I know a woman who has been with the same book club for the past 17 years! I think she said 4 or 5 of the members had been in it like her from the beginning. I was shocked. I was also impressed. And envious. This group did actually read the books they picked. I can't remember how many they'd gotten through but almost all of them faithfully read and reported back each month. I admit I love to read and chew through a lot of books, but my style would have never passed the scrutiny of a book club. I rarely read one book cover to cover, I'm more pick it up and read it where it falls open, then a sneak peak at the end and a whisk back to the beginning, stopping mid-sentence sometimes to check out the author's bio - who is this creature that can write such things? And I love to have many books on different topics going at the same time. I do love to read a trashy novel start to finish on those rare occassions when I can park myself in the sun uninterrupted, but I'm pretty certain those don't make the grade for book clubs. I'd be the member who'd show up with excuses or divergent, distracting ideas of how the book of the month led me to thinking, which led me to another book, which was sitting beside.........I'm sure I'd be kicked out of the group by the second meeting tops.

It wasn't the books but the group that I envied her for. She was connected to a group of woman who'd been with her for 17 years! That felt rare and special.

So, maybe Notbitter has a great point, skip the books, do movies instead, Enjoy everyone's reaction live and then hang out together and talk and laugh and set a date to do it all again in a month. That would be good.

Hi Tara,

It would be so great if you could set up a mynameismom.com movie club on twitter!!! Just let us know what you need!!! Thanks so much

Pixie