Musing Mondays #9

This meme is hosted by Should be Reading.

Every week a new 'musing' question is posted by the host for all participants to answer in their own posts.

This week's musing is:

Do you belong to any book clubs — face-to-face, or online? If so, how long have you been with the group(s)? If not, why?

The short answer to this is not anymore. Obviously though, we are going to talk about it for a while - or I assume you want to hear about it, so I shall tell you.
Before I started my University course in 2010, I took a gap year between finishing my A-level studies at school and starting my course, and I had to find something to do during this year, that would be useful to me in some way. One of those things was getting my job at Waterstones, and the other was joining the book club there (which I did before getting my job).
I think it was the third Monday of every month (but it changed part way through the year), I'd go to the Waterstones branch that I now work at, and meet up with the other book club members to discuss whatever we'd read.
It was a really interesting experience for me because the books we'd read were not my usual choice of books, so it introduced me to books that I would never have picked up at all, but ended up loving! One of my favourite books of all time was discovered through the club - The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver!
The other reason it was quite interesting for me, is that I was quite a lot younger than the other members of the club - all of whom were around my parents' age, or older. So it was really interesting to hear what they had to say, and I learnt a lot from them in my year there. 

Once I started my University course though, not only did I not have time to read the books (and of course, other books I wanted to read), but my course meant that I was in University when the book club was on. This was a shame, but I still have good memories of all the times I did manage to go.

So, why haven't I joined another reading group, now that I study less University modules in a year, and have a little more free time for reading what I want? The answer is simple, and I think, fairly obvious.
I read so much for my blog, and for review, that I simply don't have time! I already have a million-billion books that I want to read, without adding to the pile further!

If you have the time though, I really recommend joining a reading group of some kind - it's a really good experience, and it means that you get to meet more people like you, and see what they think of the books you loved or loathed.
I think, eventually, I will return to a book club, but for now, I'm happy sharing my thoughts and chatting about books with you guys!