On March 4th, Barbara's Book Club officially turns 3 years old! I can't believe it! I'm grateful that I get to meet with my closest friends once a month to discuss a book we all read. This is every avid reader's dream and lucky for me, my reality. Let's go through some memories together.
The first post
Jump scare! Who is that? Just kidding it's me but with my natural hair color, bangs, glued on eyelashes, and sew-in hair extensions! I was having fun trying things out, as you can tell.
I hadn't picked a book yet so I thought I'd just use a picture of me with my book! We never read my book in BBC. That would have been very weird but I do love this picture and I use it every year to celebrate! I just change the background a little bit.
In the caption I write that I will highlight a new book each month but I instantly started letting others pick. During this time I was still a teacher so I used one of my favorite online wheel spinners to make it fun and exciting. I use the same one today!
The first book
I didn't know if there would be a lot of people joining BBC when I first started. I mean, I hoped, but I wasn't sure, so when choosing a book I just picked one I had recently downloaded and crossed my fingers that it would be a good one.
It wasn't. We didn't like it. There were some good parts but overall my choice was a flop. I was so nervous that people weren't going to want to stay in BBC but I learned a very valuable lesson during our first meeting. People like talking about books they enjoyed, but they LOVE talking shit about books they didn't.
It also made it less stressful when others were deciding what book to pick. If Barbara from Barbara's Book Club picked a flop, there really is no pressure! Good book, we talk about it. Bad book, we talk shit about it. Win-win!
Favorites over the years
The members of BBC have picked some really fantastic books over these past 3 years. Some have even cemented themselves onto my "Favorite Books of All Time" list. What's beautiful about having a new person choose each month is that I'm reading books I might've never picked up before.
The DNFs
For those unfamiliar with the acronym, DNF means "did not finish." It is extremely rare for me to not finish every book but there were some I disliked so much that I had to put them down. I couldn't force it. This is my opinion, not the opinions of the members of BBC. I actually received flack about this!
I banned an author
Now before you gasp and exclaim, "How could she!" read this and tell me you wouldn't do the same thing.
I used to tag authors in my posts when their book was chosen. I figured worst case scenario they never see it—best case scenario they see it and maybe interact with the post and we all scream with joy. Mostly all of the posts were ignored except this one time.
I couldn't believe that the author of our book that month was interacting with almost every post! Even commenting! The best case scenario was happening! We were all screaming with joy! I built up some courage and decided that I would reach out to see if they had time to attend our meeting. They said yes! It was scheduled! We continued screaming.
The day of our meeting I confirmed with the author, came up with thoughtful questions to ask, had everyone arrive on time, and more. I was sweating! I could not believe this was happening to my book club. I felt so lucky! What a dream come true! But as the minutes passed I started feeling sick to my stomach. What if she doesn't show up? She didn't.
I thought to myself, That's okay! She has to be really busy. I reached out and told her that we missed her but if she wanted to reschedule we would love that. She responded and apologized profusely and we rescheduled. Yay!
She didn't show up again.
It's now a running joke in BBC that she's banned. I mean, she totally is but I know people still read her books outside of the club. I just won't.
Nice to meet you
Something I love about BBC is that members are able to invite whoever they want. They love books? Come hang with us! I like thinking about how we all are connected. Some members are my best friends of over a decade, some are my best friend's cousin's husband's cousin's friends, and that is just so cool to me! I might've never met these people had it not been for our mutual love of reading.
Here's to many more incredible books and conversations!
Happy birthday, Barbara's Book Club!