m not ashamed to say that.
When you’re in college, keeping in touch with your friends is easy. They’re usually right there in the same room, the same party, or the same table as you. But when you graduate and scatter, it takes work. I don’t know what’s going on inside their heads anymore because I am no longer part of their surroundings; I can’t see how they’re reacting to the big and small changes in their lives. And this sucks.
But that’s what makes the book club I have with my girlfriends so cool. By all reading the same book, we can step into the same surroundings for just a little while. Whether I love the book or hate it, I always leave it feeling closer to them. Plus, it gives us an excuse (not that we need one) to catch up. We leave plenty of time during our online chats to discuss important non-book-related issues, like dates and jobs and kids and old college crushes that just won’t die. This past chat was on Nick Hornby’s “A Long Way Down.” Hornby, who wrote “About a Boy” and “High Fidelity,” wrote this little tale about suicide. And still, I left the chat with a smile on my face that won’t fade.
Anderson Cooper’s “Dispatches From the Edge” is up next, and I’m the moderator, which means I have to come up with questions for the group, such as “Did your opinion of how the federal government responded to the Gulf Coast’s needs post-Katrina change after reading Cooper’s recollections of covering that event?” and “Do you think Anderson Cooper is hot?”
Should be fun.
2 comments:
I resent the crack about the book group making you sound like a geek, but I certainly agree with the rest of your thoughts. Maybe we can suck Sheila back into the group?! Who was the mastermind behind this great idea anyway? And who's the loser that has a crush that won't die????
The guilt is virtually unbearable....I heaved a big sigh of regret after reading this most recent blog entry. Maybe I'll make a special cameo just for Anderson's book :)
Post a Comment