I recently read a great article in The New York Times called "Really, You're Not in a Book Club?" Apparently we are experiencing a "book club boom"—approximately five million Americans claim to belong to some type of book club, whether they meet with total strangers online, with best friends at a coffee shop, or on the living room floor of some random friend of a friend’s coworker who happens to also love Proust. Who knew?
I am one of those five million Americans and I only just recently joined a book club. My book club is with about a dozen other twenty somethings who love to read. We get together at someone's apartment and snack and chat about the book we all just read. Pretty typical book club behavior, I'd say. But what has surprised me most about the dynamic in this book club is that it seems to be shaped not so much by a collective love of reading but more by a collective love of socializing. Yes, the book is discussed, but the conversation often veers to focus on life stories, relationships, weekend plans, restaurant recommendations, feelings...so much so that I caught myself during the last meeting wondering if I was in a book club or a sorority.
This led me to wonder, are all book clubs like mine—a very social experience? Is a function of a book club to make friends? A cure for loneliness? And what role does the book actually play here?
With these questions in mind, I posted the New York Times article on our Facebook page asking readers if they were in a book club, and if so, what kind? The responses surprised me. While some praised their book club as "the highlight of my week," many claimed book clubs were "not for me," citing an unwillingness to have to listen to other people talk, a wish to avoid big groups, and a fear that they wouldn't be able to settle on a book to read due to differences in literary taste. One person even said that she considered reading her "alone time."
How interesting that some use a book as a vehicle for social interaction while others consider it a very sacred, exclusive relationship. I guess you could say I enjoy both—sitting splayed on a friend's living room floor surrounded by a gaggle of laughing girls eating fistfuls of popcorn while flipping through the pages of their books and interrupting each other to swap stories, share feelings, talk shop. But I also love—no, I cherish—reading quietly by myself.
So what about you? I’m curious to know—is reading your alone time or an opportunity for togetherness? Would you rather experience a book in a group or by yourself?
image via boston_public_library
