Bench Talk: A Book Club?

How many people have taken part in a book club? Do you have the discipline to only read as far into the book as instructed? Did the discussion, which takes place in a group, raise or lower your interest in the book?



I have never taken part in a book club. I remember in high school reading books as part of the curriculum and the teacher would assign chapters to read. I was never able to have the discipline to stop reading. If I liked the book I would read the entire novel and then have to play stupid when the ensuing discussion took place. If you read our post from last Friday, you will know that we are going to try to read a book and discuss it in our blog. This should prove very interesting or very funny. We four ladies are similar in many ways, however, we all have different taste in books. We decided to take turns picking out a novel and due to time constraints will try to spread the discussion over a period of about a month or so. I wonder how long regular book club members get to read a book and discuss it? Sunshine gets to pick first. I think they are all afraid of what I will pick when my turn comes! I am thinking that we can use 'Bench Talk' to discuss the book and our opinions of it. Hopefully, Sunshine will have a book picked out for us next week. Stay tuned. I am kinda of in a book club I think.(you're hired!) The small group (through my church) that meet at my house every couple of weeks, meets to discuss the book we are currently reading. We have read obviously books from the bible, but also books (all have a christian perspective) from Philip Yancy, Brother Lawrence, Corrie Ten Boom and we are currently reading Richard Stearns book, "A hole in our gospel." Also, I facilitate a Women's bible study on Wednesday night in which we are reading and watching a video series by Beth Moore. But I have never done a club on a book that was fiction. So this is kind of exciting for me! Because I have so many books I need to read I think I should be good to only read the required reading. I am wondering are we just going to discuss the chapters and maybe highlight what we like or are we going to have formal questions to answer? What's the plan ladies?(formal questions? Who comes up with the questions?) And Sunshine, what book are you going to pick? Ohh the suspense. Just a hint, Sunshine, if you pick an older book then there is a better chance of us being able to get it from the library. I am a frugal person and if I don't have to buy the book I don't want to.
Well, well, the suspense continues. I am not much of a reader. I will read a book if someone recommends it to me and actually goes to the trouble of giving it to me when they are finished. I have also read books that have interested my Miss Teen Sunshine just to see what she was reading and I did enjoy them. Caroline volunteered to help me pick a book. She asked me what category and I said romance. I also told her that smutty romance is good with me too. I don't know what we will end up with but I know that Caroline is on the hunt for something good. Cathy may disapprove of this as I am suppose to pick the book on my own but Carline had called to say that the library actually has book club bags that you can reserve that come with a certain amount of copies of the same book. She is looking into that for me and the book that we discussed on the phone would meet Cathy's approval. Caroline was putting a book club book bag on hold for us but it is not due back at the library until sometime in march. Its a bit a a wait but if will save us money in the end. That's the plan so far ladies.


Happy Reading. Well I love to read.....reading has replaced many things for me lately. I love the idea of a book club but a sappy romance is something I'm just not into at the moment. I will grin and bare in though, just as long as everyone will be okay when it comes my time to pick. If I really love a book I buy it and keep it, and will pull it out every year or two just to read it again. If I love a book it's usually because of the characters they just seem like people you could really know or hope to know one day. I'm looking forward to every one's pick and I promise I will read each book no matter how painful it may be. ha ha I think the book club book club is a good idea and if any of our readers want to join then the more the merrier.