The One With the Gay Book Club

It occurs to me that I never really said anything about my Gay Book Club. I have had a thing sitting in my "posts to edit" list for a while about it, but I never went back to it. So here's that.

I wrote all about my first Book Club experience. Well, my first one HERE. When I lived in the mountains, I went to a book club a couple times, but I was the wrong. . .demographic. I know I'm going to be all mad about being older when I get older, but for the time being, it sucks how very few people will take me seriously, due to age. This was definitely the case at the Mountain Book Club.

So I searched for a different book club and came up with something called Q Readers. Q Readers is an LGBT book club, and I realized that here, I had found My People. (I don't. . .think I need to clarify which of those letters I fit under. I mean. . .if you REALLY need clarification, by all means, I'll tell you.)*

I'd signed up for the inaugural meeting, but was out of town. . .I think it's when Carol got married. . .so I didn't make it. Apparently, that was a good thing, because there are two Borders' on the road where it was held, and most of the people went to the wrong one. So there were a bunch of pissed off queens, and not a lot got done.

Anyway, the same week as the Awful Book Club of Doom, (Heeeey. . .the ABCD!), which was on a Tuesday, there was a Q Readers meeting that Friday. On Thursday, I got an e-mail reminder saying, "Hey! Your group is meeting tomorrow, and you haven't RSVP'd!" D was out of town, so I thought, "Why the hell not?" I RSVP'd "Yes" while I was at work and went to the library after work to get the book.

It was "Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn. The book has 272 pages, so I knew reading it by the time book club rolled around the next night wouldn't be a problem. (Incidentally, I did finish it, and had time to start a second novel. I read quickly, as you might have guessed.) Why I did not like the book could take up an entire other entry, so I won't get into it. But I finished it, and that's what mattered.

I got to the (correct) Borders' and found the group's founder, Charles, a short, friendly black guy. We introduced ourselves and chit-chatted. Next to show up was Michael, a ridiculously tall, ridiculously LOUD white guy. The last person to show up was this guy named Craig, who I loved, by the way. He looked like that actor, Kevin James, but reminded me so much of my friend John from high school, I had to send John a text when I left telling him about it.

Me and three really gay guys. THIS was what I was used to. These were My People.

So we sat and talked about the book, and talked about other stuff, too. It was revealed that I am, in fact, not a lesbian (mark that letter off the list!), when Craig suggested another group I could join, made up of Professional Lesbians. This followed with a discussion of Chasing Amy, and a discussion about D.

After asking if I'd be willing to share D (I demurely declined), it was decided that he should become the club mascot, standing shirtless by the table where we meet and holding up a giant rainbow flag. These guys were all up ons the idea of D. (This sounds creepy. It wasn't.)

The other thing I should mention is that these guys all knew each other in one form or another from other groups, but they included me in all the conversations. Awesome.

Charles had what I believe was the comment of the evening, though, when he said, "I'm also a member of a gay law enforcement group. . .it's me and a bunch of lesbians." For some reason, I really laughed at that.

So I'll be going back this month, and possibly taking D with me. He said he'd like to go, because he's never been to a book club meeting before. This month's book is "Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal." It's OK so far. . .but it's kind of dense and hard to read. It's also very disconcerting that I got the "special edition" when I requested it from the library, and now it looks like I'm carrying around a Bible and randomly reading it. That makes me feel awkward.

No more awkward than carrying around the other book I'm reading, I guess, which is Kitty Kelley's biography on Oprah. For the record, I can't stand Oprah, but the book got so much controversy I, of course, had to read it.

*I was going to make some stupid joke like, "Obviously. . .I'm a MTF transsexual!" But then I was afraid that people would take me seriously and be looking at me funny. Also, it may or may not have been in poor taste. Of everything I've been called in my lifetime, a former man is not one of them. For the record, I have all my original ladybits. kthnx.