A year ago, I was immersed in math and business and not at all excited about it. Give me words! Give me ideas! Because I missed reading and I missed discussing good literature, I started a book club. My friend Simone was in Library Science classes with me in undergrad, and so we thought up the club together. I invited a few people I knew through various organizations and activities on campus, and they invited a few more people, and thus, the Book Club was formed!
What makes it so special is that we are a group of girls who love literature and who come together for that purpose. Sure, some of us are friends outside of the club, but what brings us together every month is books. I love that.
So last night, we had our inaugural Christmas party/1 year anniversary party. I can’t believe it’s already been a year! At the bottom of this post, I’ll list the books we’ve read this year. But first, the party.
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| My homemade tacky Christmas shirt! |
We had it at Kate’s house, and each person brought food. I brought my homemade candy that Stephanie and I made last week. Jambalya, Raising Cane’s, and rum punch were all devoured. Then we talked about this month’s book,
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. (You can see my thoughts at that link.) After discussing the craziness that is Google and the idea of immortality, we moved on to the game!
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| The books! |
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| My wonderful wrapping… Can you guess what books I brought? |
We decided to play our own version of White Elephant/Dirty Santa with books. We each wrapped 1 or 2 (or 4!) books and put keywords on them to describe them. Then, we pulled numbers and chose books based on our numbers. The trick was that we weren’t allowed to open the books until after the game was over! A few books got stolen, and a few books were traded after we all opened them, but it was lots of fun, and we all gained new books in the process!
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| A few of the books |
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| My choices! |
Overall, it was great fun, and we all walked away happy with the books we received. Next month, we are reading historical fiction, and I can’t wait!
Book Club Selections 2013: January – Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn // February – Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk // March – Pastoralia by George Sanders // April – Murder of the Century by Paul Collins // May/June – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald // July – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce // August – The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson // September – The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller // October – The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde // November – The Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill // December – Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
