Book Club Experience

 

The last book club I participated in was in 4^th grade; a group of 12 or so girls and myself read an abridged edition of Anne of Green Gables and drank red “currant” juice. I briefly remember talking about the book and then watching the 1985 film adaptation. So, my experience in reading The Hating Game by Sally Thorne with a group run by my very-new boss’s boss was immensely different.

I’m a new hire to the Eckhart Public Library (EPL) up here in Auburn, IN which has three different book clubs. I figured I should participate in one not just for the prompt, but for getting to know my new coworkers. There is the Brew + Books Book Club that focuses on interesting and different (e.g., weird) books that meets at a local Auburn bar. There is the Classic City Readers Book Club that, as you can imagine, reads classic novels at the Genealogy building on the library’s campus. Finally, there is the Reader’s Delight Book Club, which meets at local coffeeshop, that skews towards light-hearted romance novels. With a mix of the book and meeting time, I selected the Reader’s Delight which is moderated by EPL’s assistant director, Jenny. That and Monique’s Kirkus-styled review put the book on my radar and I never read romance. I’ve learned that there is a reason for that.
EPL is a member of Evergreen Indiana, which makes gathering the books for a book club fairly simple; they just borrow up to 10 different copies from other Evergreen libraries, which include audiobooks and large print editions. The books are placed on display at the temporary library location (EPL is the historic library that was set on fire back in 2017) for up to a month before the club meeting.
I very quickly read The Hating Game in the few hours I had between ending my desk shift at EPL and the club meeting at a bar within walking distance. To be honest, I didn’t start skimming the book until the end at the wedding scene (for those who have read the book); I strongly disliked it. I myself am bisexual with a preference for dating men, yet I hate reading romance between hetero-couples. I don’t mind a touch of romance in the books I read, but I lose interest when the story focuses on it. The main character was annoyingly quirky, the plot was predictable, and I dreaded any talk about the puckering nipples during the club discussion.   
Only four people attended the book club. We met at the local coffeeshop and sat by the fireplace; it was very quaint and cute. Those attending were the EPL’s assistant director, her mother, a retired EPL librarian, and me. And while I hated the book, I loved the discussion and the lack of nipple-talk. Everyone else enjoyed the book and had amazing things to say, so I kept mostly quiet about my own feelings. We talked about how the book fit in within the romance genre—tropes, the single-sided narration—and how it was similar to Pride and Prejudice. Jenny came prepared with around 8 different questions—(spoilers) from ‘when did you realize that Josh was actually in love with her’ to ‘there is a movie in the works; who would you cast?’ We lasted close to 45 minutes on book talk before deteriorating into how I’m going to organize all my yarn at my new apartment (I think I’m going to try and find a wine rack).
There was a great energy throughout; it felt great to just talk about the books I’ve read in a zero-pressure environment (as opposed to college and relating books to some sort of theory). I’m definitely going to try to join in on reading The Kiss Quotient later this June with the same book club and sit in on next month’s Brews + Books discussion on Schwab’s Vicious (which I loved and I need to listen to other people validate my opinions).