You all know how much I love reading and my books and so does my best friend Jayne, who I lunch with once a month.  Anywho in January I suggested to Jayne that we make our own little Book Club, just the two of us, as she loves reading too and we are very alike in our tastes.  She thought it was a great idea so today, as well as lunch, we had our inaugural meeting of our Book Club.

We didn’t manage to meet up during February as she and I were too busy with things on, so whilst DH was away at the beginning of February for the week I put together some things to mark the start of our Book Club including the first book as I had two copies of the same book for Christmas.  I bought one copy then DH bought me another copy as part of my Christmas presents, so I thought that would be the perfect one to start with. 

I made a book cosy for both of us and a book mark in the same material

I got us a magnetic bookmark each with our names on.

A pen and little pin badge.

A cotton book bag to keep everything in.

A Pride & Prejudice Bag Charm with a tea cup, book and hat on and below some book stickers.

You cannot read without a mug of tea and these teabags came with book quotes on them.

The pin badge.

The above is a book journal to record the books we read and our opinions etc, also with our names on.

This is our first book “The Cinnamon Bun Book Store” by Laurie Gilmore which is quite appropriate.  It is a cosy mystery book.

We have arranged to see each other for lunch on April 15th which is five weeks away so we think that will be ample time for us both to read the book and then discuss it when we see each other.  People have often said you must belong to various Book Clubs but I have always stayed away from them because the ones I do know of locally, the books they choose are, in one word, depressing!  I am sure to them they think they are wonderful but I think of them as being esoteric or thought provoking.  I, however, read to escape and read for enjoyment not to make me depressed!

I thought I would show you my TBR shelves as they stand at the moment :

This shelf holds my fantasy books, my crime books and my Christmas books to read, as well as some of the Clive Cussler books I am reading too.

The middle shelf here holds my Biographies, my Historical books, and crime books.

The middle shelf here holds my Agatha Christie books, books on London and about Bookshops, some of my recipe and garden books and some other factual books.

There are quite a lot but this is one of my Aims this year is to do more reading but to also get my TBR shelves down a little bit.  I did say to Jayne that having our little Book Club would also be a good idea to keep me reading.  So we will not only be Ladies Who Lunch but Ladies Who Read too!  I think, as both our Birthdays are in June, we should call it The Gemini Book Club, what do you think?

Our next get together in April is to a local, well local-ish, bookshop called The High Peak Bookstore near Buxton, Derbyshire.  It is well known, if a good drive away but hopefully the weather will be nice and it is a lovely drive.  The building used to be an old Garage and it was bought and turned into the bookstore and the original owners have retired but their daughter runs it now.  There is also a cafe so we can get some lunch too.  We will be able to pick our next book to read then.

Really looking forward to our new Book Club.

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco Bookworm xxxx