The first rule of book club...

...don't talk about book club.

I have just a few followers who will 'get' this statement but I had to use it anyway.

Years ago, when we were young and didn't yet have kids (and therefore had much more time on our hands than we do now), a group of us girls formed a book club. It was a book club in the loosest of terms. We'd pick a book that we'd all read, and most of us would read most of it.

Then we'd get together for a potluck at someone's house, talk about the book -- for sometimes no more than 5 minutes, but longer if it was a good book -- and then we'd sit around, gossip, eat, drink (sometimes too much) and just have a good time.

Then we'd repeat. So really, it was an excuse for a girls night.

I don't remember how many books we read -- or even how many years we met for -- but we read some good books in our book club days. Time Travellers' Wife, In her Shoes, Oryx and Crake, Skinny Legs and All that. And some not so good books. (What were we thinking when we chose Anna Karinina!)

The don't talk about book club line actually came from one of our spouses. He didn't want to hear us talking about books when we weren't at book club (which a few of us would often do).

But over time, our time for book club became less and less, in that we all had less and less time to get together, and they eventually just petered out.

But I've always loved reading. Before we first got together, during the time we did book club, and since then, reading is something I've always loved to do. I don't get as much time to do it as I used to (gee, I wonder why?) and reading is usually restricted to the 20 minutes or so before I go to sleep every night.

I have bookcases full of books -- many of them read that I can't bear to part with and others that I haven't yet got to.

So here's my 2011 reading challenge -- to read as many of the ones I haven't got to as I can without buying anymore new books. You see, that's why I have so many I haven't yet read -- because I'm a sucker for bookstores, especially used bookstores. Some girls can't walk by a shoe store without going in; well I can't walk by a used book store without going in and buying four or five books. The hardest part of this reading challenge will be the fact that on my new ipad, I downloaded the Kobo reader app -- and I'm just dying to buy an ebook and try it out (and I might just have to bend my rule for that, afterall, it's not technically buying a book that will sit on my shelf.)

I started a new feature on the side of this blog a few weeks ago -- links to books I've read and to the book (or books) I'm reading now. The books I've read section is not complete, in the sense that I can't be bothered to go through my actual bookshelf and post it all on my virtual one. But it has much of what I read in 2010 and it'll have all that I read in 2011.

When I finish a book, I'll post a brief review -- nothing fancy, just a few lines. I'll keep it short and sweet, just like we did in our book club days. It's my way of having my own little book club with anyone who feels like checking it out. And if no one checks it out, well, it's still my own little book club.

And if any of my old book club friends reading this ever want to start book club again, you know where to find me. And then I'll promise not to break the first rule of book club anymore.