i'm starting a monthly book club

and you want to join it (p.s. vote for the book at the end of this post)

hello hello! i’ve been working on a couple of other posts including a wrap up of the books i read and films i watched in july and august (which i think i might have to split into two posts because it’s getting pretty long). anyway, a while back i asked if anyone might be interested in a book club and a couple of people expressed interest. well, now, as fall is approaching, i’ve decided to start one. i’m doing this in a very specific way because, honestly, i think that probably no one will participate, and if that happens then the result will just be me doing a bit of extended reflection on one book that i read per month. this is all total experimentation. first, i’m going to explain more of why i’d like to do this (and why you should join me) and then i’ll share some of my ideas on how i think i’m going to make this work (to which you can comment and give some insight or preferences if there are any adjustments you think i should make!)

(by the way, there was also an interest expressed for a sort of film club in this style, which i’m thinking of doing in addition for those who have more time to watch a movie than read a book. i’m thinking of doing a movie a week, where i post the schedule at the beginning of the month, and then at the end of each week i make a post about it sharing my thoughts where other people who watched the movie that week can interact with it. starting both a book and film club at the same time feels like it might be too much but also i really want to do it and the film club is even more chill than the book club. let me know if you would also be interested in this!)

real quick though, since i’m at the beginning of this post i want to clarify two things:

1) this will start in october

2) there are (for now at least) no meetings over zoom or IRL so all discussion will take place online (in group chats or comments under posts or etc— where exactly the best place is for discussions is something i’m still kind of figuring out, but i’m leaning towards like 3 periodic posts throughout the month where more formal discussion happens in the comments, as well as a group chat, possibly on the substack messaging feature or maybe instagram or whatsapp or discord or geneva (lmk what you think) which will be for more casual discussion over the period of time). i want to do it this way so that if you choose to participate, you can do so as much or as little as you would like. also so that, again, if no one chooses to participate then it doesn’t become weird for me lol.

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alright! before i get into some more technical stuff including the potential book pic for october, i want to talk a bit more about why i want to do this.

obviously i love reading. i’ve been able to prioritize it within my schedule and inspire others around me to do so, which i love. whenever i read a book i annotate it pretty deeply, underlining passages and writing my thoughts in the creases or on the back cover. occasionally i’ve done some monthly reading wrap-up posts on here where i’ve taken the time to make a short review on the books i’ve read. however, i really do feel like most of the time, when i read a book, i read it deeply and then finish it and just leave it behind without any closure, often forgetting many things about it. this book club thing would be a way to force me to interact deeper with a book in a way that would also provoke longer-lasting thoughts around it. the other, and main reason why i’m encouraged to do this is because i feel like i never ever get to discuss books with other people, especially if they’re slightly more niche, and especially during or directly after reading it. discussions around art and media is one of my favorite things and i would really really love to curate a space for it! like i said i’m not really sure that this will take off at all which is fine, but if it did, imagine how cool of a space it would be for a ton of you cool people on the internet to get to know one another a bit and fuel each other’s creative thinking! :)

additionally, i’m interested in using this as a method of highlighting authors that may be slightly more niche. i’ve found that i’m often drawn to authors that explore obscure topics of identity, self/other, the mind, the “void”, and more, with a strong authorial voice and dense style of prose. i find myself reading many women/non-men authors and authors in translation. for now i will just be doing fiction (literary fiction / classics) but i also love poetry, and non-fiction like memoir, essay collections, and political theory, and would be open to including more of those genres in the future. at the end of this post will be the 3 books i’ve chosen for you to vote between for october.

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now, how would it work? as i said this is all a sort of experiment so i’m very open to feedback or making changes over time, but this is what i’m thinking for now.

around three weeks before the month starts i will create a poll of the books i’m thinking of choosing. after one week it will close and then those participating will have two weeks to acquire their book however they choose— borrowing it from the library, finding or ordering it through a secondhand or independent bookstore, getting the audiobook, whatever.

the reading period will officially start on the first of the month. at around that time i’ll make a post with some anticipating thoughts, as well as maybe some context to the book or the author or things that i recommend thinking about as you read the book. a bit of pre-reading discussion in the comments of that post will be encouraged.

throughout the month there will be a groupchat where we can all exchange thoughts/etc as we read the book. like i said, i’m still deciding where this should take place. i like how if i did it over the substack discussions feature, then the whole thing would be able to take place solely on substack; and i like how the feature allows for separate sort of discussion “rooms”. however i worry that it’s a bit formal and also might be forgotten about? this is why i’m also leaning towards an instagram groupchat, because it feels pretty casual, and people can potentially connect with one another outside of the groupchat. but do you think it would be too casual? should this book club thing stay just on substack without involving our personal selves/lives? let me know your thoughts. i will say that i’m leaning towards the instagram groupchat. discord and geneva are two discussion platforms that work really well but honestly i want to use something that’s more accessible and commonly used by everyone that would participate.

lastly, at the end of the month i would make a post of all of my thoughts, potentially an open thread post which would allow for people to comment and join the discussion.

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okayyyy! here is the part where, if you’re interested, you vote between three books i picked out. i spent a while narrowing it down but i wanted to have picks that are good autumn reads. i love autumn for cozying up with a book and falling deeeep into it, and into psychological introspection. none of these are too long and could easily be read within a month. since i haven’t read any of them i can’t actually promise they will be good, but they all intrigue me greatly ;) i won’t include descriptions of them so i highly recommend at least pulling them up on goodreads and reading their descriptions!

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