Bookclubs are good for you

I love to read. I remember that little girl in 1st grade learning to read from the beloved "Dick and Jane" books. Oh what big stuff I was when I learned the word LOOK. I found it everywhere and drove everyone crazy pointing it out, relishing in my new found intelligence.
Reading opened up a whole new world. From a simple "Run Spot, Run" I devoured books and words like a ravenous animal at the neighborhood butchers.
One of the first things I did when I moved here was get a library card. There is something really magical about going into a library and coming out loaded with books. Armloads of books to read, to look through, to just feel the paper (yes, I have a paper fetish) and all for free.
Some books help shape your opinions, your ideals and some books you just read and enjoy. Yet, somehow they all stay with you, tucked away in your sub-conscious to appear one day unknowingly by correctly answering a Jeopardy clue. You ask yourself "How did I know that?" totally unaware that it was in a book that you read long ago. And then you remember, the time, the place, how old you were and you HAVE to have THAT book. OH how you loved THAT book. Is it as good today as it was when you read it those many years ago?
Books, like songs, food and certain aromas, have the ability to transport you back to a different time.
For me, the books that have had an impact are still relevant today. In the 3rd grade it was "I Was There At The Battle of Gettysburg" which started my life long love of Abraham Lincoln and historical books. I actually learned history without hearing a lecture or having to take a test. Marvelous!! At the time, my thirsty little brain could not know that I was reading to learn. I read everything I could find. How one little girl had written Lincoln a letter telling him that if he grew a beard, he would look kinder. I NEED that book again. From Lincoln I gravitated to Benjamin Franklin and " Ben and Me" about a rodent that lived in his hair and gave him advice. Creativity knew no bounds in teaching history.
Those early sojourns into history fueled my later passion for biographies, auto-biographies and historical fiction. The simple word LOOK had whetted my appetite for more, that to this day has me reading several books at once.
History and real life people invaded my life through books. Eventually I even threw in a bit of fiction to break up the seriousness of all the reality.
And then I discovered poetry. Those lovely, simple nursery rhymes with their sing song rhythms were easy to memorize. In a borrowed edition of the World Book Encyclopedia's Child Craft volumes, I found "Faeries at the Bottom of My Garden" and lo and behold, because I believed, they were there. Grandpa dropping his glasses in a pot of purple dye," I never saw a purple cow", "You are old Father William, the young man said", all in one amazing book and I recall them all. One poem in particular was the icing on my cake. It was Laura E. Richards "Dilliki Dolliki Dinah" Years later I could still quote the first few stanzas of that poem but could not recall who had written it. I inquired at the reference desk of the local library where I lived and with just my few memorized verses, that ingenious person found the author and I began the search for a set of Child Craft books that I did not have to return. I am pleased to inform you that I was successful and although I have since passed them to my daughter for her to share with my grandson, I still feel like a child when I turn those pages. They have followed me on my journey through life and gave me a early appreciation for the vastness of the poetic word.
Oh the illustrations back then...Arthur Rackham, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Kate Greenaway, Beatrix Potter, all the drawings to accompany the verses made them leap off the page and into my heart and brain for eternity.
The magic of childrens' poems still make me smile and I take every chance available to me to read them to any kid who will listen. James Whitcomb Riley with his "Raggedy Man" and"Little Orphant Annie", should be in every teacher's curriculum for kids and adults alike.
The early poets paved the way for more serious reading. Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott", my favorite adult poem. With a poster depicting her adorning my wall in every place I live, that poor Lady and her heartbreaking curse can still move me each and every time I read it.
When puberty took over my being. I turned into a morose, dismal teenager and NOTHING spoke to me, except e.e. cummings. e.e.cummings and J.D. Salinger saved me back then and I thank them.
Nothing meant more to me as I became rebellious and unconventional than e.e. cummings lack of structured writings. I lived in his world of odd punctuation, run on words and sentences. I tried my hand at copying his form (most of which I still have) and voraciously kept his words close to my alienated heart. "the little lame balloonman whistles far and wee" ..."the boys i mean are not refined"...."in justspringtime".....Oh those magical, mystical hard to read words. And Shakespeare-do not get me started on Shakespeare, or Edgar Allen Poe, dark and tragical writings for obstinate me.
J.D. Salinger and "Franny and Zooey" meant the most to me, even more than "The Catcher in the Rye" and I still have copies of his works. In Nine Stories "A Perfect Day for Banana Fish" is a must read for me at least once a month. Of course there was Emily Dickinson and her reclusive poems, and Walt Whitman and his "Leaves of Grass" which led to Bukowski and Brautigan later in life. All of which I still love. I thirst for new poets with new ways to reveal the written word in thoughts that are theirs alone, but speak to me loudly and leave me hungering for more. Never enough time for reading and poetry.
In school I hated reading text books but would stay awake until 3 in the morning reading a good novel. On summer holidays, I recall lying in the sun, my body baking under California's Central Valley heat reading the day away. I would have theme reads. One time it was Harold Robbins and books of that nature and the next might be everything I could find on The Royal Family.
When I married young and had to spend time alone, the local library became a haven. I would begin at A in the biography section and read about movie actors and actresses working my way through the alphabet. I lived vicariously through then lives of Marion Davies, Greta Garbo, Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn. I was in heaven.
As years went by, I changed locations, hobbies, and even husbands, but never changed the fact that books make my life pleasurable and wonderfully adventurous. So it is no surprise that when I moved to the Central Coast of California after over 30 years in the valley, I got a library card, checked out a ton of books and joined two book clubs. I've met great women who read alot like me, even if we differ in what we like to read. We discuss what a particular book says to us, whether we liked it or not and if at times we do go off course and talk about un-book related topics like grandchildren and illnesses., we eventually end with a new book for the next time we meet. Although it is the love of the written word that takes me to these meetings, it is the sense of community that helps make it even more necessary than I could have ever imagined. I am reading books I would have never chosen myself, I am making friends where I had no friends before and I am still learning at 62. I love bookclubs and books and libraries and think everyone should belong to one or create one.
Bookclubs ARE good for you.
My recommendation-read two chapters and call me in the morning,