Sunday, September 21, 2008

Daily Digression: Book Club

Tonight we go to Nancy's book club, which I seemed to have de factoed my way into. It started with me sitting in one night when Nancy was hosting, and for the next month they decided to read a book that just happened to interest me, and four books later, they haven't yet thrown me out.

It's good for me because, unlike Nancy, I am an irregular reader. I've always loved to read, and will often get little sleep and little else done when I'm in the midst of a good book, but I don't suffer bad writing gladly, whether or not I'm actually qualified to judge. So I'm forever starting a book, putting it down, and leaving it there. (Note that this happened not once with anything of Nancy's. Thank god, or things might have gotten awkward in the early going.)

But back to the book club. I can't help but notice but that I am the only male in the group. And likewise, every friend I have that's in some other book club is female. What's that about? Is it really just a female thing? And what does this imply about my identity?

Just yesterday I was out birding on Cape Cod with another male birder, and at one point we were just outside of Provincetown. This other guy that we were talking to saw two men together near P'town, and leapt nimbly to the conclusion that we were gay (and hastened to graciously point out that he was "down" with it).

So maybe some clarification is in order. Herewith my guy credentials:
  • With a bit of thought, I can name you every World Series winner, and I arguably behaved indecorously during the Giants' Super Bowl victory last January.
  • I do like spiders and snakes, and I know how to handle a snapping turtle. (The literal kind. Less good with the metaphorical kind.)
  • I am good at math and driving.
  • I am capable of sexists remarks like "I am good at math and driving" even if I don't believe them.
  • No, seriously, I don't believe them. But I'm man enough to take the ass-kicking I'll receive for putting that one in there.
  • I am not woman enough to ever contemplate bearing a child, even if I were capable.
So I think we can all see that it's cool that I'm in a book club. And if I happen to enjoy an occasional bit of musical theater, that's my own damn business.

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