My love for books, started wen my Dad would read me a story from Little Golden Books, every night. Perhaps, some of you may remember this "gold standard" in reading books.
Eventually, I moved on to Nancy Drew, and books all about a nurse named Cherry Ames. During my teen years, Dad was still in the military, so we would go the PX on base once a week or so. Electronic books hadn't been invented yet, so the only way to read books, was well, to read them. I always bought a book and devoured it in days.
Jacqueline Susann wrote the book "Valley of the Dolls", among others. Mom didn't exactly approve of her books, but wasn't exactly diligent where books were involved. Thank goodness.
I eventually moved to crime-type books and enjoyed them very much. At the end of my "book" reading, I was only interest in what I call "cozy murders". Small town, a murder (no blood or gore), and investigations by a local busybody. Great reads and easy reads.
Last year, I joined a neighborhood book club. Initially, I was quite excited. A group of ladies, drinking wine and eating nibbles. What could possibly go wrong? A lot it turns out. For starters, I didn't want to be told what to read. I read for enjoyment, not for requirement. Most of the books only came in regular (i.e., small) print, which was most of the time to small for me to read. Second, we had one member of the club, who no matter what we were discussing, always managed to turn the meetings, into her personal life - not the actual book. This annoyed me greatly. The other problem I had with the book club was that even if I had actually read the book in question, my short term memory popped up and I didn't remember what I had read. This does not make for a lively discussion, if not everyone contributes a critique or ask a question about the book. In advance of the club, questions were sent to each of us, so we could ponder those questions while reading. This didn't exactly work for me either.
In the end, I dropped out of the club. I gave no input about the book, and didn't enjoy some of the book choices that were made. Stubborn? You bet.
I am currently reading (though I sometimes, okay a lot of times) skip whole sentences, two books. One by John Grisham, the other Fannie Flag. I go back and forth with these two books, and for the most part, by reading a few pages I've already read. One book that I enjoyed reading years ago, but occasionally go back to re-read is called "Ladies of the Club" which is a fictional story about a group of women in the fictional town of Waynesboro, Ohio These women begin a woman's literary club, which evolves through the years into a significant community service organization in the town. The novel, which looks at the club as it changes throughout the years, spans decades in the lives of the women involved in the club, between 1868 and 1932. Many characters are introduced in the course of the novel, but there are two primary characters in this book.
One of my favorite books is "Ladies of the Club". The hardback of this book is 1,176 pages! Another words, you could probably hurt somebody if you were to use the book as a weapon! I've loaned this book out several times, and it comes back to me because those people didn't enjoy it. And, that's okay. To each his/her own.
This may be on the longest blogs I have written, and I hope that some of you might find it interesting.
Happy Friday.
P
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