Monday Fun Days

A few weeks ago, some friends and I started a Monday morning book club. Talk about a cure for the Monday morning doldrums! I used to dread the end of the weekend, and now I'm excited on Sunday nights because I have something fun to look forward to. We meet at my friend Aimee's house and take turns bringing something to munch on. We have established a few loose rules, but we're pretty flexible.

• No books any of us have already read. (We already broke this one, but made an exception because it had been a really long time since they had read it).
• No books in a series.
• Spoiler alert! If you didn't read the book, you're still welcome to come to the meetings - just be forewarned that we aren't putting off the discussion.
• Let everybody talk.
• Kids are welcome.

Aimee created a Facebook page for us so that we can post questions in between meetings, and also discuss other books.

So far this is what we've done.




Discussed The Hunger Games, and how the movie compared to the book.

Read and discussed The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.



 



Read and discussed The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinksi






In the process of reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.







A few points I'd like to make:

• Don't discount the Young Adult genre (otherwise we'd have missed out on The Hunger Games and The Fault in Our Stars).
• Sometimes homework assignments are fun. When we read The Next Thing on My List, we each made a bucket list and shared it at our meeting.
• Don't discount classic literature, but acknowledge that reading it at a slower pace is probably beneficial.
• Take advantage of the internet for discussion inspiration.

 We plan on having a movie night when we're done reading Frankenstein, to see how the movie compares to the book. I'll host that in our basement since we have a home theater set up.

Being in a book club is so right up my alley, I don't know how I waited until the age of 37 to finally be a part of one. I love reading and discussing books. I love being with like-minded people. I love having something to look forward to on Monday mornings, and catching up with my friends. We're just getting started, but already I'm hoping this book club becomes a long standing tradition. Although we'll have to make some adjustments in the summer because most of our kids are in school right now, and I think our combined 18 (almost 19) children might be a tad distracting. Not to mention a bit of a stretch on Aimee's hospitality limits.

Are you in a book club? How does your book club operate? What have you read as a group?