A tribute to Pat Conroy

One of the members of my community book club had a great idea when we were trying to decide what book to read next. As a tribute to Pat Conroy who died several years ago, why didn't we read a Pat Conroy novel? She suggested Beach Music. Another member had another idea. Why doesn't each person read the Pat Conroy book of his or her choice? It certainly makes it easier for each of us to get a book since most of us rely on the library for getting the books we read.

I looked at the list of books that Pat Conroy wrote. I was pretty sure I didn't want to reread a book I've already read. There are still several that I haven't read but as an avid reader, the title My Reading Life jumped out at me. I figured I'd love to learn about what the reading life of a famous author was like.

(Here's my somewhat embarrassing Pat Conroy confession. My first Pat Conroy book was Beach Music. Next came Prince of Tides. I was positive that only a woman could feel deeply enough to pen these books. It wasn't until I read My Losing Season about 15 years ago that I realized that Pat Conroy was, in fact, a man.)

I really enjoyed this book a lot, learned a lot more about Pat Conroy than I already knew. And I started to think of myself as a reader... and as a wannabe writer. Yes, I know that everyone else thinks of me as a reader. But sometimes I feel like I don't read seriously enough... or enough pages... or enough titles. This book made me realize that everyone else is right about me.

Pat Conroy became a reader because he had a mother who was a reader. She read to make up for the fact that she wasn't well (school) educated. Her reading life became his early reading life. She, and later he, collected high school and college reading lists and read all the books on all the lists. Pat Conroy appeared to be as much a reader as he was a writer. He said he read nearly 200 pages a day - yes - a day - for all of his adulthood! That's a lot of pages.

This was a memoir of the complete Pat Conroy, not just the reader. It includes his writing life and lots of stories from his early family life and his adult life. If you are a fan of Pat Conroy, I'd highly recommend reading this book in addition to all the "famous" Pat Conroy books.


It's now a few days after the book club meeting where Pat Conroy was discussed. We had a wonderful meeting. Many of the members talked about how the reading of one book or another was really life changing for them.

It was agreed that Pat Conroy's elaborate language sparks all our senses. As we're reading, we're there, seeing what he sees, hearing what he hears, smelling what he smells, tasting what he tastes (especially in his cookbook/memoir).

I left the meeting thinking that I should probably go back to the list of Pat Conroy books and read all those that I haven't yet read. I'm pretty sure everyone else at the book club meeting was thinking the same thing!

Here's the list of titles:

• A Lowcountry Heart
• The Death of Santini
• My Reading Life
• South of Broad
• Beach Music
• The Prince of Tides
• The Lords of Discipline
• The Great Santini
• The Water is Wide
• The Boo
• My Losing Season
• Pat Conroy Cookbook