Good morning all!
After yesterday mornings “I am in limbo” post… this one excited me to write!
Last night was my August book club meeting, but this time it was more than that. It was also a surprise birthday party for Sharon in our group who turns 50 today, and it was also our 10 year anniversary.
I am pretty sentimental when it comes to my book club. Bookies was started in August of 2001 as a way to bring people together. At the time I had worked for Wal-Mart about 10 years and thought it was sad that many of us who had worked together for so long really didn’t know anything about each other.
The idea of a book club came out of the air. I figured I like to read… maybe others do too. So I posted a book title by the time clock (Dance Upon The Air by Nora Roberts) and put a date, place and time to meet in a few weeks. And….
crickets.
Yup. No one said a word to me about it.
The night we were to meet I thought I would show up at the meeting place, have a diet Pepsi and then go home if I was all alone. So I showed up. And a few minutes after me, Angie showed up (Angie now runs the book blog By Book or By Crook!) and Karen showed up. And we reviewed the book and I had brought another book to suggest for the next month (Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard). We agreed to meet again the second Tuesday of September. This was 2001.
On that second Tuesday of September… it was the 11th and we had the terrorist attacks on the world trade center. It was a day that filled with a lot of emotion and turmoil, and that evening I told my husband I was going to show up at book club. I did not know if we would have any new people, I had not heard from anyone… but I did not want them to show up and be alone so I went. The amazing thing was, the other two showed up as well as one more. We all agreed that there was nothing we could do at home about what was happening in the world, so we shared our thoughts on the days events, brokenhearted for the world, and yes, we reviewed the book.
Now it is August 2011 and we are currently 17 members. Walking into the Boardwalk Bread and Bagel last night was amazing to look at all the book lovers there… all a part of this group we call Bookies. We no longer can fit into a booth like we did that first meeting (although I did suggest we try :razz:)
Last night we reviewed Devil In The White City by Eric Larson. I can not wait to share with you my thoughts as well as the Bookies. We celebrated a milestone birthday with Sharon, and ate together. Coming home, I just could not get over how blessed I feel to be a part of such amazing women. It started out to be a few girls that worked together… then we added a few friends… and then it grew from there. We never said we were an all girls group… it just turned out that way.
Next month we are reading The Postmistress bu Sarah Blake. I read and reviewed this one a while back but think I will refresh myself by trying it on audio….
Book Journey 
Congratulations!! How wonderful to have shared 10 years of books together, and hopefully many more to come!
Marie it is funny to think that we are still doing this, but I really love it. The friendships we have built through the years and even our growing together in the books we read. 🙂
That is so amazing and wonderful that you guys have kept your book discussion group going for 10 years! Sounds like a fun bunch 🙂
I look forward to hearing what you think of The Devil in the White City and The Postmistress. Both are books I really want to read. I have The Postmistress checked out from the library and hopefully I’ll get to read it soon too.
Have a great day!
When Bookies started (which I don’t even think we had a name until year 4 or 5…) I would have never guessed that this would be something I would just keep on doing. I don’t know what my plan was, but the thought never occurred to me that this group would add friends… events, and so many books to my life 😀
Luv that cake….
Thanks Tea!
Wow, your club grew from a cub to a bear. Really enjoyed reading this entry. Good ole Walmart….
LOL – yeah… a lot of people give Wal-Mart a hard time but we have a good store here in Central Minnesota and they were very good to me through the years 😀
I absolutely loved this post! How incredible that for 10 years y’all have grown together and become friends.
Huge Congratulations!
Really it is Beth! 😀 I looked through the group last night… we were missing a few but that’s normal, its hard to get us all every time… but each person comes with a story…. I love thinking of how they got connected to Bookies.
Oh, I’m envious of your book club, but it’s obvious that you not only started it, but have inspired many others to join.
All it takes is two people, and from there, you can have more.
Congrats on staying together all these years!
I had a lot of help Laurel… we all invited. A couple years ago we actually put a freeze on bringing anyone else in to the group as we were at 18 and it was just hard to find places to meet. Since then a few of the gals have moved or had job changes but a couple of them still follow the emails of what we are reading and read along with us 😀
That is so cool your book club has been around for ten years, and grown too! I hope you all enjoyed The Devil in the White City as much as I did!
