The ‘What’, ‘Why’, and ‘How’ of a Book Club
The world keeps revolving as men think up creative ideas to make humans live with ease. This is because some men like Larry Page, and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, thought it wise to create an app that will contain virtually every information needed in life. Yet again, life becoming digital has led to the neglect of a lot of things our older generations started, e.g. starting or joining a book club.
What is a book club?
You can say that a book club is all about books. But that is a description that cannot justify what it in reality represents.
A book club can either be based on age, preference of book genre, or even gender. In such clubs, people come together solely with the aim of discussing a selected book. This coming together is all to achieve one aim: fostering relationships between different people from different races.
Anna Hutchinson’s book club was the earliest reported in 1634. It was comprised of women who helped her to examine her weekly sermons. Owing to her initiative, we see that book clubs became more interesting to attend because of the love, care, and togetherness that the club provides. It is usually a gathering that creates a sense of success and punctuality.
Over the years, the thirst for the younger generation to carry on the legacy began to die as various other technological fascinations like games came in.
Today, many people still ask ‘why’ we need a club.
Why do we need a book club?
Book club gathering is similar to having a community of friends who have found a common interest and decided to juggle their minds and thoughts about it.
Reasons for a book club include:
- To create a sense of belonging for as many readers as possible.
- To broaden the horizon of the members by giving you a different perspective on the selected book.
- To help people make new friends from different races.
- To enable you to read beyond your usual scope.
- It helps to improve your writing skills.
- It helps to relieve stress
How can I start one?
According to George R.R. Martin, an American novelist, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, while the man who never reads lives only once.”
This quote is a great one as it portrays the importance of reading. Reading and knowledge will do you a lot of good in this world.
After the coronavirus-enforced lockdown in 2020, a lot of things began to operate digitally – including starting a book club. And as mentioned above, a book club is a place that brings people together so if you are contemplating having your own, these are some questions you must ask yourself:
- What type of book do you want to host? Fiction? News update? Philosophy? Politics?
- What is the name of your club?
- Who are the people you want to invite?
- Where should the meeting be held and what time?
- How do you select a book for the month?
Once you have adequate answers to these questions, then you are all set.
Here are other important things to take note of:
- Engaging your readers on a personal level – this can be by you sending emails to them or having a regular one-on-one conversation.
- Setting structures that will continually keep the club running – structures like timing for particular activities.
- Having engaging sessions with your readers and giving them the opportunity to voice their opinions on a matter.
Conclusion
A book club is a place where knowledge is gained and people get to know about the diversity of the world. You can start one where you are now.
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