Meet the Book Club

There was a time, a few years ago, when the idea of book clubs really started reaching popularity on social media. I’m not sure what sparked this trend. I like to think it’s one of the few positive things that came out of the pandemic. All I remember thinking was that being part of one certainly felt like I would be achieving some sort of adult bucket-list item. I always loved the idea of being part of a book club. I was a reader as a kid and have always adored books, but like many others, I fear I allowed myself to be sucked into the rip of doom scrolling on social media and the never-ending spiral of life. I’d only come up for air every now and then just to complain that I never had enough time for the things I enjoyed, just to be sucked back into the rip again.

And although it’s always been a dream of mine to be part of a book club, the creation of this one was so organically unplanned that I believe it’s what makes it so special. Lifelong friends suddenly bonding over the fact that we were all trying to get back into reading during a gathering quickly turned into a coffee date at someone’s house where we forced each other’s book on one another. This progressed to deciding to all read Fourth Wing by the time we met next, and voila! We had ourselves a book club.

Non-comital and low-pressure, we slowly found that our quarterly book club catch-ups were the highlights of our weeks/months! Somehow we had found ourselves in a group that would quite literally speak about a book, the plot, it’s characters, our intricate thoughts while reading, and all the funny Tik Tok videos about it for hours over snacks and coffee. We’d even find some time in there at the end to catch-up on life.

Now, over the past two years, we have read and discussed 13 books together spanning a variety of genres including romance, fantasy, historical fiction, science fiction, comedy, thriller, mystery and the classics! We have also incorporated random activities into our book club sessions for no apparent reason aside from it being something different and fun. These have included everything from excursions out of the house (i.e. Titanic Exhibitions and fancy restaurant dinners), to in-house activities like painting and knitting (don’t laugh - it’s actually really fun!).

As I get older, I value the quality of my conversations and connections more and more. I’m finding that the things I choose to fill my time with matter more and more. You know how so many people have that white picket fence dream? The one where they’re sitting on a porch in their older years with the love of their life, sipping on tea and reflecting on life? I, of course, have one of these too, but I also have one that doesn’t involve the family I hope to build. I have one involving my friends, my book club, huddled together on one of our couches, still sipping wine and laughing hysterically over the sarcastic and unfiltered opinions we have about our latest book club book.

I hope for anyone reading this that you find your book club and cherish every moment you have with your favourite people, deep in a different world that might teach us all something new, when the real world today tends to inundate us with noise and distraction.

And if you’re interested in hearing about how my book club reviewed any of the 13 books we’ve read so far, I’d love to hear from you! Undoubtedly, future posts will cover our unsolicited opinions anyway.

I hope you find your book club, or at the very least, enjoy mine with me! :)