Good Morning friends! I know I promised a beekeeping and class update but I woke up this morning thinking about a book group. I mean, at 5AM when the littlest kitty starts meowing for food because he doesn’t understand time change, you have plenty of time for ideas. I got up, walked Anna for her morning rounds, and then fed the critters. Then I crawled back into bed with a cup of coffee and started thinking. Thinking about starting a book group. Finally.

I’ve been thinking about starting a book group for a long time. I mentioned it in my stories over on Instagram. I mean, I’m a librarian by trade so it makes sense. And I want to motivate myself to read more homesteading books. So here’s what I’m thinking. We’ll read a homesteading related book every 6 weeks or so. We’ll cover topics such as beekeeping, soap making, gardening, animals, etc. etc. We’ll throw in some first hand accounts of things for good measure. You might recall that I read One Hundred and Four Horses, which isn’t necessarily a homesteading book, but it is about the love of animals. I also read Flat Broke with Two Goats about losing everything and starting over homesteading. So we’ll cover some books like that as well. I’m open to suggested books if you have one you love. And we’ll do some guest posts as well. If you are a master soap maker, please consider leading a discussion here on the blog. We’ll also reach out to the authors of the books (or some books) and see if they would be interested in joining us.

Let’s call ourselves the “Chicken Librarian Reads Book Group”, although I’m open to more creative names. So throw some ideas out there and let’s name ourselves and get started!

We’ll start with this book first. I’ll give everyone two weeks to get their hands on the book. I suggest you start with your local library to see if you can borrow the book before adding it to your collection. However, if you like buying books, then go to your local bookstore or use one of the many online retailers. I don’t have an Amazon Associate account anymore so there are no affiliate links here. Just me trying to get books into your hands! Although if I do the Amazon Associates account again I will let you know.

So our first discussion will be on November 18th. We’ll read the intro and chapters 1-5 in case you want to get started. It’s about 72 pages. I hope that’s manageable for the group, especially with everyone gearing up for the holidays. I’ll post a blog post with the first few chapters and questions on the 18th. Then over the course of two weeks we’ll discuss using the comments on that particular blog post while continuing our reading. Then on the next scheduled date, I’ll post questions for the next round. I hope this makes sense! Here’s our rough outline schedule:
November 18th: intro-Chapter 5
December 2nd: Chapters 6-10
December 16th: Chapters 11-15
December 30th: Appendixes and wrap up, next book and schedule.

Sound good? So, get your hands on the book, leave me a comment here if you will be joining me. And let’s get started! I’ll be back later in the week to give you the beekeeping update that I’ve been promising. Until then, have a good week friends!