My IRL book club has been meeting 6-8 times a year since June 2015. It's great fun.
I have done a couple of semester-long book clubs at my job. Those are interesting because you folks from all over campus and some of them say things they shouldn't say!
And, of course, I started CBBC last fall and am hoping to continue to do a couple books a year there.
I LOVE a good book club, although I understand that it's not for everybody.
What's a deal breaker for you in a book that will make you stop reading?
Hmmm...I'm a bit of a prude. I don't like to read about teens having sex, rampant drug or alcohol usage, or white men complaining about how hard it is to be a white man.
Can you name a book that kept you up at night?
A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers #2) by Becky Chambers. There was a scene were I cried so hard and I was trying to hide it so I didn't wake up my husband. Good stuff.
Do you read multiple books at a time?
In my life right now, I usually have three books going at a time. I have a physical book that I read when I'm downstairs, a book I'm reading on my Kindle in bed, and a book I'm listening to as an audiobook while I'm walking the dog and doing chores. Oh, and I just got a book for a book club at work, so...that's actually a lot.
What are you reading right now?
My physical book is Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan. I'm reading With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo on my Kindle. I'm listening to The Reformatory by Tananarive Due on audio. I just got a copy of Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong for the work book club, but that's pretty lowkey and we'll be reading it over the course of six weeks, so I think I can just read it while I'm eating lunch.
How do you make time for reading?
Every day, no matter what, I read for at least ten to fifteen minutes right when I wake up and right before bed. And I frequently read if I have five or ten minutes to chill during the day. And I listen to audiobooks when I'm walking the dog, doing chores, showering, getting dressed, cooking, whatever. I mean, my earbuds are almost always in. There's just no day that goes by that I don't read.
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What are you reading right now? Do you read multiple books at a time? Have you ever cried while reading a book?
I love that quote so much...
ReplyDeleteI'm usually reading two books at a time (one at home and one on my long commute). Right now it's _Ursula Under_ and _Apples Don't Fall_.
I love that you read when you wake up... I don't think I could? I'm kind of anxious/raring to do all of the things then...
Well, I wake up and sit under my SAD lamp for 15-30 minutes and I read during that. I think I have a slower morning than most people. I do my SAD lamp, walk and feed the dog, and then I eat breakfast and start getting ready for the day. I am never raring to go in the morning. LOL.
DeleteI'm loving this series! Let's get into it!
ReplyDelete- I was always wary of bookclubs until CBBC. My big hesitation is that what the club reads may not be what I want to read. But now I'm open to trying it - like you say it may not be for me, but there is also a chance that it might be. I've got my eyes open for something local to me. I went to a few silent bookclub meetings in my area earlier this year, but got off track with that after we got the puppy.
- My deal breakers are excessive violence and gore. I like things that are a little dark and a little edgy, but not too much of that. If the story is otherwise good I'll skim things that are too rough (prime example: Strange Sally Diamond).
- Oooh! Oooh! 100 Years of Lenni and Margot is a book that I stayed up after my husband went to bed to finish. I read it last year but it came to mind because the end was a weep fest. At the time I had never had an open sob fest in front of the Hubs so I did a "silent cry" as I was finishing the book. It seems so silly now to write that after 10 years together I never openly cried in front of him, and obviously that changed when our dog died, but that's how it was when I read the book. My #1 pick for a book that made me cry big and ugly is of course Hello Beautiful - I know that no kleenex were harmed when you read it;-)
- I don't usually read more than one book at a time. The exceptions are CBBC, where I stick with the assigned weekly reading for the club and have my regular reading going on the rest of the time. I also sometimes listen to audiobooks while I'm driving and walking the dog, but that's the closest that I come to two books at a time. I see the visual reading/audio reading as being different since I "read" fiction and listen to nonfiction.
- Right now I'm reading An Evil Heart by Linda Castillo, book 15 of 16 in the Amish murder mystery series. I'm also listening to Your Money or Your Life. it's an old favorite that I haven't read in a long time, but Rachel mentioned that it's on her list so that got me interested in listening to the updated edition.
