Friday, November 10, 2006

Progressive Book Club

I used to read. I used to read a lot, in fact. I used to read anything that sounded remotely interesting to me regardless if it was pertinent. I read for school, for fun, for entertainment, but especially for random knowledge.

But then I gave birth to an amazing baby girl, and with that process my IQ and free time plummeted. I continued to read, but mostly parenting magazines and baby-related books. My email inbox would become flooded with Baby Center emails and my mailbox with baby catalogs. Enough of the baby shit. Literally.

So I looked around my house and found books. Real books, with bookmarks sticking out of them. Books that were begging to be read through the very last page and free from the plastic marker jammed between the pages.

I thought back to my honeymoon, when I sat on the black sand beach of Hawaii and read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in one afternoon simply because the thought of swimming with 300-pound sea turtles scared the hell out of me. Instead, I happily watched Adam diving and snorkeling in the dark waters. He would pop up to say that another turtle crashed into him and I would announce the completion of another chapter. And then I remembered the summer at the orchard when I read the entire Vampire Chronicles in the two weeks of sweet cherry season.


I realized that I needed to read again. After discussing this with my sister, we've decided to set up a very lax book club with very lax guidelines. You can participate if you want, or not. We're that lax.

Progressive Book Club Rules

1) You must choose a book that you have started, but not finished in the past two years or since becoming a parent, whichever comes first. If it has been longer than that, it does not qualify and must be reread in its entirety. You do not have to be a parent to participate.


2) It cannot have anything to do with babies or parenting. You could read, for example, The Impact of the Gene: From Mendel's Peas to Designer Babies but not The Baby Book.

3)You must finish the selected book within two months of restarting it. After the two-month period is up, you must reply to the monthly post and complete the short questionnaire.


4) After you have finished all of your books in progress, you may select any book you want.

5) That's it! We're on our way to reclaiming our former selves!

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