Book groups
I finished the Harry Potter book — I liked it better than #5, but not as much as the first four. This is the first of the Harry Potter books that T and I haven’t read out loud to each other — after the disappointment of the last one, we weren’t ready to dedicate the amount of time involved in reading a thick book like this out loud. (The boys are way too young for these books, so it would have come out of our very limited free time.) I read it right away not so much because I was dying to find out what happened next, but because it’s fun to read books that your friends are reading so you can talk about them.
Right now I’m reading In the River Sweet, by Patricia Henley, which is the first book we’re discussing for Shannon’s Naptime Books group. I’m enjoying it. It cuts back and forth between modern Indiana and the same character 30 years earlier in Saigon — both versions of Ruth Anne are complex and believable. The discussion hasn’t really taken off yet, though — I think we’re still trying to figure out how to make the online setting work.
I’ve just gotten out of the library The Life of Pi, which is the next pick for my real life book group. I admit that I’ve been somewhat resistant to the book, mostly because it has a reputation as a "book group book." Plus, it doesn’t really matter if I read the book, because the group tends to spend about 10 minutes discussing the book and the rest of the time chatting about everything else. I don’t mind, because the group is made up of moms of kids from my son’s preschool class, and it’s a good chance to socialize with them. Since T does all the pickups and dropoffs, I don’t get to see much of the other parents, and the "book group" helps me stay in the loop.
July 26th, 2005 at 11:32 pm
My book group is exactly that way, too. Most of the time about half of us haven’t finished the book, either. I resisted Life of Pi for quite a while; just sounded dull to me. But I really enjoyed reading it once I cracked it open. Make sure to finish it before your meeting; the ending is an interesting twist.
July 27th, 2005 at 12:10 am
FWIW, The Life of Pi is, in fact, a really really good novel.
July 27th, 2005 at 7:58 am
Life of Pi is a good book, well worth the read. But much better (IMO) is the author’s earlier book, Self. It’s one of my missions on earth to promote Self to as many people as I can. READ SELF.
I’m done now.
July 27th, 2005 at 8:10 pm
I liked Life of Pi a lot, even though I disagree with some of the things the narrator believes about the world (e.g., agnosticism is contemptible). A lovely, lyrical, spellbinding tall tale.
OK, I’ll try and read “Self.”
July 28th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
Hey, another person in the entire universe has read ‘Self’! Yes, read it. I couldn’t get through Life of Pi, though I was much taken with Self.
July 31st, 2005 at 10:57 am
loved Life of Pi, now can’t wait to read Self.