[Repost] An Incomplete Guide to Community Book Clubs

Orig­i­nal address:An Incom­plete Guide to Com­mu­ni­ty Book Clubsauthor:-Mud life-

[Mud Life] Spe­cial Issue (Issue 68)

 arts /
Car­rot Inspec­tor

 

We often receive emails and phone calls ask­ing about open­ing a book­store, a com­mu­ni­ty library, or a com­mu­ni­ty read­ing club. Book lovers from Shan­dong, Zhe­jiang, Hubei, Inner Mon­go­lia, and Xin­jiang even take advan­tage of busi­ness trips or trav­el to vis­it Bei­jing to observe read­ing clubs and lec­tures.

 

Of course, these were most­ly moth­ers, some still work­ing, some “stay-at-home moms.” They all agreed that edu­ca­tion is a top pri­or­i­ty for their own chil­dren, and it should be impor­tant for oth­er chil­dren as well. It’s some­thing worth pur­su­ing, and they’ll strive to suc­ceed.

 

I remem­ber being invit­ed to a neigh­bor­hood “Neigh­bor­hood Fes­ti­val.” A key part of the fes­ti­val was a per­for­mance by chil­dren based on sto­ries from books. A sto­ry­teller, hold­ing up a book, told sto­ries to a group of chil­dren. See­ing the chil­dren leap­ing for joy and delight at the sto­ries made me wish I could return to my child­hood.

 

We under­stand that many moth­ers are skilled and enthu­si­as­tic sto­ry­tellers. Some have even been invit­ed to their chil­dren’s class­rooms and schools to share sto­ries, earn­ing them wide­spread pop­u­lar­i­ty. How­ev­er, there are many ques­tions about estab­lish­ing com­mu­ni­ty book clubs. Based on our cur­rent under­stand­ing of the sit­u­a­tion and draw­ing on the expe­ri­ence of book clubs abroad, we offer some sug­ges­tions, intend­ed only to stim­u­late dis­cus­sion.

 

The sig­nif­i­cance of com­mu­ni­ty read­ing clubs

 

The pres­i­dent of a Bei­jing com­mu­ni­ty home­own­ers asso­ci­a­tion once said it well: “We can’t change the objec­tive liv­ing envi­ron­ment we have, but we can change our own cul­tur­al envi­ron­ment. This is our home!”

 

A human­is­tic envi­ron­ment can be built with effort. As long as there are some car­ing peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty, some enthu­si­as­tic peo­ple who are com­mit­ted to build­ing their own homes, through hard work we can grad­u­al­ly unite peo­ple’s hearts and improve the human­is­tic envi­ron­ment in the com­mu­ni­ty, there­by achiev­ing healthy devel­op­ment and build­ing a tru­ly civ­i­lized and har­mo­nious home.

 

Some com­mu­ni­ties in Bei­jing not only have clas­sic read­ing clubs for adults, but also have chil­dren’s read­ing clubs, which have fixed times every week and insist on every­one read­ing togeth­er.

 

The first key to estab­lish­ing a com­mu­ni­ty read­ing club is that it must be spon­ta­neous, dri­ven by a small core group. It must have vol­un­tary ini­tia­tors and orga­niz­ers.

 

Let’s start a com­mu­ni­ty book club. The basic ele­ments of a book club are the orga­niz­er, the sto­ry­teller, the audi­ence, and the venue for sto­ry­telling. These are the basic ele­ments of a book club.

 

Peo­ple with sim­i­lar inter­ests are the nat­ur­al ini­tia­tors. The orga­niz­er does­n’t have to be a great sto­ry­teller or per­former, but he or she must be respon­si­ble, per­sis­tent, and good at bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er. Some­one who can bring every­one togeth­er with a peace­ful mind­set is the key to a book club’s sus­tain­abil­i­ty.

 

A book club also needs sto­ry­tellers. Peo­ple who are impul­sive and eager to per­form, espe­cial­ly those who are good at get­ting along with chil­dren, are indis­pens­able roles in a book club.

 

Regard­ing the venue, some peo­ple con­tribute their liv­ing rooms at home, while oth­ers use com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ty halls.

 

——The sec­ond key point in estab­lish­ing a com­mu­ni­ty read­ing club is that the read­ing club needs role allo­ca­tion and activ­i­ty venue.

