Introducing The Litwits: A Reading Club for Drinkers {Sacramento, CA}

Hello, my name is Jessica, and I am a Litwit.

I was an English major in college. I'm not that fond of math, I have a crappy memory when it comes to history, I'm totally not into politics or government, and dissecting animals in high school Bio totally icked me out. But I love to read and I love to write, so studying English just made sense. 

Also, I was a little naive when it came to how College Studies could translate into Real Life, so I just chose what sounded like fun. Looking back, I probably should have pursued some kind of earth science... just not physical biology, ew.

I'm obsessed with grammar. I get unbelievably annoyed when I find errors in published newspaper and magazine articles (trust me, it happens more frequently than you'd think). I find myself mentally correcting the Facebook statuses of my friends. One of my favorite Facebook pages is Grammarly. Nerd.

I collect books. I have almost as many books as I have articles of clothing (I thrift, so I have clothing in spades). I stamp the edges of my books to make them prettier and to claim them as mine. Geek.

I also love throwing parties and bringing people together. 

Oh yeah, and good food, beer and wine are staples in my life. There's that too.

It's only natural that these interests led me to start a Reading Club.

Over the past several years, my friends Jeanna, Anne, and I have tossed around the idea of having a book club. We flirted with the idea once or twice, but we never really dove in and made it happen. Recently, the prospect came up again between Anne and I while we were at a brew fest with my friend Carrie and her gals. 

The best ideas are hatched while drinking craft beer.

All of a sudden, it seemed like all of my ladies were talking about wanting to join a club. So it dawned on me that maybe there was a reason that I was hearing this from so many angles. There was a muse at work. So I took the initiative to launch The Litwits Reading Club. 

I wrote up a quick document outlining my idea, and emailed it to a selection of my fellow bookworms. Some of them invited their fellow bookworms. Everyone was excited. So then, as if meant to be, the idea of the Litwits became a reality.

We had our first meeting last night. Our inaugural group: me, my mom, Anne, Jeanna, Meghan, Claire, Marisa and Bethany. There are several other ladies who are planning to join in as their schedule allows, but I can already tell that this is going to be a very fun and lively group just based on how easily our discussions flowed last night. 

To get the discussion rolling, each of us suggested a few favorite or recently-read books, which I will write up and share in the next couple of days. We discussed what we like to read and why. Some of us read to escape (Fiction), some of us read to learn (Non-fiction), and sometimes we find ourselves reading something in between (Historical Fiction). We are a perfect blend of insightful and thoughtful readers, which will make for an awesome discussion group.

It turns out that we are all crafters as well. So this may just become a Reading and Drinking and Eating and Crafting Club. Be still, my beating heart!

We drank wine and cider and ate amazing snacks. Just to tempt your tastebuds, here's what we ate: guacamole & pita chips, goat cheese & basil & tomato dip with crackers, chocolate covered pretzels, eggplant dip, fresh watermelon, cranberry oatmeal tuxedo chip cookies and Ghirardelli chocolates. Drooling yet?

I would like to thank my Muse for giving me the nudge to bring this together. I owe you a beer, Muse. This is going to be epic.

Call me a nerd, call me a geek, 

call me a Lover of the 

English language and written word. 

Or just call me a Litwit. 

That would be just fine.

>^..^<