I would love to have a bookclub, and I think if I could ever get one going, it would be wrapped around the theme I originally attempted - the sacramental imagination. I would like the focus to be on choosing and discussion books in which the sacramental imagination of the author is displayed. I would like to hold it in the evening, once a month with drinks and coffee and good background music. I would like it to include poetry. Ideally I might even have it start out with poetry, from a variety of writers, to give a broad understanding of the imagination at work. Rilke would be there for certain, and Camus’ The Fall, and Tolstoy’s stories from Divine and Human, as well as some kid’s stories, like the Hounds of the Morrigan, or that George McDonald story about the key. I would hope for good discussion, good reading, and good friendships.
Well, I'm part of a book club, one I generally love, so I'm biased. I've found that book club, at least, to be mainly good for two things: 1) catching up with all my Catholic girlfriends, and 2) reading books I would never otherwise pull off the shelf. It seems to work the same way for them. Hey, if I have to read The Shack, they have to read MacDonald's Lilith. :P
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of the club focused around the sacramental imagination, though. Especially since it comes with drinks and coffee and good background music. Makes me wish we didn't live on opposite sides of the country.
I envy you your book club! It is nice to read books you normally wouldn't, isn't it! It would be nice to not be on opposite coasts, I need people around who would love a good book-club, or too, and I feel like we could have a lot of good talks with coffee and books all around!
ReplyDeleteBook club!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of reading difficult books out loud. There was a group at the University that used to go to a pub and read five pages of Finnegan's Wake every week. I never managed to join them because the pub was too far away and I had work in the morning, but it sounded like fun. I really liked the new poetry reading group I was in there, too. Unfortunately it only got started a few months before I left, and now it is two thousand miles away.
What's The Shack, Jenna? I could look this up on the Wikipedias, but I choose to ask instead.
YOU GUYS. Google Groups could totally facilitate a book group if you wanted it too. There would be no shared drinks or food, but maybe it could still work??
blah, where is my brain, there is no apostrophe in Finnegans Wake. Lest you think I was talking about some other, completely comprehensible book about the wake of a guy named Finnegan.
ReplyDelete