I would have never imagined that we would go on and on… but we did. 😀 We have so much fun together.
Congrats on 10 years! I love the story of how your book club came to be. It’s great to see how you have grown. I am looking forward to your thoughts on Devil in the White City. I have seen so many people recommend it.
I love that story too Beth 😀 I am writing up my post of White City now… I wanted it up today but really did not want to rush the review as I want to do it justice 😀
Congratulations, Sheila! I miss my LA book club so much. A good book club is a real gift.
Thanks – I have learned through the years that what we have in our book club is not the norm… I am so thankful for all these girls 😀
Your book groups looks fab! I hope that wherever I go in life I always have a nice bunch of girlfriends to sit down with and gab about books.
Alyce that is a great thought… these girls are like my real life version of chatting with all of you…. I love both ways of communicating books 😀
Congratulations! How nice, you started small and now you’re a good size group. Hoping for another great 10 years!
Thanks 😀 I hope so too Judith! 🙂
Wow, 10 years! It looks like a wonderful group of ladies. Tonight is the VERY FRIST meeting of a local book club, and I’m 99.9% sure it’s just going to me and one other girl, but I’m excited nonetheless. If this group ends up with half the members yours has, I’ll count us lucky.
OOH – how fun – but no worries – we stuck with it and look where we are? 😀 I want to know how it goes!
Our inaugural meeting was a success! I can’t wait until our next meeting in September. There were 3 of us last night, and at least another two that want to join next month.
Oh awesome!!! I am so glad! You are already moving faster than we did! What are you going to read? How are you picking books?
It’s one of the new worldwide groups started by foreveryoungadult.com. It’s YA-focused and they’ll pick what we’re reading each month based on suggestions sent in by each group. Yesterday we talked about Beauty Queens by Libba Bray but next month’s book hasn’t been announced yet.
Nice!
That’s quite a milestone. Congrats! I have never been part of an “in person” book club and I think it would be great to have a monthly bookish get together. I’m glad to see your’s is still going strong 🙂
I think the only Nora Roberts book I have is Dance Upon Air and I’ve never read it! Thanks for reminding me about it, lol.
You must read it Jackie! It is awesome… and its funny to think that when we first started meeting we read Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, John Grisham… all fine authors but we really needed to branch out. 😛
10 years as a club and the original booth is still there. I love it.
LOL – I told the wait staff that was working that we started 10 years ago in that very booth… they were not as excited as I was…LOL
😛
Staying together for 10 years is quite an accomplishment!
I think so too Kathy, thank you. 🙂 We had our growing pains but we made it 😀
It must be such fun to be part of such a group. Congratulations on being together for ten years.
It took some maneuvering – the dynamics change a lot when discussing a book with 3 or 4 people to a group of 12 or more… I had to revamp how to keep everyone engaged and keep our group exciting… I think we all do a great job of bringing something extra to the meetings… like pictures of what we learned about, author info, props… occasionally we will dress up like the era we are reading about.
What a wonderful story and a lovely group you have! Congratulations on your milestone!
My neighborhood book group celebrated its 100th book last fall, though I haven’t been with them all that time. It’s a wonderful connection, isn’t it?
Sue
Thanks Sue! We had our 100th meeting in December 2009…. iy was awesome 😀
I love the connections!
What a great story!! I want to start a book club but I’m not sure how to go about it. I don’t know very many readers!
I wrote a post a few years back called “so you want to start a book club?” Maybe I will repost it for this fall… 😀
That’s so wonderful that your book club has been around that long!
I just love it! 😛
This is so great! Way to take the initiative. I really need to do that here.
We are a great group together… and friendships have built between us… love that 🙂
How inspiring that your group has been together for so long. Glad you have such a good group of friends and fellow readers to connect with!
It is a lot of fun Jill and I love how well we connect 😀
Congrats, I hope our’s makes it as long. We are 5 years. Like yours we started small. I wish you another 50 years
Thank you Susan!