The number of sets of books circulating among book clubs in the Moreton Bay Regional Council is not many more than the number of book clubs! So they are in constant use and if your club wants a particular book it takes a while to get.
Who chooses the books? Personally I get frustrated by the selection. We never get choices of books that address the greatest issues facing the world and our communities today.
We have some excellent minds in the community and in the case of our book clubs we are mostly talking about women readers. But the book choices available mean these groups are not reading in depth on topics like climate change population growth or the resource shortages that are facing the world. They are not engaging their minds with issues that are going to make a massive difference to the future of billions of people in quite a short time and are already making a difference to millions. And we kid ourselves if we think these things are not already affecting our own lives and our own community.
Reading is a relaxation a pleasure. Book clubs are also very much an opportunity to come together socially and as the group grows in friendship over the years it can become very supportive to its members. The books act as a trigger for discussions but the discussions range a lot more widely than the books that start them.
Having said this I question how many of us are using our minds to read and think and talk about the important issues that affect us locally here? How involved are we as active citizens in thinking about our community?
How far should book clubs be about relaxing pleasant social entertainment? Is there also a role for them to also to contribute a deeper purpose sometimes?
Most people today are very time-poor. Those of us who are able to spend time reading which especially includes those of us who are retired are very privileged. We can do something that most others in our community simply do not have time to do. That is to read and think about the important issues; to digest them; discuss them thoroughly and reflect on them; and then to come up with plans and proposals and submissions for the best ways forward. There is an urgent shortage of people with the time literacy mental ability and willingness to do this. It is the Senate role in our community the time when the elders come together in wisdom to contribute from their learning and opportunity to reflect. This is far too precious to waste.