BOOK CLUB

I belong to the modestly named BEST BOOK CLUB or BBC in West Vancouver, BC where I live. There are 12 members. As is usual with most groups there is a core of regular attendees, and then others who for various reasons attend intermittently. I have become one of the latter types since I began regularly wintering in Palm Springs in 2013. At that point I was still the newest member of the BBC, having joined only in 2011. We meet the second Tuesday of every month at the home of the member who has selected the book for that month. We socialize while people are arriving. Then our regular chairwoman starts our meeting with the usual membership items and our regular exchange of bookmarks picked up from our various travels. (Some members have shoe boxes full of book marks thanks to this ongoing exchange!) The host then begins our discussion of the book with a backgrounder on the author and any other tidbits that she deems important to setting the stage for our meeting. One by one we circle the group with each member delivering her assessment of the book. Once every member has had the opportunity to express her thoughts, we move to free-wheeling discussion usually over dessert and the remainder of whatever we have been imbibing. The meeting runs about two hours. From the beginning, I made notes to help me with presenting my thoughts, which I collected in a three-ring binder. I tried not to read them but, over time, I found myself becoming more pedantic, verbose, and note-dependent. I tried to control these tendencies by limiting my note-making to three or four main points. But then I found that using my note-making as a way of better understanding the book was valuable. It gave me insights I would not otherwise have discovered. Indeed, it often prompted me to wholly rethink my assessment. So controlling my note-making and, correspondingly, controlling my verbosity has not been my strong point.

This portion of the DESK section of my website presents my BBC notes in their original format. I have attempted to differentiate between background materials I collect from other online sources—I find lots of excellent material on Wikipedia—and my original work. I hope this differentiation is clear. Generally the books I most admire have prompted me to work up my point form notes into essay form. I do this to better understand and clarify my thoughts. They have also prompted me to create book-specific book marks, images of which are included with the corresponding notes.

I have added my BBC notes to my website for my own archival purposes, and in the hope that other readers might find them helpful.

Book Clubs are a target for all sorts of sniping (albeit usually of the mildest sort). I’m not sure why this is. For me, belonging to the BBC has been one of the most rewarding and challenging activities I have ever engaged in. I spent four years at university writing ‘English essays’ and I remember this mostly as a chore. But now I can hardly wait to get going on our next book. …And I cannot say enough about the other members of our group and how sharing this experience with them has endeared them all to me. I thank them for their forbearance and their friendship.