Never let it be said that I shy away from the big questions

[viedma]

[Poll #1133227]

You know what? Tonight's book club went so well that nearly all the Laurie King- Mary Russell hate has left my system, replaced with a profound sense of relief. I haven't had such a lively chat since our Bellefleur sucked! Did Not! Did Too! American Gothic book discussion series from a couple years ago. Someone even brough lemon bars, bless 'em.

The fog was so thick it was like driving into a blank. It was pretty neat.

GO TO BED, MARY.

Comments

[averysmallthing.livejournal.com]

I liked him. He seemed to be picking up puppies even when he didn't have to. Like he just wanted to hold a puppy.

[viedma.livejournal.com]

He was fine with them (that's the important thing) but I liked last year's guy when he acted like he r srs referee. It was funnier.

[averysmallthing.livejournal.com]

I missed it last year. I remember being really cheesed off about missing it, too.

[cyprinella]

I can't actually comment on the ref because we watched it on mute. And I spent most of it reading about planted aquarium ecology.

O.O

[viedma.livejournal.com]

But you missed when that one puppy said arf!

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

I do not know what a puppy bowl is, but if it is what it sounds like, I am ready to cry for having missed it. ;_;

P.S.: How do you find/form a good book club, anyway? 'Cause I really had to bail on this town's after somebody asserted that we should have read The Da Vinci Code instead of The Clouds because Aristophanes isn't relevant and Dan Brown has more nuanced ideas about the human condition anyway. And meant it. And people agreed with her.

…I died a little inside.

[viedma.livejournal.com]

Here you go, The Puppy Bowl (http://animal.discovery.com/ads/ad_interstitial_fill3.html?dest=http://animal.discovery.com/tv/puppy-bowl/puppy-bowl.html). Puppies romping for hours on your tv set. With a kitten halftime. It's completely brilliant. You can watch older "bowls" at the link.

I don't whether it's a good book group or not (I hope so, but there is a lot of Midwestern reticence that I'm up against), but things that work for me:

1. Try and pick a book you haven't read so a) you're reading it along with everyone else and b) ppl can't blame you if it suxxorz.

2. Bring a snack, nothing too fancy, and some decaf tea or water. Things go down better with light refreshment.

3. I try and bring at least one in-depth interview, a list of books in series if there is one, book reviews so ppl can get an idea of how the book was received, and a brief list of readalikes. I don't know how much of this stuff gets read, but they seem to like the effort.

4. Keep a lot of your opinions about the book close to the vest until at least halfway through the discussion. When I hate something, I REALLY hate it, and sometimes I can prejudice the direction of the discussion.

5. Keep looking, there are a lot of shitty book clubs out there. 98% of them are excuses to get together with friends in the first place and talking about the book is secondary. I used to go to this one book group that would make the baby jesus cry, but it became clear that I was the odd one out (Bel Canto sucked ass!), so I bailed.