Posted on 12/09/2008 11:32:11 AM PST by forkinsocket
JOCELYN BOWIE was thrilled by the invitation to join a book group. She had just returned to her hometown, Bloomington, Ind., to take an administration job at Indiana University, and thought she had won a ticket to a top echelon. “I was hoping to network with all these women in upper-level jobs at I.U., then I found they were in the book group,” she said. “I thought, ‘Great! They’ll see how wonderful I am, and we’ll have these great conversations about books.’ ”
Ms. Bowie cannot pinpoint the precise moment when disillusion replaced delight. Maybe it was the evening she tried to persuade everyone to look beyond Oprah Winfrey’s picks, “and they all said ‘What’s wrong with Oprah?’ ” she said.
Or perhaps it was the meeting when she lobbied for literary classics like “Emma” and the rest of the group was abuzz about “The Secret Life of Bees,” a pop-lit best seller.
The last straw came when the group picked “The Da Vinci Code” and someone suggested the discussion would be enriched by delving into the author’s source material. “It was bad enough that they wanted to read ‘Da Vinci Code’ in the first place,” Ms. Bowie said, “but then they wanted to talk about it.” She quit shortly after, making up a polite excuse: “I told the organizer, ‘You’re reading fiction, and I’m reading history right now.’ ”
Yes, it’s a nice, high-minded idea to join a book group, a way to make friends and read books that might otherwise sit untouched. But what happens when you wind up hating all the literary selections — or the other members? Breaking up isn’t so hard to do when it means freedom from inane critical commentary, political maneuvering, hurt feelings, bad chick lit and even worse chardonnay.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
She should join Free Republic.
Are there any FreeRepublic book ping groups?
My Christian Book Club picked The Da Vinci Code and I was delighted. I would never have read it on my own and there, I got to discuss it among believers who helped me pick it apart. However, I would not want to read it at another type of book club. A book club is forming where I teach and as much as I love book clubs, I will not join it. Quite simply, I don’t want my private beliefs to become public. I keep them quiet when I teach and want to do the same among peers. It’s impossible to do entirely, but I try.
C.S. Lewis Dittos.
These are the same people who watch reality shows so they will have something to talk about with other people.
I never watch TV so I am excused from most of these conversations.
My neighborhood book club does go beyond Oprah et al. Sometimes we do bestsellers (”Thirteen Moons”, “The Alchemist”), sometimes sci-fi (”Ringworld”), sometimes classics (”The Age of Innocence”, “A Christmas Carol”), sometimes history (”1491”, “Roanoke”), etc. We all appreciate being compelled out of our comfort zones. Sometimes we agree (”The Age of Innocence” had an infuriating ending), and sometimes disagree (”Thirteen Moons” garnered “best book ever” and “worst book ever”). Warm fuzzies? rare, though “The Autobiography of Santa Claus” may count.
LOL -- this from the New York Times?
I don't know, but I'm always willing to ping my book:
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I could do this! Easy money for being bossy. All of you can sign up by FReepmail and I'll take Paypal. Since I'm new at this we'll go with a reduced rate of $250 per person for our first year.
What’s scary to me is how much economic influence vapid little opradroids like this wield.
Geez, Jeff, didn't you read the article? You'd probably want to dissect "The Forgotten Man" and its views on the depression and I'd want to read Nancy and Sluggo comics, get drunk on cheap gin, and dish on celebrities.
Actually, I wonder if there's any FR book clubs like that...
Owl_Eagle
“When the stock market crashed,
Franklin Roosevelt got on the television
and didn’t just talk about
the princes of greed, he said,
‘Look, here’s what happened.’"
-Slow Joe Biden
History is also literature but deceitful. Fiction does not pretend to be truthful.
I’ve had a couple of similar experiences with book clubs. I’m not as tactful as this Jocelyn Bowie however. I just tell ‘em they aren’t reading anything worthwhile and quit participating.
It is nice to find folks with whom I can discuss interesting books. Oprah doesn’t fit into interesting. I’d have to suggest a day at the gun range for the book club I think. Books could make good targets.
Opradroids.....I like that.
Yeah. The Bible on the Anti-Evolution threads.
Can I be in your book club?
;-)
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