Book for January: I Am Legend

Our book club is underway. We will be having our first book discussion next month. Our first book is I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.

It's not very challenging. I mean I was looking for something more deep, more intellectually stimulating, more poignant, something that will get you emotionally involved in and make you think deep thoughts even after reading it, a pleasure to read, etc. But we chose it in the hope that it will attract more potential members knowing that it's a 'popular' book.

I'm already half-way through the novel and all I can say is that the story is just so-so. I wonder how I'm going to facilitate our discussion next month, since our reading is not very interesting hehehe... (The way we structured it is that each month we will have a three-man committee, composed of the host, the facilitator and the secretary. The host takes care of the book discussion venue, the facilitator takes charge of the discussion itself -- he or she prepares the guide questions, maintains orders, etc., and the secretary is the contact person, records the book list and suggestions for the coming months, the minutes of the meeting and etc. This way the other members can just focus on the reading.)

Still this is all very exciting. I've always wanted to join or start a book club.

But, you may wonder, why join/ start a book club?

Well, a book club will help you grow as a person, too, you know, just like any other club. It provides a place where you can socialize with other people who have similar interests as you. And since this is a book club, it will help you grow intellectually and emotionally as well.

Mr. J asked me the other day, half in jest, why he should join the club (I encouraged him but he's hesitant). He doesn't see the point of reading fiction. What's the point of reading stories that are not real, events that never took place? I told him that fiction is important, too. The stories may just be the author's invention, but they can still be relevant to our personal lives. Our existence as individuals are very limited. We only get to live one single life, after all. Yet by reading, we get to live the lives of others; the scope of our existence is widened. We get to live the emotions and thoughts of countless authors in all their variety. We plunge into the richness of human experience, and in the process we gain wisdom and knowledge, and our lives improve for the better, in a way.

If you're interested in joining our club, let me know. Btw, our club's name is Book Fellas.