Sunday Salon: Anyone seen my blogging mojo?

I went out to hang my washing out tonight and boy it was a little chilly. In the mornings it is now dark when I get up which is another reminder that summer is starting to fade away into autumn and yet it has been such a strange season weather wise. In some ways it doesn't even feel like summer has arrived yet. I am however pretty sure that I would upset a few Northern Hemisphere peeps if I suggested that I would like summer to be extended for a few months more this year.

It is a bit strange for me to be having a blogging slump at a time other than the middle of winter, but that is what has been happening. Even the thought of doing a Teaser Tuesday post or my Library Loot post on Wednesday was all just too hard and as a consequence I ended up not posting for more than a week. I am really not even sure what had prompted this lull in blogging activity. I have however decided that I am going to push right through it and make it to the other side.

Last time I did a Sunday Salon post I mentioned that I was going to a new book club for the first time, and I haven't yet posted about the experience, despite a few people asking in the comments how it went. The short answer to that question is okay, but the jury is still out as to whether this is the right group for me.

It didn't start all that well given that I arrived a few minutes early, knocked on the door only to be told that there was no bookclub meeting there. The address was incorrect on the information sheet that we had been sent. At least I wasn't the only one to make that mistake as there was another group member also loitering with intent outside the address that I went too.

The group itself is a mix of old members who have been part of the group for more than 10 years, three new members (including me) and a couple in between. All up, there was 11 of us meeting. They all seem nice which goes along with the fact that they mostly seemed to be women of a certain age and a certain socio-economic group. I think that most of them are more serious readers of literature rather than genre fiction as well.

I am not sure if it is partly because it was the first meeting of the new year and there was lots of focus on choosing the books for the rest of the year but there seemed to be a lot of earnestness (if that's a word). I find the fact that the books are pretty much chosen for the year a little ... trying to think of the right word ... maybe inflexible. I wouldn't have minded three or four months in advance but for the whole year means that if there is a super book that we read and want to share there isn't a lot of scope for that. The book choices were also mostly limited to the bookclub kits that are held in the local library system which also leads to only certain types of books being available to be chosen. Of the list there are a couple of book that I have wanted to read previously and who knows I may find a new must read book from the other selections.

We were all asked to bring some suggestions for the group to discuss other options, and both another girl and myself suggested The Help by Katherine Stockett so the chances are that they will ask the library system to put together a book club kit and so we may get to read that later on. I also suggested Major Pettigrew's Last Stand as an option too, because it would be a fun read still with plenty to discuss in a book group setting. There seemed to be a bit of reluctance to read anything not already available as a kit, due to cost factors, but I think the majority are willing to maybe once or twice during the year.

There was one thing that I found a little surprising. I think we spent maybe a total of 10 minutes discussing the book that we had read for book club which for February was The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier. I had read it before so I just skimmed through it before the meeting to refresh my memory but I really don't think I needed to worry about that for this book at least. I am assured that normally there would be more discussion. I guess I was looking forward to more book chat, both about the book that was up for discussion and general chat about what people had read over the holiday, best books and that kind of thing.

So in a nutshell, the jury is still out on my book club experience. My intention is to go a few more times at least so I can be sure that I have given the group a fair go, and I guess a lot will depend on how the next couple of books go. The next book is by an Australian author, so if nothing else reading Sold by Brendan Gullifer will at least count for this year's Aussie Authors challenge.