The 2010 Simple Living Book Club

July 2010
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Apr
	1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

- 29. Dec, 2009 in Baby Advice -

In late 2008, when we created the book club, I had no idea that I would sign a book writing contract with a publisher in early 2009, and in that contract would be a tight writing deadline with my manuscript due at the year’s end.

This is why the club stopped for the remainder of the year after August. But we still read some wonderful books — Your Money or Your Life; Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Last Child in the Woods; and For Women Only all spurred some great discussion and personally gave me fresh insight into my home life.

So — I think several of you would like to start it up again, and I know I would. So for 2010, here are the plans for the book club.

• We will tentatively plan on four books for the year; one per season. I don’t have the reading dates finalized, but we can set those when it’s closer to time for each season.

• All the chosen books will still have the general theme of simplifying your life, encouraging excellence, and improving your relationships. Specific topics are wide open.

• In light of a rather exciting network launch that will happen in February 2010, I’d like the book’s themes to incorporate some of the topics we’ll tackle as a family of blogs — life at home, money management, green living, cooking and eating, homeschooling or education, parenting, or any other topic related to family life.

• This year’s club will simply be called the Simple Living Book Club.

The First Book

We’ll start the year with the book we didn’t get to read in 2009 — The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, by Steven Covey. It’s 390 pages, and we can fairly easily cover this book in nine to ten weeks.

We’ll start the club the week of January 25, about a month from now. There’s no “official” way to join — just get the book! Order it now, pick it up at your local bookstore, or reserve it at your library (by ordering it on Amazon through these links, you’re helping run this blog and book club). Then start reading.

Here’s a snippet from the book’s description on Amazon:

From the author of the #1 bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey’s new bestseller offers precious lessons in creating and sustaining a strong family culture in a turbulent world. No family is free from challenges. But a strong family embodies a problem-solving culture in which parents and children act interdependently, appropriately, and positively. It is a culture that enables all family members to experience the joy, satisfaction, and integrity of living their principles day by day.

In his first major work since The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey presents a practical and philosophical guide to solving the problems, large and small, mundane and extraordinary – that confront all families at one time or another.

With clarity and common sense, Covey demonstrates how the basic principles of the original book are the key to building strong families and strong communities. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families is an invaluable guidebook to the welfare of families everywhere.

Stephen R. Covey is recognized by Time magazine as one of North America’s twenty-five most influential people. He is chairman of the Franklin Covey Company.

Book Club Guidelines

• Anyone and everyone is welcome to join in the reading and discussion! There’s no registration, application, or sign up. All you have to is get the book and start reading, then join our discussion on the assigned day.

• Come to the discussion having already read the assigned reading portions for that week. But that said, even if you haven’t finished, you can still join and contribute to the discussion all week long.

• Specific day of the week and platform of the club (forum, blog post, Twitter) is still to be determined.

• If you’d like to post this badge on your blog to let your readers know about the club, here’s the code to copy and paste:

<a href="http://simplemom.net/features/book-club/" target="blank"><img title="simple living book club" src="http://simplemom.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/bookclubbadge2010.jpg" /></a>

What I’d Like From You

If you think you’d like to participate at some point this year, here’s what I’d like to hear from you in the comments section:

1. What day of the week is best for you? In 2009, we started the new discussions on Thursdays, but they continued all throughout the week.

2. What format would you prefer? Did you like the forums, if you participated last year? Or do you think another medium might be more conducive to our time together?

3. Do you have any suggestions for other books in 2010? I have ideas, but I definitely want to hear yours as well.

Thanks, everyone! I had a great time in our club last year reading some fabulous books, so I hope you all want to start it again this year.