One of my favorite activities every month is the meeting of the Magee Books-n-Lunch Club at the Magee Library on the third Tuesday of each month at 12:30 p.m.
Our club is an informal gathering in the library’s conference room with a loose agenda and very few requirements except that members try to read the book selected for the month. Our general objective is to read the selection and discuss it by answering, or at least giving our opinion, on some general questions given to us by librarian Frances Meadows.
We don’t always follow the discussion guide—it’s just to get us started. Then our comments sometimes turn into a free-for-all that may go on for a half hour— “I liked the book,” “I hated the book,” “This character reminded me of me,” “This book is an example of what’s wrong with the world today....” Members are welcome to say what they think about the book.
Then we eat our potluck lunch and visit. Judy Griffith always brings us a cake, and I always take orange salad, which is the only thing presentable I know how to make. Some bring sandwiches or cheese and crackers or brownies or chicken nuggets —whatever is easiest for each one of us.
If you’re a reader at all, there is joy in discussing a book with another person who has read it. If you’re not a reader, there is joy in being with other people sitting around a table talking about life, which is what reading is all about. We’ve formed relationships with people we only see at book club that we look forward to continuing every month. It’s a great way to socialize.
And, there’s lunch!
Our membership is open to everyone, and we generally have five to ten women there from all ages, all backgrounds, reading levels and reading interests. New readers are always welcome, and we’ve gained several of those lately.
Unfortunately, men don’t usually attend. Perhaps this reflects the belief prevalent in most rural areas like ours that reading is a female thing, not manly. That’s odd, considering that until the middle of the 20th century most authors were men.
You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in literature to be a member of a book club. You just have to enjoy reading and be willing to expand your reading horizons beyond a steady diet of predictable romances or mysteries, which is one way to grow as a person.
The librarian chooses the books for our sessions, and I’ve read things in the club that I loved but would never have picked up if they hadn’t been “assigned” to me, like the hilarious P. G. Wodehouse novels from the 1920s or The #1 Ladies Detective Agency. That one set me off on author Alexander McCall Smith’s series of books about the wonderful characters and stories set in Botswana, Africa.
We are one of two book clubs in the county that operate in libraries. The other club meets at the Mendenhall Library on the third Wednesday of each month at 2 p.m. If you’re a really eager reader, you can join both clubs!
And, if you’re shy, you can join an online book club, though I’ve never done that. These clubs cater to every kind of reader and reading interest.
I am writing this on the third Tuesday of August, so I am about to depart for my book club meeting at the Magee Library. The book we’re discussing is Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan Mallery, and I hated it, so I’m going to have a lot to say.
But there’s lunch!
