I am the proud member of a men’s book club. I have been for over 20 years. And no, “book club” is not a euphemism for “poker”. The Men’s Book Club is as real as its name, although capitalizing the letters was my contribution. The monthly readings are by no means pushovers – no sports books (although we read When Pride Still Mattered, a biography of Vince Lombardi by David Maraniss – we do live in Wisconsin after all) and fluffy bestsellers. In addition to a psychologist and professor (me), the group contains multiple attorneys, a dentist, a family therapist, business professionals, a physician, an engineer, and English professor – you get the idea. We read histories, classics, National Book Award nominees, Booker Award nominees, biographies, history - anything at all. The eclectic nature of the group is its real strength. Besides my own avid reading over the decades, I think my attendance in this group has really informed my writing. This is not to say that we read horror novels – the exact opposite really (although they did go along with my suggestion of 11/22/63 by Stephen King – the only King book read by most of these guys). Instead, I have learned what others appreciate in their reading, how they value the written word, what constitutes well written prose, what facilitates the intricacies of character development – all of the fine points that I probably slept through during high school and college English classes.
My exposure to the breadth of interests and opinions of very educated people has dramatically changed my ability to tell a story. While my academic and scholarly writing has been honed over the years through writing empirical journal articles, receiving reviews of my work, and being challenged by my psychology colleagues, my fiction writing – and the courage to try it – has been informed by the monthly meetings over 20 plus years with this group of men.
My exposure to the breadth of interests and opinions of very educated people has dramatically changed my ability to tell a story. While my academic and scholarly writing has been honed over the years through writing empirical journal articles, receiving reviews of my work, and being challenged by my psychology colleagues, my fiction writing – and the courage to try it – has been informed by the monthly meetings over 20 plus years with this group of men.
RSS Feed
