About

This is a Selfish Book Club. I don’t loan books. Loaning books is stupid because you either never get them back or if you do there are squashed bugs or food or “I don’t want to know what” between the pages, along with cracked spines, dog ears and the occasional scrawled phone number on the back inside cover. I’d (almost) rather buy someone a book they want to borrow than loan it, so if you’re reading this don’t even start with the “Hey, can I borrow…”. It’s in the title. I’m selfish.

I loaned my mother All the Light We Cannot See and the next time I was at her house it was in her bookcase with her personal embossed “Library of..” stamp on the title page. See? My own mother!

Most book clubs make me crazy because a) I can’t always choose the book; b) there’s never enough serious conversation about the book to satisfy me and c) I hate potlucks! I feel like such a loser when everyone else is hand-rolling sushi and baking gluten-free treats while I show up with a container of kale slaw from Whole Foods. I was too busy reading the book to cook! (PS w/r/t the photo: I hated H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald. Talk about overhyped! It was my turn to choose for a book club I’m in and it was a snore; I was so bummed. Far better IMO is TH White’s The Goshawk. But check out the food!!! The likes of such a feast will not be seen at a meeting of The Selfish Book Club.)