- I read last thing at night before bed. Sometimes it's just 10 minutes, sometimes it's an hour. Lately I've been going upstairs to read around 9:00, which is earlier than usual. It's reading/snuggle with the dog in bed time.
Yes, some people do not like to be told what to read and find book clubs to be frustrating. I 100% get that. I actually don't participate in one book club in town because the woman who runs it is a dictator who picks all their books a year in advance and I just cannot with her. LOL. I try to be more diplomatic with CBBC, but inevitably we're going to read books not everyone else wants to read.
DeleteI've never heard of 100 Years of Lenni and Margot, but now I sort of want to read it. I love a good weeper!
Lol, do NOT read All Fours! DO NOT READ ALL FOURS. It is extremely graphic in every way possible. I'm not a prude but I don't really love spicy sex scenes, I prefer a closed door romance. So maybe I am a prude? But I DID read All Fours and enjoyed it a lot but whoa nelly, there are some scenes. I was in a book club in the early 2000s, and what I recall mostly from it is that we didn't have a good system for choosing books, so it was really annoying every time it was time to choose a book. Think 10 women who can't make up their minds and don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I don't read multiple books at a time generally, and I don't generally cry while reading, but I do stare off in the distance and think about things a lot. I am currently reading Same As It Ever Was.
ReplyDeleteHee hee "do not read All Fours" is solid advice for Engie!
DeleteI do stare into the distance and think while reading too, mostly for reading books, but even for audiobooks, but unfortunately with them, I have to rewind and re-listen as I miss stuff.
DeleteI do not mind sex scenes in general, just when there are teenagers involved. I prefer an open-door romance, to be honest, because I like to see how the authors use the sex scenes to move the plot/character development along. I also like to get really upset when the sex scenes describe something that I don't think is physically possible. But, yeah, I think that All Fours is probably not a book for me.
DeleteThe CBBC is the first book club I've been in! I would be open to a book club IRL but I don't know who else would be in it. The only time I read more than one book at a time is for the CBBC, and it didn't work out so great this last time. I felt like I didn't enjoy Castle as much as I would have if I had just read the whole thing at once. As I mentioned though, I was trying to fit in those book club chapters while also reading Fall of Giants, so anything else was going to lose out.
ReplyDeleteI definitely read before bed, and any other time during the day that I can. Like if I'm picking my daughter up and have to wait, I always have my book with me. If I'm waiting in line at Chipotle, I'll pull out my book. I do have to say I'll be happy to finish the Century Trilogy so I can read smaller books for a while- it's kind of awkward to pull a 1000 page book out of your purse all the time.
Deal breakers for me- violence against children or animals.
Yes, I've definitely cried while reading books. The last one I can remember for sure was at the end of the last Harry Potter book.
Does your library have any book clubs? I think that's a way to get involved in one if your IRL friend/acquaintance group doesn't have any readers in it.
DeleteYES! If the dog or cat dies in the book, I am not interested.
I am loving this bookish questions! I have never been one to read multiple books at a time - but I only read physical books, so it might just be easier to just plow through one. I tried reading 3 at once in recent weeks, but upon further reflection it was because I was super disliking 2 of them, haha!
ReplyDeleteI used to be part of virtual book club for 15 years or so - "Online and Whine/Wine" - which started as a email chain, moved to monthly video calls, tried out WhatsApp and Marco Polo, and then disbanded a couple of years ago (but what a run!). I love the CBBC and having blog friends to talk about books with in recent times...
When I start avoiding the room with the book in it, I know it's not for me. I was doing that recently with a book called Margo's Got Money Troubles. Everyone raved about it, but I just found it stressful and I started to actively avoid going to sit down where it was on the coffee table, so I knew I had to DNF it. Sometimes you just have to know yourself.
DeleteWow. A virtual book club for fifteen years. That is quite a run! Maybe you should try to reorganize it.
