Book Club

As Death Cab For Cutie and my son’s blog would say...”So this is the New Year and I don’t feel any differently.” It is 2010 and I’m the same me, only older. Boohoo. Resolutions? Hardly. How can I tackle a new challenge when I barely want to meet the same old challenges? And by challenge I mean: cleaning the kitchen, getting out of the house, writing this blog. I think I might have some sort of Seasonal Affective Disorder (otherwise known as SAD which makes me chuckle...so maybe not). SAD or not, I definitely need to jump start myself through these winter doldrums. How can I do this? Well, I have this handy trick: I have learned to impose synthetic constraints on myself to meet the smallest of goals. What does this mean? In short, I play mind games on myself to achieve a desired effect...as if I were both Pavlov and his dogs.

Take for example: exercise. As I age, I have come to a place where my laziness outweighs my vanity and I no longer am particularly motivated to go to the gym. I can tell myself that it is good for my health, that I like being strong, that it releases endorphins that increase my sense of well-being...blah blah blah. None of these arguments for exercise have ever been particular motivators. Only the fear of cottage cheese curdling on the back of my body has made me a regular habitué of 24 Hour Fitness. As the years pass though, cottage cheese seems an easy price to pay for the pleasure of remaining stationary. What’s a little extra geography compared to my desire to hibernate? These are dangerous and seditious thoughts that need to combated cleverly. So brilliant me, I have come up with various motivational tricks to get meself to the gym. My failsafe is to find an interesting book and strictly allow myself to read it only while running on that silly elliptical machine. Believe it or not, this usually works. Apparently I am stupider than I am lazy. I have been playing this trick on myself through approximately ten consecutive winters. I wonder when I will catch on?

Unfortunately, in this new year I was having trouble finding a book interesting enough to pull off the prestige until genius struck again and I utilized my facebook status to glean book suggestions. In no time I was rewarded with a healthy list. Because I appreciate the response, I have decided that I will honor each of these suggestions by reading them in the order received ( with the exception of the books I have already read). I’m pretty excited. (Little do I realize, this list will be tricking myself into going to the gym for the next six months)

Concurrent with my vile laziness, I have this other pesky problem. I have been having trouble finding a book club that I feel attached to. I was going to one club and it was fun to attend but I am not sure that, in all fairness, it should be called a “Book Club” (picture me making air quotes here.) Invariably 75% of the members had read 45% of the book or less. Our discussion of the actual book rarely lasted more than fifteen minutes in sum. This group would probably be better defined as a “Social Club” or perhaps a “Wine (or margarita or martini) Tasting Club” These sort of clubs are fun but not really what I’m looking for in a “Book Club” (more air quotes) If I were writing a singles ad for a book club here’s what it would look like: Desperately seeking a reason to read books that I might never have otherwise read, hoping for insightful discussions on the merits, or lack thereof, of a book, love long walks on the beach... I jest but you get the idea: I'm looking for something a little more meaningful than a glass of wine and fifteen minutes of mindless fun.

Final stroke of genius: I’ve decided, armed with my facebook list of book recommendations, to start my own Night Of Grace Blog Book Club. Here’s how it works. I will post my trusty facebook list. Whenever I start a new book I will post the title of the book and begin making comments as I see fit. Feel free to read along, maybe you’ve already read the book and have insights, make comments, don’t read along and make comments, make comments on another piece of literature, music, art, tv show, movie that might be apropos of the discussion, or make comments apropos of nothing. Clearly this is an experiment, so I can make the rules up as I go along. Just come and participate. Make it a resolution. You will be helping me:

• Get Me To The Gym
• Be In A Book Club
• Continue This Blog (I desperately want to quit and I’m trying to make it through a one-year commitment...to myself)

Book Short List:

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Firefly Lane

Straight Man

Wind-up Bird Chronicles

Those That Save Us

I will be adding more as we progress (unless this is a total failure and it doesn't progress) Feel free to post more book suggestions in the comments

Starting with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo...get ready, set and go!