Thanks to unknown guides

Both my wife and I are in book clubs, hers all women and mine all men.  These two groups operate a little differently but both propose to their members to read a particular book a month and meet in one of their homes to discuss the book and their experience and thoughts reading it.  

We have been married for a long time.  When we first married, we were both interested in the crazy novels of Peter DeVries. I wanted to know when she got to a certain pivotal moment in the story so I read her the book aloud.  That way, if I could read a passage clearly and not giggle or garble the words, I knew when she realized the joke or the shocking revelation.  We have kept the habit of my reading aloud for a bit of most evenings.  

If she has a book discussion coming up, I often read the scheduled book to her.  If I have one coming up, I may read the group's selection to her, unless I have something else I am more interested in paying attention to.  

I have gotten interested in seeing what recent books have made an impression on me or gotten a strong reaction or made what feels like a lasting memory that I would not have even heard of without our two reading groups.  "The Bell in the Lake" by Lars Mytting is a good example of a book I liked that I read because she needed to hear it.  Of course, in the case of that book or the current one (Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elisabeth Billand's History-Race Around the World), I wouldn't know about it without some unknown person in her group:

1. Reading the book

2. Liking the book

3. Taking the time to attend the group's procedure to recommend the book

4. Joining with others to vote the book onto the list

Thanks, Unknown Book Supporters in both of our groups!