Showing posts with label book clubs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book clubs. Show all posts
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Zucchini Bread and Drinks, what's not to like?
Salon has a good article about book clubs. Really, I had no idea that they went back so far; I don't suppose I should actually be surprised that there were millions of book club members in the 40s, but I am. I never assumed people got together in someone's living room back then for anything like a book group. Bridge, maybe, but a book club, no. I'm fascinated to discover that W. H. Auden and Jacques Barzun were masterminding the selections of such books. Barzun (still alive at 103!) wrote a wonderful book that made me feel like I was the stupidest person on the planet the whole time I was reading it; the breadth of his erudition is stunning, and to picture him selecting book club editions is jarring to my sensibilities. It was a different age.
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