books and reading

"What have you read that's good?" We've all asked that question of our best-read friends. Now, The Readers' Choice lets you find out the answer to that question from a variety of book clubs in California, Oregon, Colorado, and New York.

The book is organized to provide around one page (often a little more) on each book. This information includes a brief summary of the book, its appeal, how it differs from the movie (if it is a novel), and the author's background. A section in italics at the end gives you questions to guide a book club discussion or to illuminate your own reading of the book.

In a separate section, Ms. McMains also describes how to start and run a book club, in case that appeals to you. As she points out, you like to visit your friends. A book club can give you more chances to do that, and something new to talk about.

The book has a helpful index so that you can locate books by subject, in order to more quickly locate titles that match your needs. About three-quarters of the books are novels.

Since I read a lot, I assumed that this book would not tell me much. Boy, was I wrong! Of the 200 titles, I had only read 7. I had only heard of another 4 more. So these are books I would never have considered.

As the author points out, these are well-written books that seldom reached a broad audience. They are for people who want high quality writing and thinking.

I checked out the 7 books that I have read, and found the material on them to be accurate and useful. So I have to assume that it is also for the other books on the list.

So I'm looking forward to reading many more outstanding books as a result of this valuable reource.

Since the book clubs who contributed these ideas are mostly in the western United States, you'll find many novels with western themes in them. If you are looking for that, you'll find the book all that much more helpful. If you are not, give one a try. You may find that you like western-oriented books.

If you are already so backlogged with reading that you won't get to another book for some time, obviously this resource won't do you much good.

Do realize that this book was published in mid 2000, and was based on reading that occurred before that. So the offerings will mostly be of books written in 1999 and earlier.

After you finish reading this book, I suggest that you think about why you read. Having understood that, are there other reasons to read? For example, can reading people who express themselves well make you a better communicator?

The Reader's Choice is a treasury of 200 book club favorites and provides a set of 'top picks' by over 70 reading groups and clubs across the country, from Oprah and NPR to regional book clubs. Selections avoid best-seller top lists and provide 'midlist', thoughtful books in a range of themes and subjects. Recommended for book enthusiasts seeking something other than the Top 10.

This useful guide of book club favorites was given to me by a good friend, and has really served me well. I loved the author's sense of intimacy with both her readers and the books.You can see that this is a person who really loves books as the imaginative creations that they are, and loves to share them with others. It empowered me at the bookstore recently when I was able to find new three books that I have since loved and shared, instead of spending hours looking for something of interest. With 200 reviews, I look forward to using this guide for quite a while. The author's book club group in northern California sounds like so much fun that I hope that one day maybe I could get an invitation ...