Hello from Texas! 👋🏻 As I type this, it’s the last Friday night of 2017 and the state is anticipating a frigid start to 2018. Local weathermen are breathlessly calling for snow flurries and the dreaded “I-word”…ice, making the local Walmart teem with shoppers looking to score bread and milk before the next Ice Age commences. Clearly these people are amateurs as any woman worth her salt stocks up on chocolate and coffee. Priorities!
Me? Well, I’m safely ensconced at home, already sporting my comfy pajamas, a dachshund at my side. And under my feet. What better way to spend a three-day work sabbatical than with a good book?
Which brings me to why I’m here and why you’re reading this.
As you may already know, Jeanne asked me to spearhead the formation of The 70273 Project Book Club and after mulling it over, I, the-always-a-follower-never-a-leader introvert, said yes. Y’all, I have no idea what I’m doing. Be gentle. Thankfully I’m not a surgeon or mechanic, so it can’t go too terribly wrong. Right?!
So find a spot on a log, one close to the fire, and enjoy a cup of something warm while I give you the details.
Our main purpose here is to learn more about WHY an atrocity like Aktion T4 came about and HOW we can, individually and collectively, educate others to insure that it never happens again. Jeanne has mentioned there are very few books dealing directly with Aktion T4; I didn’t come up with a single one myself. What I did find, however, were a lot of books on my own bookshelves that I think can speak to our hearts. From them, we can learn lessons that, though they aren’t specific to Aktion T4, definitely have lessons we can learn from or themes that speak to the whys and hows of human nature.
Every month we’ll kick off the start of a new book. If it sounds interesting, join us on a read-along. We’ll meet back on the Facebook group- The Campfire from time to time to discuss our thoughts on what we’ve read. None of them are particularly lengthy. They’re fiction and non-fiction; most written for adults with a few culled from the young readers section of a local book store.
I’d like to have everyone at roughly the same spot so there aren’t any spoilers for those who don’t read quite as fast, so I think we should aim to reach a certain number of chapters read by a particular date. I’ll announce all of it in Campfire and we’ll see how it all plays out.
You may choose to sit it out if a book just doesn’t blow your skirt up. That’s fine, too. This isn’t school and I’m not Sr. Brigid forcing Beowulf down your throat. Who wants to read something that just makes your eyes roll to the back of your head in boredom? Not I!
Read it as a “real” book; an e-book; or listen to an audiobook. It doesn’t matter. Just read, enjoy, share, and repeat. Like eating cookies only without the calories.
As we go along, I hope to post polls you’ll enjoy and also look to group members for their reading recommendations. Maybe you’ll see your favorite as the next book club selection!
Let’s have fun, enjoy one another’s company, and maybe read something we’d never have considered picking up otherwise.
Welcome to “Shelf-ish Pursuits”, the official book club of The 70273 Project! 📚
~Stephanie
This is SO incredibly exciting. Thank you for being our Fearless Reader . . . I mean Leader, Stephanie. Ii can’t wait to find out what book we’ll be reading this month. I love your plan to it on a (digital) lot around the Facebook Campfire Group and talk books.
Thanks Stephanie… looking forward to the first book … <3
Very nice idea – I might tag along with audiobooks if available. I have not had the time to read a book in …. too many years. Hmm, should try to start that again this year! Thanks for starting Shelf-ish Pursuits Stephanie. (catchy name ladies!)