Book Club Failure

Book Clubs are great, right? You gather with friends and meet new people—all people who like books enough to gather and talk about books. I love the idea of a book club. But that’s the problem—I’m better with the idea than the actual thing.

Last month, September, I was supposed to do two book clubs, one in person and one online. And, how convenient for my busy schedule, they were reading the same book: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Random Riggs! I could cover two clubs with one book! Well, I ended up having to back out of the first one early in the month because I RSVPed to a publishing industry event that happened to be the same evening as the book club ended up being scheduled. But the second one, it was online; I didn’t have to show up anywhere at a specific time, I just had to read the book and write a little blog post. Piece of cake! Except not. I requested the book from the library, but I became #49 on the holds list. Crossing my fingers I’d get the book in time because I really didn’t want to buy a book I didn’t know much about, I waited…too long. Even with two day Amazon Prime shipping the book just got here two days too late for me to finish writing the review by last Friday. Friday morning I was 100 pages away from finishing, and I was sure I could finish Friday night and post by Saturday and I’d only be 24 hours late. That’s not so bad, right? But Friday evening turned into date night and Saturday became errand day and Sunday was all about enjoying the fall weather and getting out of the city to go apple picking. Home for Peculiar Children sat on my nightstand, 100 pages away from completion all weekend. I’ve finished it now, but too late, even for the don’t-have-to-go-anywhere-online-book-club. My thoughts on it will be included in this month’s Reading Roundup (be on the lookout for it next Monday).

As for this month, I just received an invitation to the in-person book club. They’re so sweet for inviting me, even though I’ve only actually made it once in the past six months (told you I fail at book clubs!). The book selected is Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. I’ve heard good things about it, but it is an adult book and I never read those anymore! I think the library system will decide if I make it—I’ve put holds on both the physical and ebook versions! The online book club is still deciding on their pick, but it’s most likely going to be a great new teen release. (Want to join?) Seeing that I’ve preordered almost all of the books in question and they should be arriving in my mailbox any day now, I really have no excuse not to participate. At the very least, I’m going to try!

Maybe next month I can post a how-to on succeeding at book clubbing!