About five years ago, our book club decided to do a book swap at our December holiday party. So, in a normal year, the first Monday in December, we put on our casual holiday finery and celebrate the holidays with all 26 Novel Lovers (our book club’s name). After our normal socializing, eating & drinking, we all convene around a collection of festively wrapped books and the fun begins. We draw numbers – everyone hoping to be number 25 to get the ‘best’ selection. When it is your turn, you can either open an unwrapped book or ‘steal’ a book from someone that has picked before you. Our only rule is that a book can only be ‘stolen’ three times. It is always interesting to see what books get stolen the most – usually it is a new, popular, well-reviewed book. But one year we must have been focused on self-help because You are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero hit the three steal mark early.
Then 2020…
How many times have we said that? We have been adjusting expectations all year with socially distant book club meetings in our yards or Zoom calls when it got too cold (with the hostess dropping-off goody bags for everyone). And so this week, we adjusted our holiday book swap.
It was fabulous. Our hostess sent us treats along with hot chocolate & Bailey’s. She also asked us to put out grocery bags with food for our local food pantry. This was a a new idea but a huge success and one that we plan to add to our traditions. And rather than our traditional book swap, we picked names and bought for someone specific. While we did miss the excitement (and accompanying disappointment) of stealing popular books, we agreed it was fun (and sometimes a challenge) to find the perfect book for our friends. We had everyone give a brief description of the book they bought and one of us kept a list to distribute to everyone. We plan to circulate these books among our group – writing our names in the books we read.
Some highlights from the evening
Author most gifted: Fredrick Backman. A Man Called One (everyone who had read it raved about it), My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You I’m Sorry and two copies of Anxious People.
Duplicate books: Anxious People as mention above, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and White Ivy by Susie Yang.
Movie star authors: No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox and Greenlight by Matthew McConaughey
Stories of Strong Women: A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell and A Ladies Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird.
Next year, we will be able to celebrate together, in-person. In the meantime, I’ll treasure my Zoom memories with all the Novel Lovers.
Happy Reading!
Bình luận