You’re in the middle of a can’t-put-it-down book. You can’t wait to share the plot, the point, or the unforgettable characters with somebody — anybody. It’s not too late. Almost, but not quite.
It was Joni Mitchell who told us, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
What’s nearly gone is a fun opportunity to meet fellow readers, exchange ideas and book lists, and hear a thoughtful discussion of what your neighbors are reading.
Since April 2007, Scott Condon has been hosting a lunchtime Brown Bag Book Discussion the first Tuesday of each month at the Everett Public Library. The adult services librarian said Friday that the Feb. 3 gathering, from noon to 1:15 p.m., will be the last.
Condon, 49, said the meetings were sometimes sparsely attended, with as few as three people showing up. “There are a few regulars, but others would come once and maybe not show up again for six months,” he said.
The idea was counter to most book clubs, in which members read and discuss the same books for each meeting. “This was building a program around things not necessarily shared,” Condon said. “This requires each person to present a book in a stimulating way to others. The people attending all had a different focus.”
He isn’t kidding.
“We did have a regular attendee who read a lot of fairly academic titles in the area of world finance,” said Condon, who’s kept a list of what the book discussion groups have been reading since 2007.
So, there’s world finance and there’s “Peter Pan,” by J.M. Barrie. One reader brought in Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”; another was reading “Blackwater: the Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.”
Condon said the meetings grew from a previous program called Reading in the Rain. “It’s been a venue for people to come and talk about individual books,” he said. “It’s not at all like sitting down to read the same book. It broadened our horizons.”
Among books Condon said he relished after hearing about them at the discussions are “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” by Michael Pollan, “The Life of the Mind,” by Hannah Arendt, and “Diary of a Country Priest,” by Georges Beranos.
While one program is coming to an end, the Everett Public Library and the Sno-Isle Regional Library System will soon launch a program that will have people all over Snohomish County reading the same book — “The Maltese Falcon,” by Dashiell Hammett.
Part of The Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, “The Maltese Falcon” common book events are set for May, with a kickoff in late April. And it’s no fair just watching the movie, a film noir classic starring Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade.
“It’s a big, cool event with various showings of the movie,” said Liz Hawkins, the Everett Public Library’s Evergreen Branch manager. “Many of us have seen the movie over the years. We’ll be sucked right in because of that.”
At an orientation last year in Minneapolis, Hawkins said she heard wonderful stories from other Big Read cities.
“People would stand in a grocery line and say, ‘Oh, you’ve got that book. What page are you on?’ It’s a sense of community, and we’re really losing that in our modern world,” she said.
Before we all crack open “The Maltese Falcon,” there’s one last chance to get together and talk about different books we love or are reading.
“We’ll be mobbed,” Condon said. “They’ll all ask, ‘Why are you stopping this?’ “
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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