Reading Is Fundamental

So I joined Meetup, not because I need more friends - I have plenty of friends, thank you very much - but because I am wont to stay indoors and curl up like a cat, given the opportunity, and less likely to do mentally and physically stimulating activities* unless they are scheduled in my Blackberry. I'd like to hike more and read more (the latter, I realize, being much less physically stimulating than the former) and I know there are a lot of groups with those interests on the site.

Tonight I went to a book swap Meetup in Silver Lake, which I did enjoy, even though only four of us came, and our organizer didn't bother to show up. I walked away with several new** books and gave away my second copy of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and a book I half-heartedly enjoyed, Wobegon Boy. (I thought the ending was a bit lame and the book itself, overall, a tad aimless and self-indulgent, not unlike much of Keillor's work.)

The other attendees (Meetuppers?) included a librarian, a scientist, and a marathon team trainer, all of whom were interesting and intelligent women. We shared reading recommendations and discussed the books we brought; in the end, we swapped everything and nobody had to take anything they had brought back home.

I ended up with short stories by Julie Orringer, an autobiography of Kirk Douglas, a book on philosophy, and the follow-up to Wicked.

I'd totally go to one of these again, but I wonder, aside from the hiking groups (which I may or may not participate in, given my general clumsiness and lack of athleticism), what other Meetup groups I should check out?

* Mmmmm...physically stimulating activities.

** New to me, anyways.