PREPARING TO DEFEND MY CHOICES

I haven't had great experiences with book clubs. I've belonged to book clubs that are judgmental, rude, limited, and/or completely illogical. I've organized book clubs myself that turned out to be a major mistakes.

Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't.

I belong to a wonderful book club now. They are kind, considerate people who have a wide interest in literature - we have read biographies, current affairs, literary 'classics', current novels. We have great discussions (after talking about our personal lives for the first hour, of course).

But my reading suggestions have been met with... well, less than an enthusiastic reception.

A few of the books I've chosen, I guess I can understand why people don't get thrilled about.

I only read William Faulkner's "The Reviers" because it was one of the last books on my parents' bookcase  that I hadn't read - and yes, it took me probably five tries to get past the first chapter.

But I was there to tell my book club members' that the rest of the book was worth getting through that first completely incomprehensible beginning.

Yeah, "Dune" by Frank Herbert is hard-core science fiction -- but I love science fiction, and this is just a great book!

So I'm playing it safe this month was "Travels with Charley" by John Steinbeck.

Oh, you say this is the same author as "Tortilla Flats"? "Grapes of Wrath"? How could Steinbeck possibly write an 'easy-read' book?

I'll be extremely surprised if anyone else has actually read it.