Late last year, I came up with an idea to start a book club for our golf club and put the idea out there. Here’s Tiger reading this month’s book, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath👇

Well anyway, I was surprised with the response.

I had 24 people who were interested and out of that, came people who offered their assistance too.

Everything from someone who runs a Book Publishing company who gives us access to reviews of upcoming new books heading for bookstores, as well as contacts to authors and also people who offered recommendations for what to read. We have a WhatsApp group too where we can share our progress in reading.

The first few months of 2024, a group of four ladies decided to come up with the books for the first three months. From April onwards they were happy with my own choices and asked me to select them for the rest of the year.

So far we had:

January: Tricia Stringer’s Back on Track

February: Prima Facie by Susie Miller

March: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I’m a bit anxious when it comes to choosing books as my reading tastes are different to others.

Preferring classics, modern classics and literature, I don’t know if people could find the books I would come up with interesting or indeed, if they’d even want to read them! However they made it clear that they’re ok with me choosing them.

Hope they’re ready. I have some doozies for them to read in the months ahead. They may be pleasantly surprised or they may be running for the hills. Let’s see.

So my plan is to blend the book list up a bit.

However one of the things that I’m really surprised about is the positive feedback coming from people about how they’re now reading and appreciating what they read!

One example happened today. I had a phone call from one member who borrowed my copy of the Bell Jar. It had marginalia, notes and scribbles of my thoughts against Plath’s writing. She told me she had never seen a book like it as it never occurred to her to take notes in the book.

Having her read Plath then read my notes against it triggered her to think of what she was just reading in her own way.

It started a great conversation of how we experience reading and how we relate to the written word based on our own experiences and contexts.

She’s not been the only one.

I’ve had a few people come up to me this year and express gratitude for enabling them to go deeper in the book. They’d not experience a club that allows everyone to connect to the story and then offer their own perspectives. People open up a lot in the meetings and it becomes more of a bonding experience too.

One lady said she loved coming to book club because it was experiencing the book again in different ways and seeing it in different perspectives.

Another lady asked me if I majored in English Literature or if I taught in schools.

“Nope,” I said. “Just really love reading and learning”.

“Well, that definitely shows,” she said.

Another lady said to me that I “helped her see different perspectives that she found herself not quick to judge”

Bonus. WOW. I thought.

During the Book Club session I start the same way. Introductions then I introduce the book, the author and something of interest that others may not know about either of these. I have a few open questions to start with but then the discussion gets on a roll.

One of the things I like to do is to sit back and just listen to everyone. I invite those who haven’t talked to offer their own thoughts. I also link ideas from people to each other then the question I put is “how would you have approached this and why” etc to help them draw some lessons from it. To date, we haven’t had any time where the conversation died down. Besides, with an average of 10 people to the meetup, there’s always something to share.

All this positive feedback made me think about why I also love creating videos on YouTube on my channel Life Lessons Through Books.

The reason why I started this channel was to create a place where I could share my own perspectives and for others to contribute to theirs.

An open online book club community minus the social media, AI and Shorts – also, ONE video PER book to ensure we go deep into it (which is rare on YouTube as creators create videos to get more views and likes resorting to vlogs, book hauls, etc).

However the more I spend on it, the less I spend on my own writing. Then I get myself into turmoil thinking I should be writing more but then I see how much people appreciate the meetups and the YouTube videos that I think 🤔 maybe I’m not meant to be a writer (deep down even as a kid, I always thought writing would be in my future).

Maybe this is it.

Maybe what I’m doing now – what I’ve always been doing – writing blogs and my journals (private) but mainly just giving people ways to see and do things differently – is what I’m meant to do (regardless of its form, blog, video, etc)?

I have no answers except that I feel that finally, I’m in a happier place when I do the things that I love to do then invite whoever to come along with me.

When they’re giving you positive feedback of how they made changes to their behaviours or thinking – that’s a HUGE value.

It makes you feel acknowledged and appreciated once again.