The Book Club

For a very long time now, I’ve been wanting to either start a book club or join one.  But it seems people who live in my town a) are illiterate, b) don’t have time to read at leisure, or c) think I’m a big nerd.   If it’s the first choice, well, sucks to be them.  If it’s the second, well, nothing I can do about that and if it’s the last, well, darn tootin’!

Anyway, I stumbled upon a book club on Meetup.com and I was thrilled to find out that their reading list consists of classic books!   I have a long list of classic books that I never got to read (or finish, like  “Don Quixote”) and being part of this book club is a great way for me to work on that list!  Their current book is “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” by D.H. Lawrence.  I couldn’t get a copy in time, so I am getting ready for their next meetup.  The next book they’ve chosen is John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” and we are meeting at the end of May.

I’m already halfway through the book and I have to say it was a very rough start for me.  I’ve never read a Steinbeck book before (although I don’t know why I have a couple of old hardbound copies of his works in my “library”), so I suppose I wasn’t ready for his style of writing.   I mean, there was an entire chapter (Chapter 3) devoted to the plight of a little turtle trying to cross the street!  I was so confused!  To what purpose did that whole chapter serve?!?  I just didn’t get it because it didn’t feel like it had anything to do with the story!  I nearly wanted to give up on the book altogether because of it.

But as I got further along, I started to actually, sort of, enjoy the book (that is, if you could “enjoy” a book with such a depressing subject).   If any of you have read that book, please correct me if I’m wrong about my interpretation of that whole turlte chapter, okay?  Was the turtle meant to foreshadow our characters’ hardships as they set out to California?  Or am I way off?  And for the record, since I am no longer in high school (thank God), I refuse to look it up on Wikipedia or buy cliffs notes.  I might, however, watch the movie after I’ve read the book.

Anyway, I am really looking forward to my first ever book club meeting.  I just hope I don’t show my ignorance by saying something stupid.  If you folks want to share your opinions about this book to me, I promise I won’t take credit for them at the meeting. 

Ps.  The book for June has already been chosen and it’s one of my favorites, “Persuasion” by Jane Austen.  We’re taking a poll on what our July and August books should be.  Here are our choices:

1.  THE BELL JAR by Sylvia Plath (1963)

2. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov (1970)

3.  TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee (1960).  I’ve already read this and as much as I would love to read it again, I think I’d rather read something new.

4. THE HANDMAID’S TALE by Margaret Atwood (1985)

5.  A CONFEDERANCY OF DUNCES by John Kennedy Toole (1980)

6.  THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1890).

What do you think I should read next?

~ by Beth on May 4, 2009.