Special Topics Paper Summary

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For my special topics paper I was interested in exploring book clubs as a tool for social change:


It’s primary season in America, and a virus is spreading sickness and panic. Society is contending with homelessness, poverty, the opioid crisis, an influx of immigrants fleeing corrupt regimes, climate change, rising gun violence, and more. Tensions are high, and it can sometimes feel, reading comments on local news stories or watching televised debates, like we have lost our collective ability to relate to one another. The internet promised to make us more connected than ever, but it “seems that, even as our Facebook friend circles expand into the hundreds and even thousands, our real-life circles of comrades and kindred spirits are steadily dwindling” (Olmstead, 2018, para. 5). Places where community can flourish without commodification are scarce. One such “place” is the book club. An estimated five million Americans meet in living rooms, bars, bookstores, online forums, and libraries to debate the merits of the latest selection. Book clubs are a vital community building tool—they provide the scaffolding necessary for exchanging ideas, developing empathy, and realizing the power of social relationships.

Some great quotes I found on this topic while researching:

  • “What happens when you read a book in the company of others? You enter its world together but see in your own way; and it’s through sharing those differences of perception that the book group acquires its emotional power” (Atlas, 2014, para. 10).
  • “In book clubs, the personal is public and political” (Rehberg Sedo, 2002, p. 20).
  • “Book clubs provide opportunities for individual intellectual development, but they also emerge from a tradition that stresses the power of the group to implement social and personal change” (Burger, 2015, para. 21). 
  • ...book clubs are “uniquely suited to combat our collective disillusionment—and foster joy, hope, and camaraderie in their place” (Olmstead, 2018, para. 14).
What inspired me to research this topic was the Chicago rapper Noname's new book club. It startd online last July and now includes many local chapters all across the nation that meet in libraries or at black-owned indie bookshops. She just added some prison chapters, which is shedding some light on the shameful banning of books in prisons. Her book club started with the “goal of […] familiarizing people with texts written by people of color” (Sharif, 2020). If you have had a life-changing book club experience, I'd love to hear about it!

References

Atlas, J. (2014, March 22). “Really? You’re not in a book club?” The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/opinion/sunday/really-youre-not-in-a-book-club.html


Burger, P. (2015, August 12). “Women’s groups and the rise of the book club.” JSTOR Daily. Retrieved from https://daily.jstor.org/feature-book-club/
Olmstead, G. (2018, March 5). “Finding community in a book club.” The American Conservative. Retrieved from https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/finding-community-in-a-book-club/
Rehberg Sedo, D. (2002). “Predictions of life after Oprah: A glimpse at the power of book club readers.” Publishing Research Quarterly (Fall 2002), 11-22. 
Sharif, N. (2020, February 4). “Noname’s book club is building community across the country.” Okayplayer. Retrieved from https://www.okayplayer.com/music/noname-book-club-patreon-interview.html

Comments

  1. Sara P.March 8, 2020 at 8:55 PM

    Hello!

    I found your reasoning for picking this topic especially charming! It also goes to show how something small and local can branch off and go viral, in a sense, for the best of reasons. Book clubs can serve many purposes: inspiring us to read, inspiring us to educate ourselves, or even inspiring us to become advocates for issues and the things we believe in. Great idea!

    Sara

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mallory BlinkMarch 8, 2020 at 9:49 PM

    I love the quotes you found. This was very enlightening. This sentence particularly stood out to me: "Book clubs are a vital community building tool—they provide the scaffolding necessary for exchanging ideas, developing empathy, and realizing the power of social relationships." Very well spoken.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Erin CataldiMarch 10, 2020 at 6:41 AM

    comments noted - the paper's grade can be found on canvass

    ReplyDelete

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