 

Who can read togeth­er? In prin­ci­ple, any­one who is will­ing and has the time can join at any time, with fam­i­lies as the unit. If it is par­ent-child read­ing, it is best if each fam­i­ly has at least one adult and one child.

 

The fol­low­ing types of peo­ple are not suit­able for book clubs: those who don’t tru­ly love read­ing and have no read­ing habits; those who are self-right­eous and opin­ion­at­ed; those who always think they have their own ideas and ignore oth­ers’ opin­ions and ideas; those who talk inces­sant­ly and ignore oth­ers’ con­ver­sa­tions, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for them to inte­grate into the group; those who have class con­scious­ness and whose words and deeds cre­ate a sense of dis­tance and wari­ness; those who con­sid­er their chil­dren, their belong­ings, and even their dogs supe­ri­or to oth­ers. These are all “pub­lic ene­mies” of book clubs and should be avoid­ed and elim­i­nat­ed prompt­ly.

 

——The third key point in estab­lish­ing a com­mu­ni­ty read­ing club is that peo­ple with dif­fer­ent goals will have dif­fer­ent paths. A sense of belong­ing is an impor­tant spir­i­tu­al pil­lar of the read­ing club.

 

Let’s agree on the rules togeth­er. The pur­pose of a book club is to read. If all you do is gos­sip and talk about fam­i­ly mat­ters, it won’t take long for the club to fail, ruin­ing the team you’ve worked so hard to build. There­fore, before a book club begins, there must be a col­lec­tive dis­cus­sion and nego­ti­a­tion of the rules.

 

Rules aren’t a set of rules imposed by the orga­niz­ers them­selves; rather, they are a set of agree­ments agreed upon, agreed upon, and joint­ly enforced by all par­tic­i­pants to ensure the book club’s con­tin­ued suc­cess. Once estab­lished, they can­not be vio­lat­ed or arbi­trar­i­ly altered. If the rules tru­ly need to be revised, they must be dis­cussed and agreed upon by all par­tic­i­pants.

 

——The fourth key point in estab­lish­ing a com­mu­ni­ty read­ing club is to have three rules. With­out rules, there will be no order.

 

Read­ing requires a plan. The book selec­tion process is also the begin­ning of a read­ing club’s oper­a­tion. The select­ed list of books relates to the read­ing foun­da­tion, read­ing abil­i­ty, and read­ing inter­ests of the par­tic­i­pants, and is cru­cial to the club’s con­tin­ued and pro­gres­sive progress.

 

Select­ing a read­ing list can be a rit­u­al with­in a book club, an essen­tial ele­ment that encour­ages active par­tic­i­pa­tion and sparks a love of read­ing. The process of select­ing a book is like read­ing, and read­ing requires a for­ward-look­ing plan to give par­tic­i­pants some­thing to look for­ward to.

 

——The fifth key point in estab­lish­ing a com­mu­ni­ty read­ing club is that read­ing dis­cus­sions begin with book selec­tion.

 

What are the var­i­ous types of book club activ­i­ties? Books are meant to be read, and books are learned through read­ing. Read aloud to your chil­dren! These are the essen­tials to a book club that you can start with­out any instruc­tions. After­ward, dis­cuss the book togeth­er and have a hearty chat about it. You might be sur­prised to dis­cov­er so much more in a book than you’ve dis­cov­ered. Almost every­one can con­tribute their own read­ing expe­ri­ences and insights. Every­one is unique and focus­es on dif­fer­ent aspects of the book, but even slight over­laps are tes­ta­ment to their own insights. There­fore, dis­cussing books is the high­light of a book club.

 

Those who have the con­di­tions can use sim­ple per­for­mances, “cam­paigns” or “adver­tise­ments” for their favorite books, or com­bine read­ing with hand­i­crafts and draw­ings. As long as they tru­ly enjoy it, any­one can become a “true hero” and “sig­na­ture star” of the book club.

 

The sixth key to estab­lish­ing a com­mu­ni­ty read­ing club is that books are learned through read­ing and con­ver­sa­tion. There are count­less ways to read; as long as you enjoy it, you can use the “Bud­dha’s Fin­ger” to eas­i­ly find it.