No, I am not talking about the night-hopping, loud music-blaring, feet -tapping type of clubbing, although that has its merits, and has been enjoyed many a time. I am talking about the resurgence of periodic get togethers termed “Book Clubs”! I remember as a child, the reference to a Book Club meant you were old with limited mobility, and had to have a book of the month delivered to your home! That was then….
Today’s book clubs are not like your mother’s kitty parties, or your aunt’s tupperware parties, or even your cousin’s candle parties…In my generation, there has been a flurry of group meetings between friends, acquaintances, strangers, for the express purpose of meeting to discuss a book that has been read by all, who come prepared to discuss its merits and demerits. What accompanies the purported intention of the group depends largely on the composition of the members.
When we met as a group of good friends, used to hanging out with our families, the book club meetings could span the arc from focused, intentional, deep discussions, to exchanging recipes and deciding future parties, and became essentially a party in itself! One member, after her debut meeting announced her surprise that we actually discussed the book!
To be fair, it also depended on the selection of the book, and after possible discussion topics, controversies, and unexpected twists and turns of the tale were exhausted, we began drawing parallels with our lives to points of convergence from the book. After all, truth is stranger than fiction. Lively conversations and more bonding opportunities and discovering truths about ourselves sometimes led to very deep thoughts. On the lighter side, sometimes it was impossible to figure out where the story line of the book under discussion ended, and one of ours began.
It was a time for female bonding, without the pressure of time, in the sanctity of a home, and accompanied with food and libations. Although, the book club was open to husbands, after a couple of tries, it was relegated more to the female domain.
As with most things, one of my book clubs with a close group of friends ultimately died a natural death, after being robust for a few years, and limped into life support before its demise. Several attempts to resuscitate it met with the truth of futility. Like all good things, we graciously let it go.
As time went on, we did not stop reading. Some of us became parts of other book clubs; some discussions of books read continued sporadically at various time points. If the love of inquiry is strong, a desire to know the thoughts of the authors captured between book jackets is urging, the absence of a book club is no hindrance to reading one by a true book lover.
The book clubs have also evolved from a few years ago. I recently hosted one, where members had to bring a dish, and a story that went with it. The creativity and imagination of the connections blew my mind! Indeed, every book lover is himself/herself a very inquisitive soul, seeking meaningful relationships between characters in the books, between characters and their surroundings, and even among the other artifacts surrounding the plot.
So, the food they brought connected for one member by way of being a central fact in a TV serial she admitted to watching addictively, for another, it was the memory of making the dessert she brought better than her mother in law (!); for yet another it was the produce from the garden that she obviously put a lot of love and care into, for another it was actually a reference within a book she was reading for another book club!
For me, the pairing made sense, as food bonds people like nothing else, and for book lovers, who want to discuss, provided the perfect platform to share their driving decisions. Others, of course, just showed up for the fun of hanging out with the rest. All are welcome, and the afternoon was declared a success!
Now, the talks to revive the defunct book club are on, and we need a novel way to achieve that. The current thought is to meet outdoors, as in a park, go for a walk, then discuss a piece of writing while partaking and sharing food. See, we don’t stray too far from taking care of basic necessities. In this case, if books come, can food be far behind?
An interesting twist to the book reading format is to read it together, thus taking care of issues such as not having read the book by any member, which do crop up from time to time. As we go about selecting a short story for this purpose, I can’t help but ponder, how an activity largely done in solitude, has come to represent a highly social function of bonding!
Evolution, once again, is not limited to Darwin’s finches; it is prevalent in every facet of our lives. Just look for it, and you will discover it in the most unusual places. So, yes, Book Clubs really are a reincarnation of the traditional modes of clubbing!
Archana Asthana
