by Lisa Hiton
One of the most important muscles to exercise as a writer is one’s reading muscle. In my blog series, Reading Like a Writer, I spotlight various craft books on different genres of writing. For this crossover blog, I’ll be looking at the art of creating shared reading experiences in the form of a book club. It’s not only important to read books with a writer’s heart, but also, to read books as a community and make luminous the power writing can have on people’s attitudes in the world.
The relationship between writing and reading may be the oldest one in the book. Similar to the existential idea behind whether the chicken or the egg came first, one cannot detach their desires as a writer from their experiences as a reader. This goes back to language itself, to our desire to speak in words and to put words in an order. From ancient times to now, we have always wanted to share our stories.
If you want to be a writer, you owe some of that ambition to having read or been read to. This might mean text. It could also mean a broader storytelling. I can remember my early, formal reading experiences: my mother reading me Rosie and Michael by Judith Viorst; hiding my reading light and A Separate Peace by John Knowles beneath my pillow so my father would think I’d fallen asleep; my English teacher, Jeff Berger-White, reading “Things I Didn’t Know I Loved” by Nazim Hikmet aloud; calling in sick so I could read Atonement by Ian McEwan in one sitting; hearing Louise Glück give a reading at the New York State Summer Writer’s Institute. These memories of reading books are some of the most vivid hours in my life. And the people who were and weren’t involved in my experience of those texts are part of my personal canon. From reading a book with classmates, to the tree I leaned against when finishing the final Harry Potter book, to a poem read at a friend’s funeral, it is impossible to separate the text itself from the experience that surrounded having read it.
But there are those more informal moments of broader storytelling that also taught me what a writing life might be. Passover is my favorite holiday. At a Passover seder, the story of the Jews leaving their enslavement in Egypt is told as a symbolic meal is eaten. The Hebrew word “seder” means “order”. The story is told in a specific order every year. The memories of food and story are perhaps the most relevant source of informal learning that have shaped me as a writer and poet.
STARTING A BOOK CLUB
The idea of a book club might seem simple: to read a book and gather to discuss it. But book clubs can be more orchestrated depending on the goals of a group of readers.
The first thing to do to start a book club is to find a group of people who would want to read books with you. You can declare yourself the moderator or organizer. You can also let this happen democratically. One idea is to think of a book you most want to read and see if you have a friend or two who has also been hankering to read that same book.
Other key approaches to organizing a book club: themed book clubs or themed readers. Themed book clubs can be made on any idea or framework. Here are some suggestions to get started:
- Graphic: a book club where we read literary graphic novels, such as The Arrival by Shaun Tan, or The Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded by Jim Ottaviani.
- Dystopia: a book club where we read books for the end of time such as The Giver by Lois Lowry, 1984 by George Orwell, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
- Books for Book Lovers: a book club featuring books about books themselves–Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler by EL Konigsburg, and Matilda by Roald Dahl.
- Coming of Age: a book club of coming-of-age fiction and nonfiction in diary or mixed-genre format such as: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Citizen by Claudia Rankine, Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood and The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank.
- Girl Power: a book club where we read series featuring strong women protagonists–The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Divergent by Veronica Roth come to mind.
- Roald Dahl: a book club where we read every book written by Roald Dahl.
- Adaptation: A book club where we read books that have been turned into films and compare the written version with Hollywood’s interpretation. Examples might include The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and book series’ such as J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia.
- Adventure: a book club focused on books about adventure and survival with titles like Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, Julie of the Wolves and My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books.
- I Sing the Body Electric: a book club where we read and discuss poems, and each week a member recites a poem from memory; the club would also attend local poetry readings.
- The Play’s the Thing: a book club that reads plays, discusses them, then attends productions together
Themes are useful organizing tools for your book club to stay focused. You could also make a themed-book club in conjunction with one of your school groups. Perhaps you’re involved in your school’s green group and you want to come up with books of fiction or nonfiction about nature and environmental issues. Maybe you want to work with your GSA/LGBTQ group to come up with a list of books written by and featuring characters that are LGBTQ. The sky’s the limit!
BECOMING A MODERATOR
You may have a vision for your book club. Maybe you read novels from the 1920’s. When you gather to discuss the books, perhaps the host makes mocktails and plays music from the roaring 20s to accompany the conversation. All of these details may help your crew of readers embrace the whole of the book and the world it came from. If you want to approach hosting something more orchestrated like this, you can declare yourself a moderator. Come up with your own slant on how you will select books and what you hope to help readers achieve by reading the book together. You can post flyers for your new book club at your school and you may, end up with a slew of new friends who all want to read together.
If you are the moderator, be ready to be organized! You’ll need to keep a schedule and keep your members engaged.
- How Often to Meet: Will your group meet once a month after you’ve read the book? Will you meet once before reading the book to discuss themes and set goals and once after you’ve read the book? Will you meet halfway through reading?
- Shaping the Conversation: How long will you meet to discuss the book? Will it be a casual conversation? Or will you send members some questions beforehand to guide the conversation? You might even bring in “experts” to your meeting to talk about themes in the book!
- Cultural Relevance: You can up the ante for your book club members by periodically getting in touch with them between meetings—during the reading period for the upcoming book. Perhaps the book’s author was recently interviewed on Bookworm or in The Paris Review. Send the interview to your group of readers as an additional talking piece.Or maybe your book relates to something in the news or current affairs—send your book club members a collection of news articles to read.
THE GATHERING PLACE
A key element of a successful book club life is place. Just as writers need a room of one’s own, readers and book clubs need spaces with the right vibe to read and discuss books. There are some easy approaches to finding a gathering place: find local, public spaces. This could mean booking a conference room at your public library. You could also meet at a local cafe and claim your table space. Depending on when your club meets, you might ask a teacher to help you find a meeting space in your school.
Members of the club might also want to host the book club. Perhaps you’re in a more democratic book club where members take turns choosing books. Whoever chooses the book hosts the book club at their home. Members can also task out snacks and beverages accordingly (I’m much happier discussing books with a happy tummy than a hungry one).
Your gathering places could also be or become more expeditionary. Maybe your group sees a play together. If the time of year is nice, maybe you gather for a picnic in a park significant to the writer whose work you’re reading (there’s another book club idea: books by local writers). All of these large and small details can impact the reading experience your group has, and perhaps, the significance the book can hold in the minds and hearts of your book club’s members.
As you go off to create your own book clubs, remember that books are at the center, the beating heart of a new adventure for you and your group members. What will your club be like? Show us what your group is reading by sharing the cover on Instagram and Twitter. Be sure to tag us at @Write_the_World and use the hashtag #WtWbookclub
About Lisa
Lisa Hiton is an editorial associate at Write the World. She writes two series on our blog: The Write Place where she comments on life as a writer, and Reading like a Writer where she recommends books about writing in different genres. She’s also the interviews editor of Cosmonauts Avenue and the poetry editor of the Adroit Journal.
