Bibliophiles

I have not written on my blog much lately. It is certainly not for lack of material! The biggest reason is that I am like a hibernating bear, now that it is freezing cold outside. It is nearly impossible for me to stay awake past 9:30 p.m. I get so cold that I pile on the blankets, which leads to falling asleep. However, here I am at 10:52 p.m. and I am wide awake. It could be the three refills of Diet Coke that I had at dinner tonight, on top of the coffee that I had on my way to dinner. It could also be because I just got home from a great book club meeting.

Have you ever heard anyone use the term "book nerd?" I am totally a book nerd. I have loved books since I was old enough to hold them. As a kid, I would wake up super early before anyone else, so I could lay in my room and read. In the summer, I just wanted to sit on the porch swing and read. I tore through several series. So it should be no surprise that I belong to an actual book club.

The weird thing about my book club is that I went into it knowing only one person, and even that person I only knew on a somewhat superficial level. I joined a club of strangers. In this particular book club, there are a wide variety of ages with me being at the young end of the spectrum. There are a variety of backgrounds and careers. I hesitated about really committing myself to this group because I didn't know anyone and they all have different book tastes. I am starting to really enjoy this group of ladies though.

For the holidays, we decided to have a favorite book exchange. There is no way I could choose a favorite book! That is like asking me to choose which one of my children I love the best.....which is obviously an impossible question to answer. I ended up just bringing a book that I love, Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood. In the exchange, I got two books that I have never read before. One was Stephanie Meyers book, The Host and the other was the last Harry Potter book.

It was so nice to sit around with a bunch of other people that really love books. We shared the book that we brought and told why we loved it so much. Throughout the evening we talked about many other books that we have read and loved. Did my coolness factor just go down a few notches? I can't help it. I admit fully to being a total book nerd, and pretty much a nerd in a lot of other ways too. This book club is really forcing me to choose books outside of what I would normally choose. I have been pleasantly surprised about all the books so far....even though I probably wouldn't have picked them on my own.

Leading up to this book club meeting, I kept thinking about the fact that some of my favorite books are actually self-help books. I would never admit that to just anyone...not even my book club. But, hey....I'll admit anything to the Internet. Is that weird to really love several self-help books? It makes me sound like some kind of basket case. My love of self help books could seriously be a whole other post sometime. Or not!

So hooray for books! Hooray for smart people who like to sit and talk about books! Next up on our list for January is My Antonia. I get nervous when people say that a book is a "classic." However, this one seems good so far.

Get out there and read some books, people!!! Reading does a body good! (There goes a few more cool points).