September 16, 2010-Book Club Night!

     I don’t remember the first book club meeting I attended or the first book read for that meeting because book club has become as integral a part of my island life as the unchanging seasons and substituting items from my original dinner recipes due to missing ingredients at the store.  Although some of the people in the club have changed, and the books have certainly run the gamut in genres the past 12 years I’ve been involved in it, the purpose, enthusiasm, and monthly discussion sessions which keep us all reading and attending are the same! So, tonight, I look forward to the first book club meeting of the 2010-2011 season. 

     It has always run really smoothly according to the simple plan of reading 9 books a year and discussing them at monthly meetings, taking the summer months off. Each month we meet at one club member’s house and enjoy appetizers, desserts or sometimes a whole dinner, along with a glass or two of wine and fabulous conversation. The best thing I’ve discovered about it over the years, and I believe this goes for everyone in the club, is the diversity of the group.  Most of the ladies involved do not hang out regularly or even see each other all that often outside of the monthly meetings, and on an island less than 3 miles long, that’s a pretty big deal.  Sometimes the isolation gets to you, and the fact that you can’t even go to the store after work without seeing and greeting half the community which you’ve just seen at work or at the kid’s sports games, gets a little old.  Sometimes you just want to be anonymous. But book club, like reading books to get away, brings us out of that rut.  It helps us escape everyday life, enjoy “new company,” and immerse ourselves in the adventures we’ve just finished enjoying in the written word instead of complaining about the troubles of living on a small town “Americanized” atoll. 

     I don’t always finish the books each month as life and work get in the way of my reading habits, but I still try to attend each meeting for the good company of friends and of course, the yummy homemade goodies. Surprisingly, it’s easy to get overscheduled living here as there’s so many volunteer opportunities, activities, events, pot-lucks, and more you can get involved in thinking you have so much more time here than in the states until you’ve filled up all your times and have none left. That said, book club is top priority for me. If I have to give up another activity because it will take away too much from my at home reading time or book club, I’ll give it up because reading is something that nourishes my intellect and my soul in a way not many other activities can do, and if we don’t make time for what we love, pretty soon, we won’t love anything anymore, and our lives and attitudes towards others and ourselves will show it.  So, I hope that you will take the time tonight to do something you love, simply because you love it! :)