Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?' - Peter Maher, Irish-Canadian Olympian

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Celebrate! A one year anniversary!

The book discussion group that Spark and I started on a whim is celebrating it's one year anniversary. Actually, whim is kind of overstating it. :-) The two of us have always talked about books a lot - a real lot. One afternoon, after talking and discussing how much we like to talk about books and how a book group would be interesting, I set up a discussion group on smartgroups (since moved to yahoo groups) and sent out invitations to members of a group that I moderate. Spark had taken off for the weekend and I sweated for days wondering if she would be ok with what I did - especially since I chose for the first selection a book she said she wanted to re-read....and she would have to lead the first discussion! Well, she was ok and people jumped at the offer. It kind of surprised me - I really thought that it would end up just being me and Spark, maybe a few others, and we would have to badger Budge into joining. We have just passed our 1 year anniversary and are on our 8th book and still going strong.

We have read:
On the Beach - Neil Shute
I am Legend - Richard Matheson
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
A Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
A Northern Light - Jennifer Donnelly
Stranger in a Strange Land - Richard Heinlein (our current selection, which I must say I am enjoying more than I thought I would)

I would not classify all the books as great or ones that I loved. But, I can say that, no matter what I thought while reading them, I walked out of every one of our discussions with more appreciation and respect for each book. Listening to everyone's comments and views on each book deepened my understanding. They are quite the group of smarty-pants! It has been a great year for reading and I hope this continues for many more :-) Thanks everyone!

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