It’s official. After 20 some odd years of being an avid reader, a writer by heart and trade, a book store junkie and a lover of the well-crafted word, I am finally a member of a book club. Isn’t that just the most delightful thing?!

Tonight, I joined a group of smart and engaging women (most of whom I met for the first time) who have been meeting monthly for the past 15 years. Not all were a part of the group since its inception, but combined, they have an impressive history of regular meetings, totaling nearly 150 books read together over time. When I arrived, I immediately felt welcome and warmed by the group, who took time to introduce me around the room and to encourage my new participation.

I am certainly the newbie in the mix–these women have weathered all kinds of life together for a long time. But I love that I could enter into something they’ve cultivated all these years and still feel like I’ll have no trouble belonging. Says something grand about the group, if you ask me!

I’m really looking forward to the commitment (and thus the motivation) to read one new book each month. I often have multiple books in the works, but lately have a hard time finishing any one in particular. Now there’s a date on the calendar to remind me to keep going–just another discipline I’m trying to put into place as I work on embracing good and healthy habits in 2012. As I see it, there’s room for improvement in every aspect of life…and even though I love books, own plenty of them, and am tempted to buy more all of the time, I could really improve upon reading them (hard to do if I’m always picking up my phone or scrolling Facebook when I have a few extra minutes here and there.)

I love that I’ll now have a book club to spur me on!

A new book each month, a new bedtime, and the aspiration of embracing and committing to both changes here in the first bit of the new year. Something tells me I’ll be so much happier for the adjustments…

turning pages,

mm