- I have been part of a book club, but it was mostly a drink wine a lot and talk about the book a little club. I also joined book clubs in New Orleans and Istanbul as a way to meet people. In NOLA, I did make a nice friend, but in Istanbul, I met some nice people, but I ended up going home before attending a second meeting, so it never stuck.
ReplyDelete- I will stop reading and/or hate the book if it is a old man with a young girl. I am looking at you, Lolita.
- I do read multiple books at a time, if audiobooks count as reading. I am currently reading The Expanse and listening to The Treeline.
- I make time for reading by listening to a lot of books while doing something else.
- I cried at Lenny and Margo too! I also cried at Little Women while reading it on the plane, even though I had read it before and knew what was coming!
Oh, my IRL book club is definitely a snack and wine situation with a tiny bit of book talk. At our last meeting someone showed up about fifteen minutes late and she just joined in the conversation. When I eventually steered the conversation towards the book, she was surprised because she thought that she had missed the five minutes of book discussion. Ha!
DeleteCBBC is the only book club I've been a part of. I don't think I'm really a "book club" sort of gal?
ReplyDeleteDeal breaker = excessive foul language or extremely graphic sex scenes. The language bothers me sooo much, especially in contexts where it seems out of place (a battle scene - sure, give me some f*s, but not when it's a fancy lawyer in Manhattan out for drinks with a colleague).
Book that kept me up all night. Too many to remember, but the first that come to mind in recent years were The Sound of Gravel and The Less People Know About Us.
I do often have multiple books on the go, but lately have tended to just focus on one which is unusual for me.
I read Summer Romance last week and think I am the first person who didn't love it. I've decided I am just done trying modern romantic fiction. I'm currently reading Outofshapeworthlessloser by Gracie Gold (an American figure skater). It's sad and tragic, but also timely because the world is SO HARD ON WOMEN, even women who are objectively beautiful, thin, and at the top of their sport. It's horrific and reprehensible. I'm reading it out of a stance of moral outrage.
The thing is that I hear foul language just walking around campus. Like, hey Midwestern boy, why you gotta be dropping the f-bomb multiple times on the way to Trig? So I guess obscenity doesn't bother me, but I definitely can see how it would be off-putting.
DeleteAxton Betz-Hamilton did a two-parter on a podcast called Criminal and that's how I first heard her story and then I read The Less People Know About Us and I am super impressed with her and her story. What a wild ride.
I've not been part of a book club IRL. Most people tell me I'd hate it because it devolves into not talking about the book. My son and I often read the same book and have our own book club (most recently Monstrilio by Gerardo Samano Cardova) because we love to talk literature together.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing in books that makes me stop reading except really poor writing. If I can't stop correcting or mentally reworking sentence structure or Being The Creative Writing Teacher, then I will put the book down, but subject matter, no. Books are an art form. I appreciate them that way.
Except for CBBC time, I don't read multiple books at a time. I like to be fully immersed in a book if I can. I don't like to have my attention divided. I like to think about the book even when I'm not actively reading it.
I'm retired, so I can read pretty much whenever I want to. I do make an appointment for journal writing, but the rest of my time is just that, mostly--my time. I really like reading in the afternoon because all my errands and home tasks are done, and I truly feel at my leisure.
(I feel like I just talked about this someplace else?) I cried at one place in the book The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It was so incredibly poignant and written with such emotion. I used to cry while reading aloud the final chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird to my students.
One book that kept me up was Ghost Story by Peter Straub. My sister gave it to me to read on the plane home from visiting her in NJ. It was so riveting and so damn scary that I couldn't go to bed. I stayed up all night to finish it, afraid to go to sleep. It just scared the hell out of me.
My IRL book club does actually talk about the book, but not for the most part, that's for sure. I think you would be annoyed with us. I feel like CBBC mostly stays on track, although we sometimes have tangents in the comments.
DeleteWe are opposites re: story versus writing. I'll take bad writing (I mean, if someone has published a book, they're doing better than me, right?) over bad story.
