Elizabeth left a kind comment yesterday, asking whether the book group was still "a going thing". This is a subject I should have addressed before now, my only reason for not doing so being that I simply didn't know the answer to that question.
Over the course of about seven years we read 68 books, and many readers participated in most if not all of our discussions. I was and am grateful for everyone's energy and interest, and I relished the conversations we had about a wide range of books, some well known, others less so. At the same time as running the group I was reviewing a great deal not just for this blog but for other publications, and deadlines governed my life. While the book group meant reading to a self-imposed deadline, it was a fixed date nonetheless, and represented a not inconsiderable amount of work from choosing the book (far more complicated than you might think given that whatever was selected had to be easily obtainable in the UK and abroad, in libraries as well as shops), to writing an introductory post, slotting the reading of the book into my full schedule, and then writing a review post which invited everyone's thoughts and impressions - and there was baking the cake, as well!
As I say, I got a lot out of this, and thank all those who took the time and trouble to be a part of it, but there comes a point when perhaps enough is enough. I was particularly struck by the fact that when I suggested after a hiatus that we pick up where we left off, and read Jane Eyre (the last book we did) the positive response was enormously heartening, and yet when the day came to discuss the book, many fewer people than had enthused over the choice actually turned up and commented. That is, of course, the way of these things - we're not all masters of our own time, the best laid plans, etc., - but it made me feel that the group might have run its course.
On top of that my reading life changed greatly with the demise of The Good Book Guide for whom I'd reviewed well over 400 books. Reading for it took up the lion's share of my time, and with that gone I was free to take a breath, take a break, and read purely for myself for the first time in years. I have relished the freedom that has brought, although it's had the unexpected effect of making me read less in recent months than I ever have before, and my appetite is still not what it was. That said, I am reading things which never appear here on the blog as I pursue slightly obscure interests of my own, but the result of all this is that Cornflower Books itself has lately been meandering, rather than flowing with its customary direction and vigour, and for the moment I'm inclined to accept that and see where it leads.
Not much of an answer to Elizabeth's question, then, except to say that while I have not definitively closed the door on the group, nor am I ready to fling it wide open again just yet.
On a related note, I'm not the only one to have noticed that the blogging world has been changing. I find it interesting that when I post about a book on Instagram (which I don't do very often as I prefer more obviously 'visual' subjects), the response is much greater than for a similar post here on the blog. Perhaps it's the relative ease of commenting there - I don't know - but whereas blog posts can sometimes feel a bit like speaking to an empty room, or a silent audience, an IG picture and even quite lengthy text seems to engage the bookish community in a more vibrant and immediate way. What that says for the future I don't know, but it too contributes to my disinclination to reinstate the group just now, and indeed to question the blog's own reason for being, or perhaps to try to determine a new focus.
So much for my musings, if you have any thoughts on any of these topics, please let me know in comments, or privately, if you'd prefer. I'd be interested to hear what people want from book blogs these days, and how best we can keep the literary dialogue going - or has it all moved to Youtube? Finally, if you've read this far - thank you!
