I won't be recommending this one for book group.

One of my favorite books is Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. I found it sitting on the book shelf at my parents' house one summer when I was home from college and read it. It's less than 200 pages long. The book is a series of letters the protagonist writes throughout her college years, and I could relate, both to her enthusiasm about life and learning, and the letter-writing. I found it on the same book shelf in just about the same place every time I went to visit and read it again and again.

So I was dumbfounded when I finally looked at the front of the book and saw that it was originally published in 1912. Yes. One hundred years ago. That is some seriously good writing about timeless ideas, because even though I know how it ends, it gets better every time I read it. Every time I read it I am surprised again at how much more I like it.

Just this last week I read it. I checked it out from the public library as a digital book and downloaded it to the Kindle Jack got me for Mothers Day. (I thought I would not like the Kindle. I rolled my eyes in my head when I opened it, but I said, "Thank you" to Jack. My Luddite self did not want another device from my techie husband. Jack and I are both surprised at how quickly it has fueled my reading addiction. Seriously.)

I briefly thought about taking Daddy-Long-Legs to book group, but I almost immediately decided against it. The last time I suggested a (different) favorite book for another book group years ago, I was shocked that not everyone loved the book I suggested as much as I did. Not only that, some of my closest friends didn't even like it very much.

Why did I think that we would have the same literary preferences? This now seems a little naive on my part. If every book group member loved everything about the book we were reading, I suspect we would have very little discussion and skip right to the food, which is not really why I go in the first place. So now I think twice about submitting books I know and love on a personal level to the open scrutiny that is book group.

I do, however, recommend that everyone read this book. If it's not your favorite, that's okay. But if you've read and liked Anne of Green Gables, or Betsy-Tacy, or Little House in the Big Woods, you just might like Daddy-Long-Legs, too.