Ablutions by Patrick deWitt, May 11 2009

Chris R, as he is now known due to his sharing his name with a character from The Room, hosted this May meeting and chose Casita Del Campo for the location. I was most delighted by this as I have an insatiable fondness for both margaritas and Mexican food.

In attendance were Chris R, Lien, Dana, Emily, Megan, Jan, Lisa, Mike, Summer, Mitch, Sohrab and me. I think that's it and I'm about 90% certain about that Mitch character who was too far down the table for me to get acquainted with. So it was a great turnout but not so hot for readers. Redeeming myself, as I promised in the previous post, I read the whole thing. Consisting of just 165 pages and given that I spent money on the dang thing, I was determined. Only Summer, Megan and I read the whole thing while Chris R read the first 100 pages.

Chris R was not too thrilled by the style of the writing which was a series of notes about people and events that didn't really go anywhere. Perhaps if he'd read to the end he'd have liked it more as the notes did eventually come to a head on most things. As the character was a quietly raving, Jameson fuelled alcoholic, I think the random segments really took us along with the disjointed ride that would be his life. I don't think Summer and Megan liked it that much, but I didn't catch a much of what they said as they were half way down the table, it was a bit noisy due to us being seated outdoors and the margarita tainted my usually decent attention span.

Prior to book club, Lisa sent out an email that Patrick deWitt was going to be doing a panel on the Sunday of the two day LA Times Festival of books in case any of us wanted to go. I emphatically I replied that I would be there that day but would NOT being seeing our author as I was going to see a panel with Michael J. Fox and attempt to live out my dream of meeting him after 23 years of being a fan. I was successful and stood up at the table to present my important tale to the group.

Somewhere on the UCLA campus, Patrick deWitt is talking about 'Ablutions' and I really couldn't give a rat's ass as I am busy meeting Michael J. Fox. (picture from the Wire Service)

For once, we are behind on our nominations and voting, but I hope it comes soon! I guess it shouldn't make much difference since I am always reading at the last minute anyway.

10 months of catch up

It's been almost a year since I posted and I am truly sorry. Perhaps part of the guilt stems from the fact that for most of the second part of last year, I was a poor book club member and rarely if at all read the books. I somehow managed to maintain my reputation as a good member, and why I am exposing these facts to you now is beyond me.

August '08 brought us to the Standard Hotel, hosted by Summer. A perfect location as apparently a lot of Spook Country by William Gibson was set there, but unfortunately no-one got through the whole thing. It was okay though because it was a lovely night and we drank lots of sangria and had good eats by the pool. All was well until the end when we were sitting in the lobby and I got scolded for taking pictures of the chick who sits in a glass case behind reception. Assholes.

September's meeting was hosted by Dana and the book was In Defense Of Food by Michael Pollan. I was in Vegas for work and missed this one which is too bad since I bought the book. I don't know what they ate, but I hope no-one spoiled the party and brought Ding Dongs. I still plan to read this book and not just because I have since learned that this book was written by Michael J. Fox's brother in law.

October was hosted Lien and once again, I managed to slide under the radar for my poor form of not reading. There was a huge turnout for this one as I imagine the promise of screening a Bruce Lee movie to accompany his book Artist of Life is a good motivator. I was terribly late which was lame since I lived across the street at the time, and as I drank wine on an empty stomach I don't remember much after the first 30 minutes or so.

November, again I missed. Not sure why this time. This month's book came about by nominations from those of us with high attendance (though not necessarily great reading records). Lisa, myself, Mike, Summer, Chris and Tom each nominated a book and that list was put out and ultimately Tom's choice of Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse won. This meeting was held at the Red Lion and hit some chaos as the planned destination turned out to be riddled with a weekly trivia night. I can't recall why I didn't go, but something must have been up to miss the 2-year anniversary of book club. Clearly this blog tells you little to nothing about the books we read, but hopefully you are enjoying learning how one thrives in a book club without the aid of books. The week after this, once we knew about the trivia night, Summer, Chris, Sohrab and I went back for trivia.

December's book was Deer Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant. I did not attend again as I was in England and was busy dancing on stage with Supergrass during their Christmas show. Never have I been so glad to miss book club. Having said that, I am proud to announce that I went ahead and read this book in January, quelling rumours that had begun to surface that I was a complete boob. I had heard of this book before book club, hence my enthusiasm for it, but I was a little disappointed by it, if memory serves. His tone was a little annoying and I didn't see him really presenting any worthwhile solutions to the problem of red state folks being more or less duped into voting against their own interests. It made things seem kinda bleak, but I guess if they are, they are.

Sohrab hosted his first meeting in January with Bowl of Cherries by Millard Kauffman and again I missed it. I was on my way there, but got tied up catching up with a friend I hadn't seen in a while. Kaufman passed away just two months after this meeting, aged 92.

February was skipped for lack of a host, which brings us to March which was hosted by me. It was a delight to host in my lovely new apartment and I was able to comfortably accommodate the crowd of twelve or so. The book was Naked by David Sedaris which, due to it's ease of reading and existing popularity, may have won the award for the book most read at a meeting. Most had read all of it and the remainders had at least read some or listened to the audio recording. The book was great and reinforced my love of David Sedaris which began last year after someone nominated When You Are Engulfed In Flames. I read it even though it didn't win (see, I'm not so bad)

Mike hosted in March at his condo and sadly there was no rec room use nor end of meeting hot tubbing like the last time. We did close watching some gems on YouTube on the big screen, but before that, we did talk about the book, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

I liked this book a lot, but it seemed the general consensus was that a lot of what he said was obvious and that in the years after the book's first printing, some of Gladwell's fact were debunked. This made me feel like a bit of a dolt, but I still think there is a lot to be drawn from it. I will say that upon searching for an image for this blog, I stumbled upon Gladwell's picture. May I just say that if had seen his picture before I read the book, I'd surely have doubted his credibility about pretty much anything.

Malcolm Gladwell

So that brings us up to date! I shall now resume regular blog entries...at least that's the plan.