On Thursday, July 8th, Booking through Thursday asked:

Do you have friends and family to share books with? Discuss them with? Does it matter to you?

When I was little, my mother and I had an unofficial race to see who be the first to read each month’s issue of Ms. Magazine. I usually won, simply because I got home to check the mail before she got home from work, and I usually got in trouble for taking her magazine without permission. By the time I left for college, however, we’d learned to share our books, and to this day, I’ll read things she recommends and vice versa. In fact, most of what she reads lately comes from the boxes I send to her every few weeks – her magazines, and my paperbacks (once they’ve been read).

While my mother and I can talk about anything from the latest pronexin reviews to my novel ideas and her newest purse design, we rarely discuss the books we read, though a recent exception was Melissa Gilbert’s memoir, which we both liked because in it Gilbert comes across as a real person, with real flaws.

But I have other friends with whom I can discuss literature. For example, my good friend Deb, shares my love of Charlaine Harris, so we share Sookie Stackhouse and Aurora Teagarden novels, as well as other books, and often talk about them.

What I have never done, however, is join a book club, not because I wouldn’t love more people to discuss books with, but because I read so quickly, that I can’t imagine finishing a book, and then having to wait days or weeks to talk about it.