Reading and writing (thankfully no arithmetic)

My book club met this week to discuss the book I didn't like. This was the one I was worried about because the author was attending the meeting. Things got even more interesting when we started talking about the book and discovered that no one had really liked it. The good thing was that the author was invited to come about a half hour or so into our meeting, which allowed us to talk freely about the book without worrying about hurting her feelings. And despite our overall negative impression, it was interesting to hear her talk about the writing process and how she created the characters. So it could have been much worse. But I don't think the moderators (former public-library coworkers of mine) will stage another local author meet-and-greet event any time too soon--or at least not one whose book they haven't actually read at the time of the invitation. Oops.

At the meeting they announced that they're also trying to put together a group for National Novel Writing Month, which is pretty much what it sounds like--people attempt to write a novel in one month, November (which only has 30 days--seems kind of crappy to pick a short month). In theory I like the idea. In practice I don't think I have it in me. But I have decided to sign up for the food and travel writing class. That's about the level of commitment I can handle right now.