The third Wednesday or Thursday evening of each month, comic book shop Books with Pictures ( 1401 SE Division St) hosts this open-invite book club devoted to a wide variety of graphic novels-from the Bitter Root series, about a family of sympathetic monster hunters during the Harlem Renaissance, to an illustrated retelling of the 1872 queer vampire murder mystery Carmilla. Sometimes artists and writers join to talk about their latest work.
Lately, the meetings have shifted into more of a social gathering where the book barely gets mentioned. Instead, most of the night revolves around wine, snacks and catching up on everyone's personal drama. While I enjoy the company, I miss the actual book discussions that originally drew me to the group. I feel like the odd one out for wanting to stay on topic, and I worry that if I bring it up, I'll come across as uptight.