On Book Groups

I got a good laugh from Curtis Sittenfeld's essay in the NY times this morning, "You Hate Me, You Really Hate Me." Sittenfeld is the author of Prep which I have not read but my Bookman has (he thought it was so-so). The essay in the Times is about book groups and authors who visit or who call when they are discussing the author's book. He has had some amusing experiences to say the least. Reading the essay, however, I discovered that I have been joining the wrong kinds of book groups. Sittenfeld talks about groups who drink white wine or champagne, who have food catered in, and who talk about things like quiche recipes and oral sex. While my occasional book group sometimes degenerates into sexual innuendoes, I don't recall that we have ever discussed oral sex. And we always meet at cafes for coffee and something from the dessert case. We aren't exactly champagne and quiche kind of people. Before my occasional book group I was in another group that met at the public library once a month. Even though I was not the youngest, I was the only one who did not have children or was in the process of creating them. Everyone was serious about reading, however, and except for a few minutes of chit chat before and after the group, we devoted an hour to book discussion. Sometimes this was especially difficult, like when I was made to read The Celestine Prophecy. I hooted and hollered throughout my reading of the book, it was so poorly written and full of tripe. But when it came time for discussion I was the only one who didn't like it. Everyone else loved it, a few had been deeply and spiritually moved by it. One person even wondered if it was a true story. I bit my tongue and slouched down in my chair, hoping I could somehow manage to slide under the table and crawl out the door without anyone noticing. That was a low point in the group. But in between books by Wally Lamb we'd read Jane Austen and the Brontes. We even read Kate Chopin. And no matter how good or dreadful a book, we stuck to talking about the book. We never talked about oral sex, and since we met in the library where no food is allowed, we not once had even a cookie or a glass of water. I am not about to ditch my occasional book group for one that offers champagne and quiche. I like our caffeine and chocolate fueled conversation too much for that. Now if we could only get an author to show up...