Book Club Virgin

Tonight I popped my book club cherry!

And all by myself for that matter ;)

With 80 pages to go and being the slow reader that I am, 

I worried about how I was going to pull off attending book club this morning. 

Especially seeing as I had to pull through a 8-3 shift 

and then a workout at the gym before the 7 o'clock club tonight.

Never before has my last minute cramming skills failed me so I took every chance I could 

(reading in between customers at the till, and balancing a book on my stationary bike), 

and all the time continued to remind myself that "its just a club".

*Its a nice feeling knowing that the hardest struggle in my life right now,

is having to finish a book for book club... :)

With two pages left to go, I stood outside the Railway Club

and finished reading "Little Bee" by Chris Cleave.

Hurrah!

I proudly walked up my two flights of stairs to the bar, ready to face the unexpected, 

and when I fully arrived I was shocked to see no gathering of people in the place, 

or no sight of the brightly covered books filling the tiny card tables. 

Honestly my first reaction was... "Phew... I don't have to walk into a room of strangers and 

talk about the book I just finished, 

because I don't have any friends coming with me and 

I don't know if they are going to make me talk more than I am comfortable with.... 

Phew!"

But I knew this was just my inner nerves talking,

 what I really needed to think was that I was going to be absolutely fine, 

and its not like they are going to expect me to have studied the book inside and out.

Its not like I am taking a university course on literature for peat's sakes, this is supposed to be fun.

So I walked up to the bartender and questioned about the book club at hand, and was directed to a room in the back with 11 others sitting around clutching the same yellow cover I had in my hand. 

Greeted with warm smiles and welcomes, I sat down right as a round of introductions were just about to start, followed by the age out question "Did you like the book?"

I was comforting and smart to get this question right out there in the open to begin with and see just what we were facing here in terms of likes and dislikes. 

That was followed by a rounds of discussion such as gender roles, drawn out descriptions and the continual melodramatic tendencies of the author, in which I made my voice be heard loud and clear. Which (being honest here again) shocked me. Here I was being scared to even arrive, and I was volunteering my opinion so freely to a room full of strangers.

I loved it!

The other part of the club that I really enjoyed was the fact that we all got to put to vote the book for next months club. It was nice to know that we had the say for our own club as opposed to the leader of the clubs views on what we might be interested in checking out. 

I left with a new book to check out for the next month, 

and a badge of honor on my self esteem.

And I can't wait to see what other gems

I can find in this vast city I love to call home.

Just in case anyone is interested in checking out the next book with me
its called "Lacuna" by Barbar Kingsolver.
Have you read it?
Have you read any of her books?
Any recommendations of books I should check out?