Photo by Freddie Marriage on Unsplash
By Makenna Hall, Managing Editor of Content
Susquehanna’s monthly book club has moved to Zoom for the fall semester, hoping to provide a relaxing, casual space for members of the community to discuss any and all things books.
The club meets on the last Wednesday of the month in a manner that Research Librarian and book club advisor, Ryan Ake, described as a silent book club. Typically, a silent book club will have members spend a portion of the meeting silently reading individually and spend the rest of the time in discussion.
“We just invite anybody that wants to participate and they come and talk about what they’ve been reading, what they may have just finished, what they’re hoping to read, any feedback on the things they’ve read, recommendations they want to give other people attending,” Ake said, “It’s sort of an open free-for-all discussion on anything and everything related to some literature that we’ve been reading.”
The book club adopted this method about a year ago instead of assigning titles, making the club available to anyone interested at any point throughout the semester.
With the Zoom accommodation, however, there will not be an allotted individual reading time.
“We don’t do the silent part of the silent book club online ‘cause…that’d make it even more weird and awkward than it is now,” Ake joked.
This semester, the club will try and follow a theme for each meeting, according to Ake. September’s meeting will follow the topic of politics, allowing members to discuss political theory, political thrillers, fiction, non-fiction, etc.
The themes for the rest of the semester have not been chosen yet, but, according to Ake, are open to whatever people are interested in discussing.
August’s meeting included five students, which Ake said was a good number for this type of meeting, as it made the conversation a little bit easier and more intimate.
One of those students, junior Shannon Foreback, said she thinks the club still works well even with the different format.
“They still do a good job of facilitating good discussions about the books,” Foreback said.
In previous semesters, the book club took place at the Selinsgrove Brewing Company and Ake emphasized how he wanted this casualness of the club to continue on Zoom, encouraging members to log on to the meeting with a snack and drink.
The club’s Zoom link can be found on MySU.
