Hello!

After hearing all about the bird flu, I had a recent spate of reading all about the flu in general; the history, and causes of past epidemics.

While some books got a bit too medical textbook, I found that I really enjoyed Gina Bari Kolata's 'Flu' -- it was the story of the great influenze pandemic of 1918 and the serach for the cause (the virus) that killed so many so quickly.

Do you do the same thing? When watching the news, or reading the newspaper or a magazine, does a topic grab you and make you want to learn more, even to the point of pulling loads of books from the library, and even getting your book group involved?

On a side note, after reading all the non fiction on the flu, my local book group and I read Myla Goldberg's 'Wickett's Remedy,' a really interesting novel set during the epidemic of 1918. It was really neat to see the things I'd learned in my reading of nonfiction echoed in the novel.

Non-fiction is good to read for research of course, but I read it to explore topics that interest me as well. In my TBR pile for the semester break I have "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich and on the flu front I have "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Dealiest Plague in History" By John M. Barry.

For anyone interested in the history of geology and volcanoes, I recommend "Krakatoa : The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883" by Simon Winchester. It's rather heavy on the history but fascinating for that.

Rawiya

FLU, WICKETT’S REMEDY, and THE GREAT INFLUENZA: THE EPIC STORY OF THE DEADLIEST PLAGUE IN HISTORY all sound like interesting books to me – I’m putting them on my list of books to watch for.

I like to read nonfiction for a variety of reasons – for information, to learn more about history or a historical person (John Adams, etc), for ideas (decorating, etc), or to try some new recipes.

My most recent nonfiction reads have been about home décor (looking for some ideas for redecorating a room) and an interesting book called STIFF, The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. It was well written, humorous, and very informative. The book relates some excellent information on the history of uses for cadavers and how important they have been to medical research over the years. Not for the squeamish :-)

So far I haven’t been able to get my book club interested in any nonfiction selections. Perhaps a book about influenza would pique their interest in light of the bird flu problem.

I can't decide if I would like to join a reading group. I'm a student and have a ton of reading to do for that, so a reading group would just add to the load.

I have looked about for one but even the local library can't tell me how to get in contact with a local group - sad.

Rawiya - if you really want to be in a book club I have some ideas for you.

1. Start your own book group - ask friends or other students you know who like to read for pleasure

2. Join an online book club - there are several on yahoo.com and barnesandnoble.com as well as other sites. Just google online book club and you'll get lots of possibilities

3. Ask the library if they would be interested in starting up a book club - they could help you find a few members

4. Do you belong to any social clubs? Ask other members if they would like to start a book club.

I've done all of the above with varying degrees of success. I belonged to a couple different online book clubs when I could not find a local club with a meeting time or date that was convenient for me. A social club I belonged to started a book group and we met for a couple of years. Then, a few years ago I started up a club with 4 friends. The five of us meet every month and we are having a great time with it.

If time is a concern for you limit the books you choose to less than 300 pages or so. My book club group has one member who is always short on time so we limit our books to 350 pages. If I want to read a longer book, I read it on my own.

Good luck :-)

quote:

Originally posted by Rawiya:
I can't decide if I would like to join a reading group. I'm a student and have a ton of reading to do for that, so a reading group would just add to the load.

I have looked about for one but even the local library can't tell me how to get in contact with a local group - sad.

Reading groups can be a lot of fun-- often, they'll give you the impetus to read a book that is a bit out of your usual reading 'comfort zone.' While this can lead to a few 'duds' along the way, it can also lead to you finding that a title you thought a bit daunting, or interesting, but not quite your cup of tea is now the start of your entry into a whole new favorite genre of book.

In my youth, the only thing I'd pick up would be science fiction or fantasy -- anything else was ignored. Due to my reading group I've read mysteries, modern novels, and some classics from classes I was not pleased with, but which now are books I can remember fondly.

Give it a shot-- you might find it a good way to relax after doing work for class.

So will lit classes, especially when you're as curious and crazy as I am and sign up for British Gothic Lit after a 20 year hiatus from higher education.

The book group I started last summer (and which seems to be thriving) emphasizes non-fiction. I am a fiction reader from childhood, but think non-fiction can be good for groups because it doesn't demand that a whole group buy into a particular literary sensibility, at least not to the extent that a fairly demanding novel does. My group experience is that people either quickly give up novels they don't like, or act bitter and affronted that the group chose something they hated. Nonfiction usually has a point of view, true, but is less likely to not be someone's cup of tea.

quote:

Originally posted by Rawiya:
So will lit classes, especially when you're as curious and crazy as I am and sign up for British Gothic Lit after a 20 year hiatus from higher education.

Rawiya: Feel free to check our two great book clubs under Fiction. I have been a part of 40 Something club and the Someday (I am going to read) club for two and one year respectively. They are a great group of women and we read a great variety of things, fiction and non-fiction.

We welcome new members.....

Babs

Non Fiction can definitely get sketchy once in a while when reading about medical or scientific stuff, at least for me, but I love learning about real stuff.