What are you reading??

It seems our dear Page Nibblers reading group has somewhat fizzled. But that's only a matter of definition. It's true that we've all sort of gone off in different directions for our reading. If we name "SUCCESS" as all of us reading the same books at the same time and then eloquently discussing the themes of said books, we're a flop.

I tried to read Little Women. I really did. But it just didn't capture me. So after slogging my way through several chapters out of a sense of commitment, I finally bailed.

Initially I was drawn to some non-fiction. As I told Mimi in an email I sent her at the time, I was itching to read real words spoken by real people. So I gobbled up two or three volumes...Acedia & Me by Kathleen Norris among the most powerful. Since then I've read a bunch of other stuff...most recently the novel "Restitution" by Lee Vance which was an absolute page turner.

Now we are on to September. For the life of me I don't know whose pick it is for this month or what we were scheduled to read.

But honestly, I'm not sure I care.

We are all at different places in our lives right now. Maybe we aren't up for a typical book club where we read the same thing. But that doesn't mean we have to discard this effort all together does it?

What I like BEST about Page Nibblers is that it gets me thinking, helps me CONSIDER different books that I might not have otherwise read, and give me a place to talk about those books. We are a fairly diverse group, each of us different ages, different religions, different political views, different lifestyles, different family status (from no kids to young kids to older kids to grown kids). But the one thing we have in common is our love of reading.

So I say let's keep it going, even if we don't read the same stuff.

Tell me what you ARE reading and what you think of it. Because really, sharing our ideas about books is the draw for me. We can still SUGGEST books for each month if others want to join in. But I hope no one will feel bad if their book doesn't snag others. (Mimi, THANK YOU for being so gracious when I bailed on Little Women...I really did not want to let you down, and felt bad at first when I opted out. It helped a lot that you were so nice about it.)

I rather like the idea of a gathering place to talk about books with NO guilt, NO demands, NO expectations. We have enough places in our life where we have to Keep Up with someone else's priorities. Let's let this be a place that NOURISHES our love of reading rather than adding more stress.

Now, I'm not queen bee... this reading group is a collaborative effort with no specific leader and no one IN CHARGE. I certainly do not presume to change the rules when honestly there are no hard fast rules. We do this for the fun of it. We are a delightful literary anarchy. So if the rest of you DO want to keep making an effort to read books in unison, by all means, go for it. I just don't think that fits for me right now.

SOMETIMES when I hear what you are reading I may want to read it too. Sometimes not.
And I think that's just fine.

But I truly am curious. What are you reading these days?