March 19th, 2012 
Emily 
In my continued effort to make good friends in Atlanta, a couple of friends and I started a book club. We each professed our love of reading and our nerdy dreams of belonging to a book club. Then we each invited two or three friends to join the book club with us.
The first book club meeting was mildly successful. (Note that I said mildly, not wildly.) We read The Elegance of the Hedgehog as our first book, although I use the term “read” loosely. Turns out, I was the only person who had read the whole book. But luckily, I used to teach high school English and I am accustomed to facilitating discussions in which I am the only person who has read the book.
We ate some snacks, made a valiant attempt to talk about the book, and decided on the logistics for future book club meetings. I’d say it was a good start, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the next few book club meetings pan out.
Here’s why I think a book club could be a great place to make friends:
1. It’s low pressure- you meet at a set place and time for a specific purpose
2. You have something in common- you all presumably like to read
3. Conversation can start/stay on neutral territory- things don’t have to get personal because you can just talk about the book
Is anyone else part of a book club? Have you read anything good lately?
photo credit: Danny Molyneux
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“But luckily, I used to teach high school English and I am accustomed to facilitating discussions in which I am the only person who has read the book.”
so true. so true.
Oh, the perils of book clubs! Ours has lately been discussing personal details more than the book…we’ve had a bad run of books.
But right now we’re reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which is AWESOME. Highly recommended. How was Elegance of the Hedgehog?
Oooh, I haven’t heard of Cloud Atlas, will have to check it out. I thought Elegance of the Hedgehog was a good book club book because it was a little more challenging than what I normally read and offered a lot of points for discussion. Sometimes it felt like reading an SAT prep book though, it was jam packed with fancy vocabulary that didn’t feel necessary.