The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

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Netflix and Xbox360 have already teamed up, thank God, so you can choose from an online database of movies and watch them instantly on your TV. Big whoop, right? HBO on Demand is the same thing. Blah blah. But, Xbox being what it is, it has the oft-overlooked application of 'party mode,' wherein multiple people in multiple locales can watch the same movie at the same time and, via headset, can talk to each other throughout the film, thus simulating a community.

I mean, come on. Doesn't it seem a little like this was created for the sole purpose of talking through movies? And isn't that a little ridiculous? I understand that for nine-year-old boys whose parents won't let them go to sleepover parties this might be an important, monumental development. But whatever. Old-fashioned me can't get over the fact that it sort of defeats the purpose of watching a movie.

And then I'm thinking about book clubs, like I sometimes do. Actually, this article by Joanne Kaufman got me thinking about book clubs. Entitled 'Fought Over Any Good Books Lately?' it documents the sort of political in-fighting and general inanity that define most book club meetings (the stat is that there's roughly four or five million groups nationwide). Basically the article says that people who really want to read and discuss books are in a minority, versus those that want to network, dis on their spouses, or drink chardonnay.

I'm pretty sure this is something that all of us book group members know implicitly - and the tangential conversations are just as good (often better) than the literary ones - but it's always nice to see some snarky validation in the New York Times.

This is cute: Jocelyn Bowie of Indiana seems to have had a particularly rough time of it:

"She tried to persuade everyone to look beyond Oprah Winfrey's picks, "and they all said, 'What's wrong with Oprah?'"...The last straw came when the group picked The Da Vinci Code and someone suggested the discussion would be enriched by delving into the author's source material."

At which point the coiner of the term 'pseudo-intellectual' creamed his pants.

Generally I think book clubs are a good thing. But I am wary of them. Maybe because I view reading as a personal thing, maybe because I'm too defensive of my typically underdeveloped opinions. I like On The Road, and don't want to hear it's a piece of derivative such-and-such heavily reliant on...And while Oprah picks fantastic books, seeing her stamp on the cover of Anna Karenina or The Grapes of Wrath does diminish somewhat the joy of discovery, no?

Ah, but I digress. If the Netflix-Xbox thing totally reverses the way we watch movies, can the same be said of book clubs and the way we read? Instead of reading to...well whatever your reasons might be, does it simply become a way to impress others? I'm probably projecting a little with that one. But are book clubs meant to help a group of people really understand a novel and its significance - as an English class might - or do people join them just for a little camaraderie and maybe to release their geeky urges? Probably both, probably both.  What's interesting is that the article says groups made up of total strangers tend to last longer, as the focus is more likely to stay on books.

Why do the Twin Cities rock so hard? So many reasons, obviously. One more is because we have book clubs that take all the best criteria for what makes a good group, and then add alcohol. The Raking Through Books series and the Happy Hour Book Club combine strangers, good literature, and booze. Ch-ch-check 'em out. Sparber, if you're reading this, will you link a comment to the next MNReads meeting? With drink specials, there's always that possibility you might sloppily make out with someone who shares your thoughts on Animal Farm.