I am absolutely terrible about keeping in contact with people. It’s not for a lack of trying – I really do care about my friends’ and families’ adventures and stories. For whatever reason, the intention to call or text is dreadful to me. The more I think about it, the less and less I want to take part in communication with anyone, and the intention is buried on my to-do list. I truly rely on my friends to do the bulk of the work in an effort to stay in contact, especially as we all are traveling the world in work and in school and get to see each other less and less. I know it’s unfair to rely on them, but I am so easily consumed by whatever I am presently doing, or wherever I am, and I know my friends will be waiting for me when I can find it in me to reach out.

This year I vowed to change that. My grandmother has told me my whole life that I better call her when I can because she doesn’t know how much time she has left, and I never heeded her advice – she’d been around forever, why wouldn’t she be around for another forever or two? When she told me that she had had COVID-19 over the holidays and I hadn’t known about it, I realized I better get my act together and put in the effort or risk our last conversation to be an argument over my taxes. I didn’t want my relationship with her or with my friends to be 80/20. I had to do it in my own way though, one I knew I could keep up with. My grandmother has coffee every afternoon around 5pm CT, and my father always joins her for gossip, hot coffee, and cookies. At my current job, I get off at 4pm MST and have a 20 minute walk home. At least once a week now we have Coffee Calls, in which I put in my earbuds, button up my jacket, and get in on all the coffee goss with my dad and grandma. My sisters have clued in and have begun calling me a little after 4 for their turn in my Coffee Calls. We all have begun looking forward to 4pm, and not just because the workday is over. As for my friends, again in my own way, I had to figure something else out. So, I started a book club.

If you’ve never been a member of a book club, then generally they work like this: everyone goes out and buys the same book and reads a few chapters a week, meeting periodically to go over the details, questions, theories, and to gossip amongst themselves. We, being no ordinary group of friends, could obviously not meet together for a phone call every week on schedule – I can’t even call them on scheduled times we arrange just to chat. How could we mold this concept to better fit our ragtag group, spread out all over the states?

Everyone needs a good tabbing system! Here’s mine for MP’s book

This idea ended up being my holiday gift to them. I work in a bookstore, and had been compiling a list of the books that people came in and raved about. I sent a handful of those titles for them to choose from, including reviews and descriptions of each book. I had them rate the books on a scale of want to read most to want to read the least. From there, I picked the top four books we cumulatively rated. Each book was assigned to one of us, and I mailed them out accordingly. Each person was instructed to read at their own pace, to annotate, highlight, tab, and draw in their book however the liked. After they finished their book, they are to mail the book to the next person, keeping this flow of the four books going throughout the year, until the books are brimming with four annotating styles, tabs, and opinionated “no way”s in the margins.

Honestly, I was so afraid they wouldn’t like it, or they wouldn’t read the books they’d all unknowingly chosen. It’s been amazing, and they really love it. We even started an Instagram to log our book consumption, including but not limited to our Lit Club books. At this point, we’ve all read one or two of the books, and only one of them has been lost in the mail (which I’d count as a success). I love reading, and I love listening to how opinionated my girlfriends are, so this project has become the best of both worlds. I can read “with” my girls, read their thoughts and reactions to the texts, and I can add my two-cents right alongside theirs. It’s created such a sense of comradery between us. Our connections amongst ourselves has increased from once a week to once a day being standard, at least. If I don’t hear from someone after a few days, I start to worry now!

I went through a whole thing of tabs for this book

Books have been the only constant in my life, and their renewed presence has bettered my relationships and my dedication to keeping in contact with the people that mean the most to me! Feel free to steal my idea, but let me know what books you’re doing so I can add them to my list! I’ll keep you posted as the project continues; I’m anticipating two rounds of four books for the year if we keep reading at the current speed.

The First Books of the Lit Club:

• This is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan
• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

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