A Slow Book Group
Mark K March 8th, 2008
A friend and I were talking about different ways to organize a book group and she told me about taking this slow approach.
The group had only four members, all women, and they would carefully choose a book - or maybe two books of similar styles - that were known for their rich, full, descriptive use of language. The books were generally written by women who wrote in an earlier time, before spare, efficient language became the vogue. They were the kinds of books that you wouldn’t read on the beach or before falling asleep because you had to work a bit and discipline yourself to savor each line.
The women would meet monthly and take turns reading a passage from the book aloud. The next reader would then take a turn and they would pause from time-to-time for discussion.
Thinking about this group reminded me of an earlier post called Bring Your Extension Cord, about a young women who always brings her extension cord with her when she goes to Starbucks so that no matter where she is sitting, she will be able to plug in her laptop and do her homework for her college courses. Even though the people around her are all strangers, she feels that they will help keep her on task. If she does her homework in her apartment, there are too many temptations and distractions and she will surely find something more interesting to do than her homework.
I’m always thinking that one of these days I’m going to read some poetry, but I know that it will require me to slow down and absorb the language, the symbolism, the patterns of rhyme and rhythm. I’m somewhat of a slow reader, and when I read a book, I’m almost always aware of how many pages I’ve read, how many more I need to read until I’ve finished, how quickly it’s going, what book I’m going to read next. Like life, it’s very hard to just be in the moment, pay attention to each page, each sentence, each word.
My friend’s book group - like the Starbucks customers who were unwittingly helping a student to get her assignments completed - was a community which was helping its members to slow down and pay attention. They would stay with the same book for months because it wasn’t about finishing a book, hashing it over and moving on, but about being with the book for awhile, living with it, savoring every word.
I plan to try this approach with my men’s book group, but know that it will take a little tweaking in order for it to work. I’m thinking that a book like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will not only have the rich language required, but the adventure, action, humor, and political commentary that might be necessary for the group to accept such a novel approach.
In the meantime, I think I’ll practice my slow reading.
