I've never been a member of a book club before. I think that's probably due to a combination of the people around me never really getting one off the ground, as well as my off-the-charts introverted nature (a quality which I was uncomfortably reminded today is so very real). I have nothing against book clubs. I think they could be very interesting in the right circumstances. I'll admit though the idea of sitting around and talking about a book sounds equal parts intriguing and terrifying: Intriguing because with the right group of people it could be a great bit of stimulating social interaction, and terrifying because the last experiences I had that involved discussing a book with a group of people flash me back to the one year I spent as an English major in college, and had the same collection of self-aggrandizing pseudo-intellectual porto-hipsters rotating through each of my literature classes, and almost to the person they were convinced that each of the novels we were assigned read could somehow be thematically linked to sexual frustration.
However, I'd expect the discussion to take on a dramatically different tone than this in a book club populated by elementary school teachers. Especially if they were going to be discussing a book written for a middle grade audience. And double especially if the author was someone they all worked with.
If you've put those pieces together correctly, you've figured out that, yes, the book club from the school where I work has decided to take on one of my manuscripts for their next discussion, and 100% happy truth that it was completely unprompted by me. Back when I was doing my class read aloud of "The Ghost of Lake Emily" and posting progress updates along the way on Facebook, it got some people interested in reading it. Of course I was more than willing to send around enough PDF files for everyone who was interested.
The meeting takes place two Mondays from now. Based on some incidental check-in reports I've gotten at school, a few people have already finished reading it and some others have at least started. Response has been good so far, which is encouraging, but I'm very curious to find out what it will feel like to sit there in the room with all of these people -- I think the total right now is somewhere in the range of 10 to 13 (excluding the one who felt using her Beyoncé tickets for that same night was a bigger deal).
It's one thing to talk to someone one-on-one about your book and get feedback and stand there trying to keep your insecurities from taking over your vital organs while you hope really hard that they liked it. I expect it's going to be a whole different experience to listen to a group of incredibly intelligent people I know and respect while they talk and ask questions about the book I've poured so much of myself into. I'm going into this experience optimistically curious, but I really don't think I can predict what it will feel like.
However, since two Mondays is not that far off anymore, I'm going to put further posting aside for tonight and try to get a head start on Stage 1 of the housecleaning that needs to take place before that night. Yes, not only will the book club meeting be about my work, but I'll be hosting it that night as well.
I can only hope my hospitality will influence opinions in the best of all possible ways.
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