I love books. I mean real books, the ones that I can open with my hands. One of the joys of working in a library is being surrounded by millions of books. Just for the record I like audio books also. However, e-books are not as appealing to me. I know they are “the future,” but I believe we still have a good hundred years or so with the real thing. It is hard to imagine The Library of Congress being obsolete!
What made me think about books, the real thing, recently (not that I don’t think about books everyday when I walk pass several hundred thousand…lucky me) was an article about the World’s Largest Book Club. Wow! Who joins real book clubs anymore? Well apparently there are thousands of folks who do. So I began to think, do I know anyone who is in a real book club? I can’t think of any one. Everyone I think of belongs to some online, social media driven, book site.
Well it is exciting to see folks gathering, real gathering, just to discuss books. Kathy Patrick in Jefferson County, Texas, started the Pulpwood Queens Book Club (featured recently in the Texas Observer). Kathy’s husband, Jay, UT alum – class of 1986 – has created an equivalent group for men called Timber Guys. I’d like to know what the next book on the Timber Guys list is?
I wonder if in 10 or 15 years will book club members bring their iPads, nooks, Kindles, iPhones or whatever these devices become to their book club meetings. Do you belong to a book club? Let me know.