Oooooooo, the day is here! I’ve been wanting to do a book club for some time and, like most things lately, I put it on the back burner because I don’t know the perfect way to go about doing it. SO, like Nike, I decided to buck up and just do it. Somehow. With your help please!
Why start a book club? There are so many books that I’ve been neglecting and I think making it a formal gathering might kick my bum into gear. I’m assuming that if you read this blog you might have similar interests and tastes so why not read books that we all might like together and get a really great list going?! I’m imagining books about art, great artists, design, etc.
How will it work? This is when you come into play because I’ve been thinking about it for so long that I’m now a bit clueless. I’ve participated in book clubs before and never actually read the assigned books for whatever reason. In researching the best way to host this club everyone seemed to say that most book clubs don’t really work all too well. Is that your experience? Or have you had a successful club? And what made it successful?
I want this to be a low stress group where we read because we really want to and if we don’t, we can come back to it whenever we want to. So here’s what I’m thinking, I suggest a book each month (and you give me your suggestions too in the comments below!) and then the following month I write up some thoughts about it and MAYBE include a little project inspired by the book (and maybe I host an event locally???). And you remark in the comments section, or on your blog or Instagram or something.
OR, would you prefer to actually live discuss it via a Google hangout or Twitter or something? Thoughts?
For the first book, I thought I’d start out with The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock (get it here). It’s a book about the 18th century Mary Delany who took up a new art form in her 70s, paper collage, and created the most gorgeous flower collages out of tiny bits of paper. I’ve been enamored with her work for some time and I’m dying to dig into the book. Want to do it with me? If so, I’d love to have you!
Let’s read it by the 6th of April and then review it on the 7th. What do you think?
I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts. Tell me!
photo by Trisha Zemp