I recently heard (somewhere) that keeping secrets is freedom. And I sort of feel like this is a good secret, but I thought I'd go ahead and share it anyway, despite possible imprisonment. The Black Swan Saloon, which has been included in a plethora of Best of lists here at the Observer (like, Best Thing That Ever Came Out of the Ghostbar) is now hosting a bimonthly book club. Yes, a book club. At a bar.
Funny thing, I've been chided for that before: "Oh sure. You're going to book club. At a bar... sure."
Dubbed the Hemingway Book Club, it's "literary discourse infused with fine cocktails." Each meeting the club members imbibe book-themed cocktails, all while hitting some of the heavy stuff like Slaugtherhouse Five, For Whom the Bell Tolls (with sangria, of course), and most recently The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Naturally, they started with The Black Swan by Nicholas Tab.
The club meets every two weeks and the next read is Choke, by Chuck Palahniuk, which is about a medical school dropout who pretends to choke on food at upscale restaurants as part of a scheme to extort money from people.
I took peek at it via Amazon and here's one paragraph on which you may or may not base your participation in the club (or life, or corn dogs):
"It seemed that moment would last forever. That you had to risk your life to get love. You had to get right to the edge of death to ever be saved."
The Hemingway Book Club will meet to chat about choking and many many other things (don't want to spoil it) at 6 p.m. Sunday, April 7.
At the end of each meeting, everyone suggests a new book, which is dropped into a hat, then three are chosen and voted on.
Prediction for later this year? Dallas Observers' Best Book Club at a Bar (drum roll) ...
