Book Club

A few months back Scott, T4B, and I were enjoying a delicious brunch (and bottomless mimosas) at Luna Park when we decided to start a book club. We are now in month 3. Basically one person picks a book each month and we all read it. Then that person selects someone to pick a book for the following month.

I was elected to select the first book and, wanting to choose something on my shelf I hadn't yet read, chose A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.

Apparently this wasn't a good choice as only Scott and Adam actually finished the book by the deadline. Even I was 30 pages from finishing (I did end up finishing later that night). Basically there's a reason I'd gotten about 20 pages in and given up the first time I tried to read it. Too rambling, not interesting enough. Also, apparently too long for some folks.

I chose Adam to select a book next and being a fan of the classics and of Time Magazine's 100 best english language novels from 1923 to the present (by the way - longest list title EVER), he decided to select from there and settled on The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré.

The book was much more manageable at just over 200 pages. However a few people who will go unnamed did not finish by the deadline so they were deemed not eligible to select the next book :). Those of us who did finish enjoyed the book. I'm not sure I'm a huge spy novel fan though. Was nice to break out of my book comfort zone, which was the point of the book club in the first place.

Adam selected Scott for the next book choice. Being a fan of science fiction and fantasy, Scott decided to use the Hugo award nomination lists of years past as his guide and settled on The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.

I've decided this will be book #1 in my quest to read 100 books in 2010 and will report back what I think once I've finished.

So far I'm enjoying our little book club. I like exploring new genres and it's always fun to see what kinds of books others enjoy reading. Hopefully on my next turn I will choose a book that is more enjoyable to myself and the group!

**UPDATE** Finished The Forever War and really enjoyed it. Turns out I might actually like science fiction. I know, shocking, right?