New Providence Memorial Library's Online Reading Group discussion

We're celebrating National Book Club month with a joint discussion of Letters from America by Alexis de Tocqueville. I say joint because the Thursday AM Book Club led by Carol Hance is reading this book for their November discussion on 11/21.

Anybody here is welcome to attend the Book Group discussion here in the library on 11/21 @ 10AM. Or not. We'll be doing weekly topics for discussion here on the book. I'm actually reading the book during the month of November so don't feel guilty if you haven't started yet. There are still a few copies in the library for anybody who want to join in.

I was all set to start reading some delightful letters when I was confronted w/ the 11 page intro which I did not read. I'll let de T reel me in first and then I'll read it at the end when I want to prolong the story.

Anybody else not read the intro first? It's like disregarding instructions and jumping in to put the toy together. I'm only a few pages in and already I like this guy...imagine calling your ship an "oceangoing diligence!" It sounds so colorful.

How interesting to compare this w/ the descriptions of cruises I hear from my colleagues: lots of eating, shopping and gambling mostly. de T nails it when he says "most of our companions...while away their time in the most trivial pursuits, distilling boredom drop by drop." What would he have thought of Carnival cruise ships??

I did read the intro but already forgot what it was about. Hard to imagine taking a voyage without a firm idea of how long it will take! And impressed with deT's and Beaumont's work ethic. They get up early, get right to work, go to bed early-quite a difference from a Carnival cruise!

The way he expresses himself is wonderful. Believe it or not, I was having a conversation about this topic w/ my hairdresser this morning who has been going through treatment for an aggressive form of cancer. How well deT describes the human condition while describing a spontaneous dance party on deck on the trip over:

"Man must be an animal heedless of all that may befall him to caper as we did over a bottomless abyss, under the vault of heaven, with death on all sides."

It seems to me as I'm reading this that the US is becoming more like France was at the time of the book in terms of governmental regulation and religion. I had no idea that the US didn't have an army at that time, no organized police force (can that be right?) Churches are closing all over the US as less people go to church. It's interesting that d'T didn't think our method of government would work in France, and that ours wouldn't survive over the long haul.