Book Club

"The first rule of Book Club, is you don't talk about Book Club. The second rule of Book Club is you do not talk about Book Club."

One of my co-workers recently instituted a book swap club. There are only two rules (which sadly are not the rules above): 1. You can only take a book if you contribute a book and 2. You can't expect to get your book back. (It's a book swap, not a lending library.)

I love Book Club, since I am too lazy to drag myself to the library and too cheap to buy books. I'm also not wedded to most of my books, so I don't have a problem letting them go. I think I've put about 30 books into the Book Club and have fished out about 10, so I am well ahead of the game. Book Club has spurred my reading habit, which had fallen into the doldrums.

Speaking of books, I thought I'd do Fence's book meme, even though it's going to reveal the fact that I read way too much trash.

1. One book that changed your life
Nothing like starting with an easy question. I think I have to go with The Little Brute Family by Russell and Lillian Hoban. It's about a beastly family with three kids – a girl, a boy, and a baby boy. (Which, coincidentally, mirrors my own family.) The family is all horrible, except for the baby boy. (No comment.) But things change when the baby boy snags a wandering good feeling. I loved this book as a kid, although I was very resentful that the baby boy was the perfect one. Yeah, guess that makes me a little brute.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once.
The Great Gatsby Definitely one of my all-time favourites.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island.
Oh, good. Another easy one. Like I could ever narrow it down to one. I'm going to cheat and say the Harry Potter series. That should keep me busy for a while

4. One book that made you laugh.
This has been the hardest question to answer. I'm just not sure. I know I've laughed during a lot of books, but it's much easier for me to think of books that have made me cry. Not sure what that says about me. I'm going to say Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty.

5. One book that made you cry.
Sight Hound by Pam Houston. It's a great book, written almost as a series of short stories. There are about ten or so narrators, including a couple of dogs and a cat. The plot involves the life of a woman whose worldly and wise Wolfhound is dying of bone cancer. I read this in the little apartment my brother and I rented during our holiday in Slovenia. When I was done reading it, I had to change my shirt because I'd cried so much. Yeah, I'm not quite the stoic that Fence is.

6. One book that you wish had been written.
When I first read this one, I thought it was “One bok that you wish YOU had written.” As a writer, that's my highest compliment for a book. I have a few books on my “Wish I'd Written It” list:

• Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty. Jessica Darling is a character that any writer would be thrilled to have living in her head.


• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares. It's amazing how Brashares is able to create 4 distinct voices and how the voices grow and change throughout the books.


• Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons by Lorna Landavik. Funny enough, this is a book about a book club and the lives of the women in the book club. Landavik is able to move back and forth through time seamlessly, laying out the interwoven stories of her four protagonists.

7. One book that you wish had never been written.
I could do without that whole crazy rapture series of books - Left Behind.
8. One book you’re currently reading.
I just finished a book I got from Book Club - The Distant Echo by Val McDiarmad. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
9. One book you’ve been meaning to read.
JPod by Douglas Coupland. I loved his Microserfs and have been looking forward to this one.

10.Now tag five people.
I'm not really much for the tagging, but I'd loved to hear other people's answers. And not having a blog is no excuse. What do you think the comments are for?