Staying at Home A Reader’s Advantage
While the terms quarantine, shelter in place, personal protection equipment and social distancing have become the language of 2020, for the reader these concepts carry an additional meaning. More time at home, for the person who loves to travel through the worlds of stories and books, means more time to read, more time to tackle the stack of books that are constantly piled on our desks, nightstands and bookshelves. The coronavirus quarantine, in many ways, gives readers permission to do what they have secretly always wanted to do: read without time constraints. For several area book clubs, COVID-19 has restructured the well-established logistics of meeting together to talk about a common book. In college classrooms, professors are reframing the activities connected to a common read for first year students. Readers of all ages are adjusting to having more time at home to read, yet struggling to find a balance when both work and play take place in the same space. Despite the underlying uncertainty of the times, these readers and club members are covering new reading territory and finding a way to use this time to mark off some of the books on their lists.
Foggy Pine Books Mary Ruthless, owner of Foggy Pine 40 | July-August 2020
Books, hosts two book clubs through her store. Foggy Pine Book Club meets on the last Saturday of the month at 7:30 p.m. “A general interest book club that is available to the community,” members decide together on selected titles and, currently vote through an Instagram poll. Recent titles include The Tale of the Genji by Murasaki Shikibu and Sugar Run by Mesha Maren. Their current book is Gingerbread by Helen Oyeymi, which members would discuss in late July via Zoom. The Foggy Pine Science Fiction Book Club meets on the last Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. These books are selected using a similar format of voting. Recently they have read and discussed Witches of Ash and Ruin by E. Latimer and The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden. They will discuss The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders on Zoom in late July. Both of the Foggy Pine clubs have continued to meet through Zoom since March. With a regular membership of 8-10 participants, these clubs continue to welcome new readers. For more information, visit foggypinebooks.com.
Watauga County Public Library Watauga County Public Library has also found new ways for their book clubs
to “meet.” Although the library has reopened, these clubs will continue to meet virtually through the end of 2020. Book Bunch The library’s longest running book club, the Book Bunch, meets monthly with facilitator Deborah Sluder. Taking the suggestions of members, New York Times bestseller lists and NPR recommendations, members of this club vote for 11 books per year primarily in the general fiction genre. Using sites such as litlovers.com, Deborah creates a list of discussion questions and sends these to readers before they meet. These questions become the springboard for their discussions. In March the 10-15 Book Bunch members discussed Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple. Since that time they have met monthly to discuss what members are reading individually and to discuss ways to continue their club in a virtual format. Cook the Books Tapping into the mystery, suspense, crime and psychological thriller genre, Angela Constantino leads the library’s Cook the Books club. With 15-20 regular attendees, members have met monthly to talk and “eat” books. Using the book as the theme, members have enjoyed snacks and food items that represent the clues that lead to the book’s final revelation. In aawmag.com
