FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT
WORDS WITH FRIENDS
For those who love reading, getting together with a group to discuss a book can be a truly joyful – and enlightening – experience.
BY KIM GILLAN
It was a stray copy of Markus Zusak’ s Bridge of Clay in the backdrop of my friend’ s Facebook post that started our book club ball rolling. I commented on how much I enjoyed the read and we decided to catch up to talk about it. When some other friends saw the online book banter, the‘ hands up’ emojis started filling the feed and we decided to get together at a local restaurant to bring back the joy of talking about literature that we’ d all shared at school some 20 years ago.
For our humble little crew, book club quickly became the highlight of our month. It gave us all the incentive to fit in beloved books amongst our busy careers and parenting, and lock in a monthly catch-up for socialising that we know is so important for mental health.
A long line of literary love
My Melbourne book club is hardly alone in finding joy in reading as a collective. All over Australia, groups are getting together regularly to talk about all manner of books.“ Your comfortable, friendly book club belongs to a long tradition of people getting together to share not just conversation about a book, but a conversation about a range of life issues,” says Dr Robert Clarke, a senior researcher in English at the University of Tasmania.“ There are social and educational benefits that come from book clubs, and they help people keep abreast of what’ s going on in literature and read books they wouldn’ t normally read.”
Historically, social campaigns, such as the feminism and trade union movements, have used book clubs as a way to educate the masses.“ Book clubs can also be a great way for people who are new to an area to find a network and community,” Robert explains. In a time where we’ re always hearing about digital distraction, Robert says many people are remaining drawn to book clubs.“ We are observing a growing interest in younger people to join book groups in a way we haven’ t seen before,” he says.“ Book clubs are great [ for ] people cultivating the art of conversation … and they are not going anywhere.”
Starting a book club
If you’ re keen to make your reading more social and engaging, invite some friends to join you in a book club, or join an established group through your local library, Meetup. com or the Centre for Adult Education for a facilitated group.“ There are
20 | JAN / FEB 2023 COSTCO CONNECTION