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Get Breaking News on your cellBook clubs. Men. Contradiction? Discuss.
9:25 AM Fri, Jun 13, 2008 | Permalink
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June 2008
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Two work in the book industry in one way or another, so it's kind of mandatory for them. The third is the only male in an all-women club, although he swears his motives are about literature, not meeting intelligent women who drink a lot of white wine that he didn't have to pay for. Which means this Shelf Awareness piece about men and book clubs seemed noteworthy to me. A telling comment from the article, from Mary Alice Gorman of Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, Penn.: "Fact is, like it or not, men just don't share their feelings easily. Book groups often fall into discussion of how they feel about what they read. Let's face it, the shared experience of growing up to be a woman in this culture bonds these groups in a unique way and is the reason they go on for so long." There are exceptions. The article cites Valerie Koehler of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, which has a group called "Couples & Bob--all senior couples and one widower. Their list is very diverse and after getting to know some of the men over the past few years, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in their discussions." But she adds: "The men in my life are nonfiction readers by and large and I don't know if the discussion can be as lively as it can be when you are dissecting a completely made up world." I'd actually disagree with her on that point. But I'd agree with the general stereotype. I've taken part in one male-led book discussion group. We were reading Hemingway short stories. I think it lasted two meetings. My hunch is that the group, mostly writers, wanted to get to work on their own short stories, instead of sitting around and talking about someone else's. On the other hand, I keep the e-mail addresses handy of my old buddies who are heavy readers, and we often get lively, literate roundtable discussions going. (Ian Fleming is hot right now.) Is that the same thing? What are your thoughts and experiences? (Dallas Morning News file photo/2001) |
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Comments
Posted by Joy Tipping @ 5:58 AM Mon, Jun 16, 2008
I've been in half a dozen book clubs over the years, and was in three when I lived in Albuquerque. My favorite one, at the much-missed Bound to Be Read bookstore, had ONE guy member ... for about two weeks. I think the dozen women who were COMPLETELY open, about everything, scared him off. And in all my book-club years, he's the only guy ...