Book Club Girl

My book club has been together since 1998. We were all moms with little kids at home, and once a month on a Monday night was a big deal to get out and talk to adults for a few hours. The challenge was to stay awake for the meeting. Now we discuss how those same kids are doing in college, but we still have a hard time staying awake.
Late last year, Harper Collins had a contest to become a sponsored book club for a year and I entered our book club. I had completely forgotten about it until I got an email telling me we won. We get to pick a book from a bunch of choices every month and they send us the free copies. Once this year, an author will Skype or call into our meeting to discuss their book! We got our first shipment of books today, and I am thrilled. They have sent us a copy of a book that hasn't been released yet, it's our job to start a word of mouth campaign for these books which seems like an honor. Mostly we are relieved to not have to figure out what we should read every month, the pressure is off to find a great book because it's already been done for us.

We have been through a lot together: a bunch of babies, a handful of divorces, a few re-marriages and our first grand-baby. We even survived Hurricane Sandy, when many of us had to relocate for months while our houses were repaired. What is wonderful about our book club is that for a few hours every month we have a glass of wine, maybe some cheesecake, and discuss how a book has touched our lives. These are the things that make for a lovely life. Thank you to my friends and to the authors who enrich our lives. We are forever grateful.

It's National Readathon Day!

As if I needed an excuse to curl up with a good book.
I've been reading voraciously since a young age. On my first trip to the library I came home with 21 books. I couldn't believe they were letting me take home books to read and all I had to do was promise to bring them back when I was done. I knew then that I lived in a great country. I average a trip to the library once a month to this day.
The first chapter book that I fell in love with was The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I realized then that books were not just for learning or enjoying, but they could transform your world. I still love that book because I remember how it made me feel. Books have been doing that ever since.
My most impressive accomplishment is that I read The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough in one day. It's 692 pages. That was definitely a situation where I couldn't put it down, so I didn't. I was up early on a Saturday when I started it, and realized sometime in the late afternoon I could get it done in one day, so I kept going. It was late that night when I finished it, and then I couldn't fall asleep afterwards. It was a great day.
Reading can be considered a solitary experience, but I disagree. I'm a member of a few bookclubs, one has been meeting once a month for over 15 years. We've read a lot of books, and enjoyed sharing the experience with each other. Books have given me many joys, and they've also helped me bond with my friends. My Goodreads account doesn't just help me keep track of what I've read and what I want to read, it connects me with even more of my friends. I love seeing what they think about the books I'm reading and finding out what they're reading. I can pick and choose from their recommendations to see what I should tackle next.
Reading has been one of the greatest joys in my life. I love getting lost in a world and then taking a piece of that world back into my own, forever. So on National Readathon Day, I just want to say thank you to the authors of the thousands of books I've read, I can't imagine my life without them.