07.Jun.2009 Sunday Salon: Watching Books

Having literally stacks of books all around you while you don’t have much excitement to read them can be frustrating, which I believe has happened to me lately. But yesterday I felt like I’m getting it again. Yesterday I finished a book which I had only read halfway for the past few weeks or so (if you want to know, it’s Purple Hibiscus). So I’m hoping that I’m fine now. Back to a nice obsessive reader me.

For the past couple of days, when I didn’t read books, I watched people talking about books. I’ve been watching ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club. (I’m not sure if you can access the episodes outside of Australia, but you can give it a try.)

I’ve never joined a book club before so I’m not sure how it usually works. But I like watching this book club show. Jennifer Byrne hosts it with two of her “friends” (regular panels) plus two guests. So five people in total. A few points that I like about it:

• They pick a wide variety of books: popular, classic, children classic. So they don’t give you the impression of watching a bunch of literary snobs.
• Somehow there are always one or two people that don’t end up liking the book club book and they’re being honest about it. After all, it’s a bore to have everybody pretends that they totally love a book.
• One or two people are always very passionate about the book club book and it’s exhilarating to hear someone talks oh-so passionately about a book they love.
• The guests have been interesting so far. It went from Premiere to comedian to author. Surprisingly everybody seems to get along together and have intelligent conversation regardless whether they like the book or not and whatever background they might have. I see a lot of respects for each other.
• They try to avoid spoilers. Somehow it’s unavoidable, but for most of the time they manage to discuss the books without giving away too much. That’s why I’ve been watching the episodes whether I’ve read the books or not.

There are books that I previously would never consider to read or simply didn’t know about that I’ve put into my mental TBR pile. Some old classics that you probably need to be reminded once in a while, like The Grapes of Wrath, A Confederacy of Dunces and Alice in Wonderland. Then romance genre which I don’t usually read but am intrigued now like Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor. And many more.

Talking about book club, has any of you watched The Book Group? I watched the first season on DVD and I think it’s quite funny. A dark comedy about a bunch of totally unrelated people that happen to come to this book group for many different reasons (mostly loneliness though).

Do you know any other “book shows” that you would recommend?