Fall in love with a book this winter at the library’s book club
COSHOCTON – With the colder weather coming soon, it’s time to stay indoors and curl up with a good book. The Coshocton Public Library offers two book clubs where you can not only read a good book, but meet new friends and socialize.
The Senior Center Book Club meets the first Wednesday of each month at 1 p.m. September through May, except in January. There are no age restrictions for participants and is the equivalent day-time club of the Coshocton Library’s Monday Book Talk Club, which is the first Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at the library.
“Sometimes, they don’t really like the book, and that’s okay,” said Holli Rainwater who leads both groups. “There are too many good books out there to force yourself to read a book you don’t like, so you don’t have to finish the book if you don’t like it.”
Each book is a part of the literary fiction genre, which are classified as modern well-written books. Each year, the group reads one classic novel and one memoir. The next meeting of the club will be discussing “A Secret Gift” by Ted Gup. Inside a suitcase kept in his mother’s attic, Ted Gup discovered letters written to his grandfather in response to an ad placed in a Canton, Ohio newspaper in 1933 that offered cash to 75 families facing a devastating Christmas. The author travels coast to coast to unveil the lives behind the letters.
“A lot of people like the club because they say they wouldn’t have chosen to read the book on their own and they’re glad they read it,” said Rainwater. “I like it too because some of the women in the club are in their 90s and I love to hear their take on the book. It’s a mutual learning for everyone.”
Rainwater said reading books as a group is more beneficial than reading books alone.
“I have found that people who like to read are generally people who like to talk too,” said Rainwater. “I know every time I read a good book, I want to talk about it with someone else who has read the book. Also, this gives the opportunity for people who didn’t like the book a chance to hear from someone who did.”
Every couple of years, the club hosts a community read where the whole community is invited to read the same book as the book club. The next community read will be next April when they will read “To Kill a Mockingbird.” This coincides with a new book already out called, “Go Set a Watchman,” which is the “first draft” essentially of what later became “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
“There’s research out there about literary fiction and how good it is for the brain,” said Rainwater. “People who read these types of books tend to be more open-minded because when you read books, you have to see things from other people’s perspective.”
beth@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
Category: People & Places
