Book 'em

I like books, and I like to talk about books with others who like books. So why aren't I in a book club?

I've decided that I don't believe in them.

Before all 5 of my readers hyperventilate, let me make this clear: Book clubs are fine activities. They foster love of reading, expose readers to new authors and new ideas and encourage critical thinking.

But I can do all that by myself, and I prefer to.

For me, reading is one of the few solitary, silent pleasures in a noisy, crowd-sourced world. I read to get away from people, not to engage with them. And when I read, I imagine how things are in the book - how Hercule Poirot speaks, what Lord Peter Wimsey looks like, the dresses Laura Ingalls wore. And I like them that way. Characters and the books they inhabit are my friends...some of them, like Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye" and Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" are friends I turn to again and again. Taking them out and introducing them to a crowd would make them turn and run down the rabbit hole, and I'd never see them again.

And I like to pick out my own books, thank you very much, not books that Amazon thinks fit in with a study guide. I have pretty wide-ranging interests. I read a LOT of stuff, weird, normal and in-between. I don't need to be told what's fashionable or what's important to read.

I know people enjoy all that. They like to share what they read, and what it meant, and if/how that book or character changed their lives. And that's perfectly fine. If Jane Eyre is your BFF, good! Eat some cookies, share your feelings. But that's another snag for me. Many of my heroes are solitary, and they don't share. Phillip Marlowe would no more walk into a book club than a bishop into a brothel. Lord Peter has a club, thankyouverymuch. Bertie Wooster likes his parties, but he's happy to stay home with Jeeves. Sherlock Holmes abhors socializing.

I have my own book club. I invite who I want and I get to be president. That's the best kind of club of all.