Book Club

One of my favorite movies is The Jane Austin Book Club. I don't own that movie and I need to make a note of picking a copy up the next time I'm at the store. But anyway, I absolutely love that movie. I'm not sure of why I love that movie so much except that I love the concept of a book club.

This week I was emailing with a friend back and forth regarding a book that I let her borrow to read. A couple of weeks ago we went to watch Dear John together. While we both loved the movie, I had told her that night that I loved the book so much more. She asked to borrow the book and then when she finished reading it we started comparing notes about the book and compared it to the film. While I loved the book better than the movie she loved the movie better than book. Now, do I wish she shared my sentiments about the book-movie comparison? Not necessarily. She had some good valid points for her reasoning and I feel I had good valid points on my reasoning. I loved the discussion (as much as you can through e-mail) and it got me to thinking.

What I loved about The Jane Austen Book Club is the fact that a small group of people read a book a month and got together to discuss the story and characters. They used their minds and imaginations and had intellectual conversations. Today's world is all visual now. We have a TV program for just about any story or genre you can come up with. We have virtual everything now where it's almost people telling us what to think and how to feel. I know that this doesn't apply to everything and everyone. But we live in such a virtual world that do people really use their minds? I know that they do but I hope you see where I'm going with this.

I love to read. I love to get wrapped up in a story and create the images of the characters in my mind. I love to visualize in my mind what their house, cars, clothing, and city would look like. As much as I love movies, I do prefer books ever them. When I read a book and then watch a movie based on that book I'm so disappointed. The characters and cities and situations are never what I had pictured in mind where I thought was a little better than what I actually saw on the screen.

I love the fact that books make me use my mind and make me think about things that I wouldn't ever before. I love the way they make me look at myself and ask what I would do if I were in that situation. I love how when you and a friend read the same book you are having personal face time with them and talking about what you got out of the story. This then lets you get closer to the soul of that friend and learn what they truly are about where you start to form a bond or closeness with that friend that you didn't have before. Your conversations go past the day to day business and clothes and small talk that you normally would have. I'm not saying that reading a book together is the only to find this closeness in friends and family but it's one way to do it. Or maybe I'm just trying to find the courage to and convince some friends (cough *Tammy* cough) to join me for a few months in trying out a book club with a few friends...no matter how busy you might be. That's another thing...who has the time these days? I'm just as busy as the next person but I think I could find time to squeeze this in.

Anyway, these are just thoughts floating around in this head of mine today. :)

Have a great weekend!