Love to Read? So do I.

Have you ever curled up on a rainy day, snug in an armchair with a cozy blanket and a cup of tea, just to read a book?  There is something magical about it.  I have always dreamed of a glass sun porch looking out over a garden on a rainy day, that patter of droplets on the roof as I read an old favorite or discover a brand new friend.  I worked at a historic house for five years that had exactly this mystical place, though sadly I was “on the clock” and couldn’t just disappear for an afternoon, but the love was there.  

There is something special about reading a paper book.  Audio books and electronic readers are all fine and dandy and I have passed many an afternoon listening to someone read me the classics while I fold my laundry.  Still, there is something lost when the book is not in your hands and you're not losing yourself in the stamped ink that conjures, like some magical spell, a ride across a wind swept plane or the glint of swords in the sun.  Still more wonder inducing when the words you read are spoken to you through the ages by souls lost to time, from nations that no longer exist, written in languages no longer spoken, and yet so relatable.  They make us laugh, they make us sigh, in short, they evoke pure emotion.  

If, like me, you are the sort who has spent your life pulling a paperback out of your bag the minute you have a second of downtime, or you're the sort of person who always wishes you had read more, I would love to share those journeys with you.

I have, over the years, developed a rather long reading list of books that I want to experience or re-read, or just excitedly talk about to people who know because they read them too.  To that end, I have decided to start a book club.  Once a month, I will meet with anyone interested over a live video and discuss the book we read in the previous weeks, after which I will post a blog here about the books for those who can’t make it but want to follow along at home.  Together we can chip away at that list of classics that seems to only grow as I discover more and more interesting works from around the world.  

If this interests you, sign up in the groups menu on this website and I will send out a link for a live video with me on Wednesday June 25th at 7:00pm (EST)  over on YouTube.  For our first book, I have selected the complete works of Sappho (which sounds like a lot but as she was a poet is, in reality, a fairly short read.)  If you have the ability to grab a copy from your local library, or even, yes, find a good audiobook, please join us!  Even a partial reading of this poetess is enjoyable so feel free to be there even if you have only ever read one of her works.  I look forward to this adventure with you all and leave you with the quite appropriate words of the poetess herself: 

“Someone, I tell you, in another time will remember us” - Sappho