Oh, yes! Edgar Sawtelle. It was far too intense for me. I just couldn't take it and had to stop. LOL. It was such great writing, but I was not emotionally strong enough for it.
I love both of these posts about reading. I am an avid reader and never ever don't have a book (or 2) on the go. I grew up with parents and 3 older sisters that were readers so it was a given that we would go to the library every week and take out a big stack of books. I have been in a book club that has been meeting every 4-6 weeks for 21 years. We were a group of hockey moms who all had 12 year old boys on the same team. Some members have left and a few new ones have joined, but we all share a love of reading. We do chat about other stuff -- but we do always discuss the book. I don't enjoy horror or science fiction and will bail on a book if it doesn't grab my interest after about 100 pages. If I am reading more than one book they will be quite different; a fiction book and an autobiography or personal development book. I try to read for 2 hours a day; when I wake up I grab my kobo and read for 20-30 minutes. I do the same at night in bed and most days will try for at least an hour sitting and reading. It's my favourite thing to do! Pat B.
ReplyDelete21 years!! That's a great streak. Congratulations to all of you!
DeleteI wish I had two hours a day to devote to reading with my eyes. I'd have to give up walking the dog and working out and I guess I'm not there yet. But give me a few years. Maybe I'll get there.
I often read multiple books at a time! Right now I'm listening to The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center, reading The Hunger Games out loud to my kid, trying to read both Funny Story by Emily Henry and The Giver by Lois Lowry before bed. Usually I have something on Kindle going as well but am between ebooks now.
ReplyDeleteI would love to be part of a book club (in addition to CBBC) but haven't been in one for more than a decade. The one I used to be in was okay -- the group was very nice -- but the majority had different interests in books than I did and I had a difficult time getting into a lot of them.
We read a lot of books in my IRL book club that I don't like. And that's okay because sometimes when everyone loves the book there's nothing to say about it. It's better if there's something controversial or polarizing about it to spark discussion. Even in CBBC it's nice to get a bit of pushback from how amazing Francie Nolan is.
DeleteDoes your local library have a book club? That's maybe a way to get started?
I've been in a book club since maybe around 2018 or 2019. I wish I'd done it sooner, but given the kids' activities, inability to drive, and Coach's work schedule - not sure how I would've pulled it off. It's a group of women who graduated from St. Mary's of Notre Dame, like me. We meet once a month except for July and November/December. The books on that list pretty much dictate what I read, although I did eventually get around to I Capture the Castle, but I was late to the online book club party. I cannot name a book that kept me up at night, because I am not great at keeping my eyes open when I'm tired. I am currently reading All the Good Left Undone. The author went to my college, so we chose it for our book club. I'm enjoying it, but not a huge fan of romance. Like you, I steer clear of lots of sex scenes. I don't enjoy sci-fi either. No, I do NOT read more than one book at a time. I'm a one book at a time kinda gal.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed a lot of my friends who went to SLACs have book clubs associated with their alma maters. I'm not sure I could find enough people who went to my alma maters to make a book club, but maybe I'll try that next!
DeleteI don't steer clear of sex scenes - just ones with teens. It just makes me feel reallllllly gross.
Oh, got it, you mentioned that, sorry - I lumped you in with my steer-clear bits. Yes -that is a specifically awful. I'm just in general not really interested in romantic type books. That Seven Husbands of (forget her name - Eleanor?) . . . not my cup of tea.
DeleteI usually have a paper book and an ebook going at the same time. Sometimes , 2 or 3 paper ones. (A non-fiction, a serious book, and a fun book).
ReplyDeleteNo book clubs, because they seem to pick modern fiction, and I don't want to read about people making bad choices in present day. (Historical bad choices are ok!) I avoid anything too depressing or graphic (sex, violence, etc), and time travel usually frustrates me.
A book that didn't keep me up at night but does make me keep thinking about it (in unsettling ways) is Neil Shusterman's Unwind. The premise makes me so sad, but it brings up potent themes. I'm torn about it.
