Becoming the reader you want to be

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Toronto silent book club member Dawn Power offers a truly inspiring introduction to our latest silent book club meeting report. Dawn is a retired actuary who moved to Toronto from Winnipeg five years ago to be closer to her family. She is currently working on reviving her reading life – and wow, as she does so, she sparks the interests, imagination and reading lists of her fellow book club members!

Dawn Power, reader extraordinaireAfter receiving an offer I didn’t want to refuse, I decided to retire from actuarial consulting years earlier than planned — our oldest daughter, at the urging of her husband, asked if we would be interested in living with her family (my daughter, her husband and our two year old granddaughter) if they were able to find a house with a suitable space for her father and me. (The Universe must have been paying attention when a year earlier, as I read about a helpful grandmother living with her daughter’s family in their basement “granny suite”, I thought “I’d like that.”)

They found a house, we divested ourselves of most of our belongings, and moved to Toronto (from Winnipeg) in 2017. Our second granddaughter was born later that year. And, over the next few years, our other two daughters each bought houses within walking distance of our new digs.

But looking after my grandchildren, although delightful, doesn’t fill all my time, especially not when they keep growing and heading off to school!

What to do, what to do?

I was not much of a reader as a child; while my twin sister devoured all books, I had to be coaxed to read … for years. (Relative to my twin, I was slow at everything – crawling, bike riding, swimming, understanding calculus …) I finally started to read after an older sister took me to the library and pulled books off the shelf – mostly Enid Blyton to start, then later Agatha Christie mysteries and Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances. But later, with required reading for University courses and professional exams, full-time employment, eventually three daughters, and a penchant for losing sleep to finish books, I mostly stopped reading, for pleasure, that is. I continued to read for work, of course – generally very close reads of legislation related to defined benefit pensions, and communications issued by my professional body, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (the other “CIA”!), important reading although “a little” dry.

It’s not that I didn’t want to read other things. From the start of the Canada Reads competition in 2002, I wanted to be that Canadian reader. Each year, with every new competition I was reminded again and again of the reader I wanted to be. And every year, I fell short, with the exception of reading Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness, the 2006 winner.

In 2019, I dipped a toe into the Canada Reads competition by reading 3 of the 5 contenders. About the same time, I heard of the Silent Book Club by way of a CBC radio interview with Vicki Ziegler, owner of this blog. Another dream come true.

As they say, if you want to get fit, hang around with fit people. And, if you want to read more, hang around with readers! The Silent Book Club has been like having an even bigger family (with more widely varying tastes) to recommend books to me.

Because I always know what I’m going to read next (so many great recommendations, how will I get to them all!), I’ve gone from reading nearly nothing each year to reading lots (in the first 3 months of this year I’ve already read more than 40 books). And even better, included in all those books, I’ve read more than half of the 105 Canada Reads contenders (from 2002 to 2022). I have started thinking about my next reading challenge but I may have to slow down a little – I’ve got a new grandson coming in April. I expect to listen to audiobooks though as I walk over for visits.

 

Take a look at what we’re reading, where we’re reading and who we’re reading with these days.

Todd reads on transit

Beth's new reading chair

Lyla's reading space

Philippa's reading space

Emily's reading companion, Delta

Emily's reading companion, Delta

Vicki's reading companion, Jake

Vicki's poetry selection, on keyboard, with book club zoom meeting on the screen

Anne-Louise's books

One of Kath's books

Philippa's books

Philippa's notebook

Sue R's books

Sven and Jenn's books

One of Lyla's books

One of Lyla's books

One of Lyla's books

One of Lyla's books
Our combined reading list – always reflecting the recent reading of many of our members, whether they are in attendance or not – is particularly bountiful this month because it covers reading lists from two meetings instead of just one. The titles featured in each of our reports combine print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks (which are indicated separately, with narrator/performer information where possible).

More book-related articles, resources, news, recommendations and more are often inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat, including:

Our previous silent book club reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration right here.

You can also check out links to articles, interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Learn more about silent book clubs via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site. You can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. Some clubs are currently on hiatus or modified schedules, many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and some are re-emerging carefully with in-person gatherings. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Are you becoming the reader you want to be?

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