Hello August! A new month, the last month of the summer!
August holds a lot of action for me: a trip to Istanbul & Amsterdam, a LOT of writing and hopefully, a lot of reading. August is also the month where I’ll be hosting the first book club meeting of our group.
This is my second go on the whole bookclub idea. Over the years, I noticed many patterns that all book-lovers seem to display: following the bookish news like awards, reviews, talks, events etc, going through someone’s bookshelves when we’re at a new place (I like going through the books at my supervisor’s office, he always has some interesting titles), highlighting the favourite bits (and usually taking notes), but most of all- sharing. We love sharing the books we love (or sometimes hate) in any form possible: by photos on instagram, by nagging to a friend while we wait for the tube, on social media, on book blogs and sometimes, at book clubs.
I’ve always found the idea of a book club very alluring. A few people reading the same book, then coming together to share thoughts and musings while sipping on coffee or wine (or both, if you’re like me!). The things is, books are one of those rare entities that you can enjoy immensely, both by yourself or as a part of a group. And while sharing your thoughts with other people, your thoughts get more organised, and this allows you to think of things you perhaps wouldn’t have otherwise. You hear others’ thoughts and this gives you even more ideas, and suddenly there are more windows to open, more lightbulbs going on in your head and hence more pleasure to be taken out of the experience. Book clubs can also lead you to pick up books you otherwise wouldn’t have, genres you thought were not your cup of tea, therefore, pushing you out of your comfort zone. And we all know that’s where the magic happens 🙂
Of course, this is the ideal scenario. But as always, where there are dreams there is also the reality. People are busy. There’s work, there’s traffic, there are house chores, emails we have to write, phone calls we have to make, dry cleaning we have to pick up… People can easily share things online, why bother doing it face to face? People are excited at first but soon we lose our attention and less and less people start to show up…
But the optimist in me believes second time around could be better, who knows! And if not, I still have my corner to read, with my bookshelves, my rustic oak chair and my cup of coffee. Our first meeting is on the 28th of August and we’ll be talking about Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. My plan is to write down all the interesting bits we talk over, and write a review of the book club meeting, instead of just the book itself.
What are your plans for this August? Do you have any experiences with book clubs? What are your suggestions, do’s & don’ts? Drop a comment and let me know. Also, before I go, here are some bookish links from the last couple of days that I found interesting.
Happy August 🙂
Ten Books to Read in August – BBC Culture
Wounded Women – The Boston Review Â
The Story of Alice (Video) – London Review of Books
Man Booker Prize, Summer Reads and More – World Literature TodayÂ
Who should be Kicked out of the Canon? -NY Times Book ReviewÂ
My Life, My Narrative 