You mean there’s no daycare at book club?

Because I Said So column for The Commercial Appeal

Oct. 28, 2010

Heeding the directive put forth by booksellers, librarians and The Oprah, my wife, Kristy, has finally joined a book club. Two book clubs, in fact. We are a well-read family.

I know what you other husbands out there are vicariously anticipating for my life now — nights free, maybe a bar, perhaps a sporting event or truck pull.

Well, let me tell you the first rule of Book Club. Unlike “Fight Club,” it is not “do not talk about book club” (believe me, that is not the second or third rule, either).

No, the first rule of book club is “no children allowed.” What kind of rule is that? One decreed by tired, stressed moms, that’s what. So this new activity on the family calendar leaves me with a house full of kids and all of their needs and demands.

I question whether these so-called book clubs have any real literary merit. Literature has always meant an escape, the means to travel to a faraway land from the comfort of our own home and forget the real world for a time. Kristy, a high school English teacher no less, is now using it as an escape, literally, to another house across town (or across the street. We can see you over there!) for an evening … (read more)