The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker wasn't exactly what I expected. It took me several pages to reconcile that the book wasn't what I thought it was going to be, but once I did I found it very interesting and rather helpful. It reminded me a lot of my days as part of a committee organizing a  writers and readers conference. I couldn't help but compare and contrast our efforts with her recommendations. Parker made me alternately wish I'd read this book back then and feel proud of the work we did. That said, I could imagine how some of the things Parker suggests would feel contrived to guests and even to hosts even those who were genuine in their efforts, particularly at parties. Maybe this comes from my upbringing where gatherings, or get-together as we called them, were much less formal by design and people appreciated that informality. It also reminded me of parties I attended where there was so much structure, no one seemed to have any fun. Everyone was too busy making sure they followed the rules. While Parker presents her ideas on gatherings complete with fun and interesting examples to prove her point, I often wondered just how well they would work among the people I know. I thoroughly enjoyed The Art of Gathering and the different methods of gathering Parker explored, but I kept feeling this little tug in the back of my mind reminding me of how many parties I've thrown and how the best ones were always the ones where we dropped the pretenses aka formalities and allowed people to be themselves in the moment while the ones with strict activities and/or rules never went quite as well. That said, I loved some of the ideas in the book about keeping things flowing and getting people interacting. All in all, The Art of Gathering is definitely worth the read if one is looking to be a better organizer of or participant in meetings, conferences, and other formal gatherings.


Check back soon for my thoughts on other books I'm reading including:

Write a Poem a Day: 30 prompts to unleash your imagination by Sage Cohen
Self Love: Journey of Self-Discovery and Emotional Healing to Help You Feel Good Enough: Guided Journal by Suzanne Heyn
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
The Collected Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning


Reviews will be posted as I finish these books.



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