So, we’re now on day whatever of the endless time at home. When life is normal, I usually meet with a Book club on the first Thursday of the month. I’ll confess, sometimes I don’t read the book. Sometimes I read all of it, sometimes part of it, sometimes none of it. Usually, that’s due to a lack of time. Not always, but usually. The library has been closed since mid-March, so we didn’t have our April meeting. We did set up a virtual meeting for May, since we all still had the book that was intended for April. Added bonus… since I’m unemployed and have a bazillion hours on my hands, I had plenty of time to read it.

So on Monday, I sat down with the book. And after getting to page 17, I closed it and said, “No more.” I will not share the title or the author’s name here, because, well, you’ll see. In 17 pages, I found the book to be badly written, with an excessive usage of exclamation marks. It didn’t hook me, and I found it so annoying that I wasn’t going to devote the time to reading the rest.

Here’s where the awkwardness comes in. See, the book was recommended by someone in the group. Not the usual recommendation of, “Oh, I like this author, and we should read one of her books,” but the recommendation of, “I have a friend who wrote a book.” There are lots of great writers out there. There are also quite a few not-great writers out there, since the advent of self-publishing. Note that I’m NOT saying that self-published books are terrible. I’m also NOT saying that being published under a known name ensures that a book will be great. I’m just saying it’s easier for some bad books to get published when you don’t have the oversight of editors and publishers.

Anyway, the author was a friend of someone in the group. The problem was, I couldn’t remember who recommended the book, so I had no idea if said person would be at the virtual meeting. So I obviously couldn’t start off at the beginning and say what I truly thought. Well, I could, but I do have some restraint and manners, no matter what you’ve been led to believe.

As it turns out, the group member wasn’t there when we all logged into Zoom. Great, right? I could freely say that I didn’t read the book because I couldn’t get past page 17. Except… you know what’s more awkward than telling someone you hated their friend’s book? Seeing the author himself in the meeting. I scrolled through the names and thought, “Why is there a guy here? There are no guys in this group.” Then I recognized the name.

Oops. Almost. At least I saw the name before I said anything, lol.