The Evolution of a Book Club

I always loved the idea of a book club, but my limited reading during my undergraduate career (after I changed my major from English to Business) made me feel like I wasn't well-read enough to be an asset to any book discussion.

With E so busy studying, I decided to pick up reading again and just grabbed something that looked interesting off his bookshelf: The Age of Innocence. So I brought it to work to read on my lunch break.



Barb, a co-worker joined me in the lunch room a few minutes later and commented that she had just began reading the same book, so we started chatting about it.
Then another co-worker joined us, and was curious about our book discussion. It turns out he is extremely well-read, and had read Age of Innocence several times.

We started discussing our progress in the book regularly at lunches, and when we finished the first book, I mentioned that I thought it was time I finally started reading Harry Potter (since it is one of my husband's favorite book series).


We all agreed to read the together--although Dan(the 2nd co-
worker) had already read them several times. After discussing the books gradually at lunches, we decided to have an official meeting to discuss the whole series.

And that is how our book club began!
Each of us takes a turn picking out a book and leads the discussion. We usually hold our meetings at each other's houses.
I've been really enjoying the varietyof books that have been chosen.

Since we started last July, we added another member--the wife of another co-worker who is also an avid reader.

Here are some of the other books we've gone through so far: (if you're reading in Google Reader you'll have to click through the blog post to see the images)



































It has been a really great opportunity for me to be involved in this--I'm reading more than I have in a long time, and I'm stretching myself by reading books i would have never picked up if they hadn't been assigned. It's also a challenge to lead the discussion--we try to research the author as well as bring up some observations and discussion questions. For the first time, I'm taking notes of books while I read them.

We have a fun, little group, even if it is somewhat unconventional and eclectic (middle-aged man married with no kids, a 30-something single woman, a young married woman with no kids[me], and a 30-something mom of 2!)
But I'm looking forward to many more book discussions this year!

Are you an avid reader or belong to a book club? Do you have an book recommendations for me?