Time travel usually frustrates me!! Me too!! I get really persnickety about it and I know there are some time travel books people love (that Stephen King one 11/22/63 and Time Traveler's Wife spring to mind), but it's not my jam. Oh, well. I guess that means there are fewer books on my TBR.
DeleteWhat are you reading right now? Do you read multiple books at a time? I'm bouncing between a Richard Osman mystery and The Address by Fiona Davis
ReplyDeleteHave you ever cried while reading a book? Maybe... but I have stopped reading mid-sentence, stunned, because I just can't believe where the story is headed.
I love those books that stop you in your tracks. I feel like that's magical writing!
DeleteI have never attended a book club, but a gay friend would joke with me and say that I needed a book club for sensitive, straight men. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's never too late to start you own!
Delete-I've only been in CBBC. I would love to join a book club, but have never had the opportunity to be in one.
ReplyDelete-My one dealbreaker is the unreliable narrator, but by the time we realize that, it's usually so near the end that I usually feel like I may as well finish the book.
-I stay up to read all the time, but I vividly remember staying up til 3am to hate read Gone Girl - there was so much about that book that I found vile and disturbing, but even still I just *had* to know how it ended.
-Definitely have multiple books going at one time. One on my phone and a couple hard copy. A fiction, some non-fiction.
I think I want to be a person who does one fiction and one non-fiction, but the truth is that I don't like most non-fiction and I get bored. So I'm just a fiction fiction girl and I don't know if I like what that says about me in terms of escaping from the world.
DeleteThis is so fun! I enjoyed reading your and everyone's answers. I've never been part of a book club, the CBBC is my first one! I love to read, but I'm a pretty sensitive reader with lots of deal-breakers. (Graphic violence, gore, child abuse, ghosts, demons, wars. No thank you.) I cry easily when reading - I have embarrassed myself in public, both by crying and laughing. I can't think of a book that kept me up all night. I mostly listen to audiobooks now, so one book at a time. I just finished An Assassination on the Agenda: A Lady Hardcastle Mystery, Book 11 by T.E. Kinsey. It was a lovely "cozy mystery", and I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteOh, I bet audiobooks are a real blessing to you! Thanks goodness they're so much more accessible than they were when we were younger.
DeleteThe only book club I belong to is CBBC, and likely I will keep it that way. I'm currently listening to 'True Biz', recommended by you, and enjoying it quite a bit. My physical book is something I picked up from a Little Free Library, 'Me Before You'. It's OK.
ReplyDeleteTrue Biz! Interesting to listen to a book about someone who is hard of hearing. I'd love to hear how that works out!
DeleteI am a book club drop out. Sigh. I DO ready many books at once- usually a hardback, a Kindle, and an audiobook. I read ALL THE TIME. At lunch, In the car when I am waiting for a kid, at night when my fam is watching something terrible. ALWAYS.
ReplyDeleteSome people reallllly don't like to be told when and what to read. I get it!
DeleteI'm also always reading. It feels compulsive, but it is what it is.
My book club is celebrating 10 years this fall! I'm widely considered "the book club boss" because I do a lot of organizing and communication for the group. At one point I thought the club might die off as attendance was low but then we added some new members and now we have a waiting list for new members to join. Admittedly the club is a bit too large right now at 11 members... But it's not like I can kick anyone out!
ReplyDeleteI am reading Lonesome Dove as part of a patreon group so I read that throughout the month but beyond that I do not like to read multiple books at the same time.
I rarely cry when reading books but books that stand out as having made me cry are "Loving Frank," "When Breath Becomes Air," and "A Heart That Works." I cried while reading the first 2 either waiting to board a plane or on an airplane... terrible place to read those books!
Lonesome Dove is so good! I'm a bit envious that you're reading it. Maybe I should reread it.
DeleteDon't people say they cry really easily at movies on planes? Maybe there's something about airports/flying that make us emotional.
