We started a family book club and the first book we are tackling is The Grapes of Wrath.
Have you ever done a family book club? Or a buddy read with someone in your family?
We have read several books as a family over the years. It is always fun to read a book and have a discussion about it as a family. It often sparks conversation and viewpoints that you wouldn’t discuss otherwise.
This year my husband and I decided that we wanted to read at least one classic book together. There are a lot of classics that neither of us has read, so doing it together would be a interesting way to get through one.
We are calling it a family book club, but right now, it is just my husband and me. Maybe we can talk one or two of our kids into joining us in the future if we tackle other classics.
The book we picked for our first classic is The Grapes of Wrath. Neither my husband nor I have ever read it. It was not required reading for either of us in high school. In college, my husband was a science major, so it wasn’t required reading for him in college either.
One of the reasons that I picked The Grapes of Wrath is because I feel like we both should have read it by now. We live in Oklahoma. My husband was raised here. His grandparents and other family members left northern Texas in the late 1930s and early 1940s seeking a better life in California.
And yet we have never read The Grapes of Wrath. We have both said that we wanted to read it but have never made it a priority. We are going to change that in 2021.
My husband and I have never done a book club or buddy read just for the two of us. We often read books that each other have read, but rarely do we read the same book at the same time.
I originally thought about making The Grapes of Wrath a priority read this year as part of my backlist books challenge, but I knew other books would probably win out.
If I was going to read a classic book like The Grapes of Wrath, I needed some accountability and some conversation in order to keep going when other books were more tempting to pick up. I am actually looking forward to reading and discussing it.
Also, I love knowing the history of a book and why the author wrote it. Reading about the author helps me understand the book and appreciate the author more.
When I saw the book Mad At the World: The Life of John Steinbeck, I knew that it would be a great book to read with The Grapes of Wrath. I have read a few chapters in it and so far have enjoyed it.
I plan to post a few updates while we are reading The Grapes of Wrath. I may even try to get my husband to guest post about his thoughts on it.
Have you ever done a family book club or a buddy read with your spouse, parent, or kid? If you have done one what book did you read and what tips do you have?