Why Join a Book Club?

I’ll be honest, I have always loved reading and I always enjoy reading new books and entering into new worlds to escape the sometimes mundane life that I lead haha! A book club, however, was never something that appealed to me as I thought it would be an experience similar to that of highschool. Someone chooses a book and I am forced to read something that I won’t enjoy, or a book that will not spark much discussion; and besides who wants to spend an evening drinking wine and hanging out with a small group of friends and then have to actually talk about a book!? I was very wrong! Starting a book club has been something that I have loved. 

Although it has only been a year, I have thoroughly enjoyed every book and time we gather. I have found that with an array of different people, new book suggestions are quite refreshing. People can often fall into the routine of choosing the same genre of books. Although I wouldn’t say I love mystery novels (the couple that we have read were very out of my “chosen” book category), they were a great read! I think that being exposed to different genres are good to expose yourself to as various genres can make you fall in love with reading all over again (see our post about how to fall in love with reading if you’re in a slump). This is something I truly believe is part of the fun. People take turns choosing a book, or a genre that they are interested in. This keeps it fun and exciting as you don’t quite know the story you are going to read. 

Another thing that I love about joining a book club is the variety of opinions and insights that are brought forward when discussing a novel. I have found it so interesting the various ways a question can be answered and discussed. I’m no therapist or psychologist, but I love hearing people’s reasons as to why they think a certain thing about the book we have read. I feel it challenges me to see different perspectives while also rationalizing my own views that may be the quite opposite to the rest of the members. 

Overall, being a part of book club has given me the opportunity to discover books that I wouldn’t necessarily choose on my own. Also, as previously mentioned, I love seeing the various perspectives of answers that you think is a simple question but, turns out to be a 15 minute discussion. It’s a great time to unwind, relax with a glass of wine, eat some good food, and enjoy some good company. Give it a try, find some friends to start with and let us know what your thoughts are. 

Happy Reading!