GRAY MOUNTAIN BOOK DISCUSSION

Howdy Novel Spirits. Before I begin, let me give you a little primer on this post. First off, Archimedes and I decided to conduct role reversals this month: I'll do the book discussion post and she'll handle the business portion of the meeting post. This could mean trouble since she is a lot more analytical, creative, intelligent (and left or right brained, whichever is the artsy fartsy side). So I'm sure I won't meet the standard she has been creating for these posts. C'est la vie. More priming for you: Archimedes did a nice favor for me tonight by taking our demonic leeches (Chief and Boss) out to eat and shopping, thus giving me some time to myself to decompress and destress etc. So I've been doing a lot of reading (not yet BOSSY PANTS, sorry for the Spoiler btw, biiyeeeee) but some boring finance, math crap you don't care about. But also, I've been drinking several of my home made Winter Spice Ale beer. And please allow me this brief moment of conceit, but I'm quite proud of my creation, and its really cool that I have a buzz from my very own home made drug. Well done Baron.

Ok so now you have the current conditions. Here is the book discussion. But first, let me take this opportunity to say that I really enjoy our book club. It has been a very informative, educational and mind opening activity for me. There's no other way we would all read the same book and have the opportunity to get together and share our opinions on it. And its so interesting that we all have different opinions on them (with a few exceptions such as: HUCK FINN we all loved, THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE we all disliked etc). So thanks to you all and this club, I get out of my comfort zone. A normal thought process for me is this: "Good morning Baron, lets take a moment to acknowledge your generosity to all the people you are allowing to share your presence today. Oh, and book club is today, we can all discuss how we all agree with me how this book was (great/terrible/mediocre) and proceed to praise me and my superior intellect...." Well, obviously the real world isn't like that and it is so interesting to see that our small group can have completely different interpretations of the same book. And I always learn new angles and frameworks about the books from you all that I hadn't thought about on my own so I am very thankful, not to mention humbled quite frequently. ---Wait one, time for another delicious Winter Spice Ale, perhaps I'll name it the Baron!?  too much?? yeah you're right--- so anyway this long, stupid, off topic diatribe which thankfully is not posted on Facebook, is just to say that I've really enjoying book club and its helping me evolve my own beliefs and attitudes. About books of course, but also about other aspects of life like politics, religion, philosophy, breakfast cereal etc. Of course I have my own views on all that but I need to keep in mind that the "other side" can make good points too and I shouldn't just shut them out. If nothing else, listening to things I disagree with can be considered "competitive intelligence". Point is, I should at least listen to other viewpoints before I crush them under my baby seal skin leather boots of arrogance.

For example: I love beer. It is the nectar of the gods. How on Earth can anyone not love beer, I say?? Well, Indy and Deuce do not love beer. They say, "How on Earth can anyone tolerate beer?" Well we are pretty much polar opposites on our views of beer. I can't convice them to love it and vice versa. Yet somehow we find a way to coexist. I have to admit that there are people out there who don't love beer and they hopefully have to admit that there are people who do. We can tell each other why we do or don't and go about our business.

ANYWAY........... I feel I've gone on just a bit of a tangent there. I apologize. I almost deleted all this hot garbage/musty bus seats of a post but I'm too lazy. Let's get back on topic:

So this book discussion was interesting because it caused the largest variation in opinions. Our typical 1-5 Star ratings was entirely across the board from 1 to 5. I think that is fascinating. As Archimedes suggested earlier, we cast the book's characters with actors and acrtresses since several of John Grisham's books become movies. However, our secretary failed to document everyone's character list so I feel like its only fair to chastise her severely. GO

As mentioned previously, there was disagreement as to the level of character development and plot development. I won't elaborate other than to say that opinions on this were similar to opinions on the overall Star rating: from one extreme to the other.

So yeah, some really liked it, others really disliked it. But its cool. I evaluate books 1000% times more now that I've joined the Novel Spirits (yes it is possible to have a 1000% change, don't judge me). I'm glad. Now I try to analyze why I like a book or don't. What is it that made me mad or happy? Am I mad at a character because the author did a wonderful job making that character? Or am I mad at the author for making a bad characer? I never thought so much about a book before and I'm learning a ton. Plus I love eating all the food at our meetings. Probably won't be any of my Baron Beer left by the next meeting at the rate I'm going.

Anyway, you will likely regret reading this post and pray for this lost time back in your life. Sorry about that. To close, I just thought that I always try to slip in a movie or book quote into my posts and may not have done that yet for this one so here is one right off the top of my head from one of the best Christmas movies of all time (not debatable folks): National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation:

"Merry Christmas!! The shitter was full"