KateKintail's Book Journal

Ever since I had to change my volunteering night at the library, I had to stop going to authorauthor's monthly Tuesday night book club. Perhaps it's for the best as much of the club was a much-needed excuse for moms to de-stress and relax a little and, as I'm not a Mom, I never really fit in with that. And the pressure of reading a book every month for a discussion was a hard one to get used to; in the end, it was too much to worry about and keep track of--too much pressure! It didn't give me enough time to read the books on my shelf I wanted to read!

I never really liked book clubs for that reason. I like discussing books with people and I like reading books. But I don't like HAVING to discuss a book and I don't like having to read a specific book when there are a bazillion other things I'd like to read.

But then I got an invite to an online YA book club and completely fell in love. Adults who want to read & discuss YA books? Heaven! We've done 3 books so far. I admit I was largely absent for the discussion of the first. Despite the fact that I loved the book, I do not love reading comprehension-style questions about facts from the book. I like analyzing books. I like talking about themes and characters and storylines and the bigger picture. The types of discussions for the second and third books were closer to what I like, but not enough people are jumping into the conversation to really make it a conversation.

Am I sad about that? A little. But I'm also REALLY happy to have an excuse to read these YA books. And YA books go so fast that it's no problem to get them read in a few weeks, let alone a month. When I look at the other book group, I realize part of the reason I struggled was because they weren't books I was super excited to read. Oh, some of them were made of awesome, don't get me wrong. One was the first book in one of my favorite series ever. But with the YA books I'm filled with SUCH excitement to get an excuse to read these books! Honestly, I've put about 10 books on the suggestions list because they're ones I've been DYING to read and haven't yet, for whatever reasons. So I'm sort of using the group for my own selfish purposes, giving myself a reason to make time to read these books.

I picked 13 Little Blue Envelopes up at the library today and was practically bouncing up and down. I've been wanting to read it for a year now. And when I told the children's librarian I was getting it out for a book club, she was all over me. "A book club that reads YA?! Where is that?!" I told her it was a YA book club for adults so, yeah, we read YA. She seemed a little jealous :-)

I guess it's all about finding a good fit. This time around, the format and subject matter are just perfect. As it's online, I don't have any face-to-face pressure to say something brilliant or think on my toes. I can take my time and read (I'm SUCH a slow reader) and then go online any time within an entire month to join discussions. It seems like a perfect arrangement. It feels like with this, I fit.


On the other side of things, I'm leading a YA Series discussion with my Harry Potter group. It's supposed to take place Monday, but it might get switched out with the September meeting because no everyone has read the stories. We're reading: the Hunger Games trilogy, the Inkheart trilogy, and the Uglies series--all of which I LOVED and devoured excitedly. I've already got a few exercises and questions planned and I can't wait to talk YA awesomeness with friends!

Surprisingly, at this VERY second in time, I'm not reading any YA fiction. I'm reading a JFIC novel by Mary Downing Hahn at work, I'm reading a Charmed tv show tie-in novel, I'm earreading a fiction novel in the car, and I just finished re-reading Hiding in Plain Sight which is an NCIS zine by Xanthe. I actually just found out her Soul Deep is available in zine. I've been DYING to own and re-read that in hard copy. Guess I'll be buying that tomorrow! I do hope to start 13 Little Blue Envelopes tomorrow though.