Double booked

I love book club. I love it. I love the fact that I get the chance to read and enjoy novels I'd never normally pick off the shelf. I love the fact that I've discovered some fantastic gems - The Time Traveler's Wife, Cloud Atlas, Rebecca, Midnight's Children and many, many more.

But most of all, I like to win.

That's right. I like to win book club. Because, you see, whilst it's primarily a social, fun night out for most people - a chance to catch up with ex-colleagues and discuss industry (yawn) news, for me it is a competition. You see, I did an English degree. For me, book club is a chance to win.

Co-members might say, "Henry and Clare's story was really interesting and the characterisation was good."

I might top that with, "Ah, but could we say either of them truly has Free Will? Indeed, can any literary character, controlled - of course - by the author - ever possess Free Will?"

And my co-members will look at me with a mixture of awe, wonder and - what looks like (but surely can't be) abject hatred.

This month's book was Idlewild. I finished Nick Sagan's novel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idlewild_(book)) on the tube on the way to book club earlier today. I felt smug. I had at least three Very Clever Things to say about the novel. Very Clever Indeed. I arrived at book club pretty early, and confidently slapped down my novel on the table.

My friend Fran arrived. "Hello Laura," she said.

"Hiya."

"Oh," Fran said, glancing at my copy of the novel. "You've got a different edition to me."

"Have I?" I said, not paying much attention.

"Oh," she said again. "Erm, one of us is wrong."

"What do you mean?"

Fran got out her copy of Idlewild. This one. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/mark-lawson/idlewild.htm By Mark Lawson.

Turns out I read the wrong book. The rest of book club discussed American culture and politics. I tried to chip in with comments about virtual reality and identity. They mostly ignored me. I think - for the first time - I may have properly lost at book club.