It seems like there must be something about airports/flying that make us a bit more vulnerable or something. I have cried on airplanes so many times, mostly in 2012-2014 which is when I found out my job was moving Charlotte/when I was living there. I had my car shipped and flew to Charlotte when I moved there and I cried for THE ENTIRE PLANE RIDE while also trying to study for the CFA. It was a dark period of my life... I don't think I've cried on a plane since that period of time in my life, though.
DeleteThat's so interesting that you're reading three books and based on location in your house. I usually try to stick to one - I do not like to switch between genres/stories, but sometimes I will read two books at the same time when it's a fiction and a non-fiction book, for example.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, it's all about location. If I have to make an effort to get a book (go downstairs to get it, for example), I'm too likely to just reach for something that easier - in most cases that would be my phone. I like just having them handy.
DeleteHave you ever been part of a book club?
ReplyDeleteTwice, and both times it has not been for me, so I don’t plan to join another. There are SO MANY books out there I want to read that I really struggle with finishing a book I’m not interested in. Once in a while, I finished something I wasn’t loving and found the discussion interesting, but by and large, no.
Do you read multiple books at a time?
Yes, often. In fact, one way I test whether to finish a book that isn’t grabbing me is to put it down and pick up something else, then see if I think of the other one at all, wonder where it’s going, and so on. Sometimes it goes right back to the library!
What are you reading right now?
Almost everything I’ve been reading over the past few months is either fantasy or historical fiction. And sometimes both: The Ladies Occult Society series by Krista Ball is like Jane Austen, but with magic, and I love it.
How do you make time for reading?
I would say that recently, I am using reading as escapism, so am eager to pick up a book at any time. Even when there’s a hockey game on TV, I’m just as likely to be half-listening to it while I read. It would be more apt to ask me how I make time for anything else!
It would be more apt to ask me how I make time for anything else! - YES!! Preach it!!
DeleteMy book club means SO much to me. It's my core group of friends, and I know I am VERY LUCKY in that regard. We are not a normal book club! I've been part of the group since October 2012 and we've been through so much together.
ReplyDeleteDealbreakers, hmm. Probably problematic languages, like fatphobia, ableist language, racist language, etc.
I'm ALWAYS reading multiple books!
Right now, I have The Museum of Ordinary People going on audio, The Husbands in print, and When in Rome on Kindle.
I think it's so interesting how there are people who always have multiple books going and people who can't read two books at the same time. I wonder what part of our brain is to blame for this.
DeleteThe only way I can read two books at once is if one is fiction and the other is nonfiction. Otherwise, I'm afraid I'd mix up the action and wonder how Frodo was ever going to defeat Count Dracula and where he would dispose of the Sorcerer's Stone to save Panem from destruction.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I just don't have this problem. I cannot understand the plot of most television shows, though, without someone explaining to me what's going on, so we all have our strengths.
DeleteI read multiple books at a time and similiar to you all three options in different scenarios.
ReplyDeleteI can see how reading multiple books could be confusing for some people. But it works for the likes of us!
DeleteBook club? Yes, for many years in the 2010s until I started a new job, the first one of its kind in our organization. For most of those years I was the only guy, and it was a blast.
ReplyDeleteStop reading? A reading pal says life is too short to read a bad book, so since then, I do not finish a book that doesn't engage me in the first two chapters.
Up at night book? Most recently, James by Percival Everett. Absolutely loved it and wanted to talk to everyone about it and late-night research various perspectives on James and Huck Finn. Grateful that this sort of pursuit has happened many times in my life. I read the last Harry Potter book in one sitting, up all night.
Multiple books? Rarely. I want to deep dive whatever I'm reading.
Reading now? The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Making time? I do not have a consistent approach to this. I read in waves every chance I get and then I won't read for a month.
Oh, wow! I give books longer than two chapters for the most part. I'm not even sure I'd put it on my DNF list if I read less than that. I'd just pretend like it never happened!
Delete