so a few years ago when i was going through a phase (which happens every so often), my mom suggested i "join some clubs and meet some new people". to which my response was "umm this isn't high school- what do you mean 'join some clubs'?". but nevertheless i went online and found meetup.com, where i found a plethora of clubs i could join.
i spent a few hours perusing my options, and settled on the philadelphia metro book club. i've always wanted to belong to a book club- because in my mind book clubs are filled with women who get together and drink wine and say deep things about life while also reading good books and looking fabulous.
so- while i've always wanted to be a part of a nice book club, i joined the one online, told my mom, and then promptly never went to a meeting.
cut to...well, now. a few months ago my friend kristin brought up meetup.com in a conversation about trying to find new people in the city, and i remembered that i had joined this book club a while back, and should maybe look into going to a meeting. i used to get emails saying what book the club was reading and where the meetings were, but i never went to a single one, and eventually just started ignoring the emails. and then last fall the guy who ran the book club retired because his wife (who he MET at book club) had had a baby and they were really too busy to be organizing a philly book club. however- shortly after kristin brought it up, a new guy took over book club and revived it- leading to some new emails inviting me to meetings (luckily right near my neighborhood) to discuss books. and one of the books actually sounded interesting! so i bought it (used, on amazon), and actually read it in preparation for my very first metro philadelphia book club meeting!!
so- last night, at 6:30pm, i showed up at the Dark Horse Pub for my first book club meeting. i knew no one, but i had read the book and was ready to talk about it. according to the emails, 11 readers were scheduled to go. i was ten minutes late (due to an after work nap that ran long...and the fact that i'm usually five minutes late to things), but there was a small group standing outside the bar and one guy was holding the book! so i found my people! i introduced myself around, found out i was not the only new person to the club, and settled right in. there were 7 or 8 of us in all, we put some tables together, ordered some beer and food, and started sharing opinions. and it was actually really cool!! i don't know why but i'm always surprised when things work out and are pleasant- as opposed to being odd and sketchy. there were, of course- two kooky ladies- one middle aged jewish lady with crazy frizzy hair who kept saying odd things, and a short quieter lady who is a teacher and kept complaining she couldn't hear anything... but everyone else was pretty interesting and normal. there were a lot of mixed reviews of the book- (which i forgot to mention, was "A Gate at the Stairs" by Loorie Moore"), and the conversation was both interesting and lively. and at one point i looked around and in my head thought "hm, this is pretty cool. i'm glad i did this". it wasn't exactly what i had always imagined in my head- namely, we were drinking beer (not wine), there were men there (which is a plus, actually), and i didn't feel as fabulous as i do when imagining book club in my mind. but i suppose the fact that i finally went to a meeting and enjoyed it means it was worth it. i don't yet know if i'm going to make any long lasting friends from this group, but i'll probably go to another book club meeting in the future. in fact- there's a meeting memorial day weekend i think to discuss Killer Angels- a book about the battle of gettysburg i've been meaning to read for a while. this will give me a good excuse to finally do it!
moral of my random story- put yourself out there. read books. have opinions. share. :)
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