Thursday, July 8, 2010

Booking Through Thursday--Discussion

Here's today's Booking Through Thursday question:

Do you have friends and family to share books with? Discuss them with? Does it matter to you?

(Personally, I almost can’t remember the last time I was able to really TALK about a book I’d read with someone else who’d read it, and haven’t really been able to since my best friend and I devoured the same books in high school. Thank God for the internet.)

It's a timely question, as I just posted about trying to share my son's (required) summer reading, and trying to get him to talk about it with me. This will be a challenge, as he's so deep into teenage-ness at the moment that he barely speaks. But a mother can dream, right?

In general, though, most of my book discussion happens at my book group. We're a group of ten women, we've been going strong for six years, and it's my most consistent arena for discussing books (in person, obviously, since I have wonderful online discussions with all of you!). I always look forward to our book discussions, and our wine, cheese, and desserts!

Besides the book group, I have a sister-in-law and a cousin-in-law I tend to discuss books with, when we're together--which is not that often, since they live on the other side of the country. But we email about books occasionally, which I love.

My mom and I share books, and we discuss them too. We have similar taste in fiction, and I always save my favorite reads to pass along to her.

My dad reads mostly non-fiction, but I'm always on the lookout for things I think he'll like to read. We don't discuss books that often, but when our tastes overlap, we do talk about the books we have in common.

Overall, though, I have fewer in person conversations about books than I'd like. But I do find that when people hear I like to read, they corner me and ask me about what I've read recently, and can recommend!

Who do you discuss books with in person?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

My answer was much shorter :(

You can read it HERE

Gentle Reader said...

Vicki--I read your post--thank goodness for the internet and all the book lovers out there, right?

Amanda Moore (Moorebloglife) said...

I am fortunate to share book tastes with my 18 yr old daughter and did as well with my mother. It sounds like you go the extra mile to keep your networks going! Have a great BTT

Matt said...

I don't belong to any book group so I rarely discuss books in details with anyone. The blog makes it possible for me to share my thoughts.

Anonymous said...

I have very few in person book conversations, too. My uncle is a good person to discuss books with, and I have one friend that's a reader, but otherwise it's almost all online.

Amy said...

Sadly, the net is my source of real book talk most of the time. I have one dear friend IRL that I can talk books with, and we have similar tastes, but time is at a premium with small kids, and short attention spans.
I try and interest my father in nonfiction like Erik Larson, and my mom will read a few titles. My 17 year old is annoyed that I push books on him, but I've noticed he is getting more involved, especially when we discuss reviewing titles. He sees things I miss.
My DH has a love of history, and we can go into that, but it's not really that much...

gautami tripathy said...

Lately I don't have anyone to discuss my books with!

BTT: Discussion

Gentle Reader said...

Amanda--I'm lucky that I have some good friends who are bookish, and a few family members as well. It's nice that you share a love of books with your daughter!

Matt--what would we do without the internet, right?

softdrink--The nice thing about anything online is that the groups are self-selecting--I know I'm not boring anyone when I talk about books!

Amy--my 14-year-old is mostly annoyed by my book-pushing, too. Hazards of parenting a teenager, I guess!

gautami--It's nice to come from a family of readers, even if you don't always share the same taste--at least they understand a passion for books!

Leah said...

I do have some friends who read similar books and we pass on the ones we either liked or think the other would like. Luckily too where I work there are like minded people who often ask 'What are you reading?' Mostly though it is with people online. I love finding a book I have read, or want to read, on a blog that I follow, and I love it when they leave a comment on mine too.

Bookfool said...

My 18-year-old is the person I talk to most about books. He's a super-fast reader with terrific comprehension, so I have a terrible time keeping him in books. He reads a lot of chunksters simply with the intent of trying to keep a book going for more than a day. But, now and then, we'll share a read and we have pretty lively discussions. I love that. Otherwise, the internet is pretty much my only book chat outlet. I used to pass on books to my mother and I miss that. I'm reading the second book by an author we both loved and whose first book was one of the last books my mother read. I find myself longing to pick up the phone to tell her how much she'd love it.

Red said...

I don't have too many people I can discuss books with in person, which is the reason I started my blog. I'm in a book club with some friends it's more of a drink-wine club. Sometimes we get around to talking about the books. I do have one co-worker that I can discuss some books with. We have similar tastes so we'll discuss books we've lent to each other but for the most part the discussions happen online.