The Reader and the Book Club...

Book clubs are HOT HOT HOT now and I know why! If you find a good one, it's more than just a time to discuss books and find reading "soul mates." It can be a time just for "me" when I can rattle on about a loved book, rant about the waste of paper for another, or marvel over the world created by a talented author's imagination and skill. Being part of a "club" gives me companions to go to a book signing or just the reassurance a series will continue. The power of group thought outweighs all those other publishing business strategies.

My favorite part about being a member of a book club is when we can all get together--over a great cocktail--and talk about what our favorite books of the past month have been. We do our book club a little bit differently than your usual Oprah book club. Instead of everyone being assigned a mandatory book, we each read what we like and "swap" books over tea or dinner. Doing it this way allows everyone to learn about a hot new author, or even rediscover an old friend. Either way, everyone always leaves our meetings with arms over flowing with new adventures. A few of us have even been known to sit in a cushy chair outside of the restaurant and read a recently traded book after a particularly serendipitous meeting! Everyone reads something different, and everyone always leaves satisfied!

I always invite anyone I meet at a signing, PTA meeting, or at doggie daycare to join us for a book club meeting. Of course, many of them respond with a polite "I don't read very often." And my response is always the same: "you don't have to read now, but after a few meeting with us, you will start!" Being a part of a book club makes even the most apprehensive reader embrace something new, or find out that she had never been reading what she liked to begin with! It's so amazing when someone sees reading for pleasure as pleasurable!

As the summer sun pushes us into the shade, remember that good friends and good books make a fantastic couple!

My Book Club.

Linda Gerber | My Fiction Addition

Hi. My name is Linda and I’m a fiction addict.

I live fiction, I breathe fiction, I make up really creative excuses when I forget to turn in my PTA sign-up sheets. Honestly, I can’t go through the day without a fiction fix.

Today, for example, I went to the bookstore to grab Stephenie Meyer’s latest. Just walking into the fiction section was like entering an enchanted canyon where everyplace I turned, something wonderful called out to me. Sadly, THE HOST was not on the shelves. The bookstore had just sold their last copy. I panicked. Leaving the bookstore without a book was not an option. Heart palpitating, I ran back to the fiction section and scanned the shelves frantically until found the next two books on my TBR list. Holding them in my hands, I was finally able to breathe easier.

Once, on vacation, I finished all the books I had brought with me. And I a whole day left at the beach and an entire flight home to get through! I made my dear husband drive into town – thirty miles away – and find a drugstore with a decent fiction selection(it was too small to have its own bookstore. I know, sad!)

With my fiction fixation, writing books is like a dream job for me. And exciting! Case in point, while working on DEATH BY BIKINI, I got to live at an exclusive tropical resort where I rubbed shoulders with senators and rock stars and ultimately outwitted an assassin. How can you beat that?

Speaking of DEATH BY BIKINI, if you like YA fiction, you are cordially invited to my cyber launch party May 15-18 at lindagerber.blogspot.comwhere you can win books from over 15 YA authors, including yours truly.

Meanwhile, what about you? Are you addicted to fiction? What is it about fiction that grabs you?

Thanks again to everyone at Fresh Fiction for having me!

Linda Gerber

lindagerber.com
lindagerber.blogspot.com

Coming May 15 from Puffin Books – DEATH BY BIKINI