#LeMillRecommends: Book Clubs to Meet Your Reading Goal
Being well into the monsoon season with increasingly temperate evenings provides the perfect excuse to stay in and curl up with a good book. That is if you know what to read. Joining a book club can be the ultimate way to enjoy engrossing works while being part of a community where you can discuss and dissect the storylines and characters.
There is really no answer to what makes the best book club book, it all comes down to the reaction the book provokes: What you want is a great read, but also, ideally, a book that generates lots of different opinions—then the fun is in the debate, and see if you can all meet in the middle. Looking to meet your reading goal this year? We bring you book clubs you can virtually join that will pull you out of your reading slump.
Silent Book Club (@silentbookclub)
With more than 500 chapters in 50 countries around the world, the SBC is an introvert’s heaven. Members gather at a public location like a cafe or a park to read together in quiet camaraderie. If there’s no chapter at your location, SBC even encourages you to launch one.
Join or start your chapter here!
Sanskaari Girls Book Club (@sanskaarigirlsbookclub)
If you’re interested in challenging your biases and engaging in feminist, South Asian literature, try the SGBC. A common theme gets chosen for a reading journey of six months to bring in a sense of cohesiveness and stronger focus. Through the time period, members get to explore fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, essays, poems and more.
Join here!
Karuna Kitab Club (@karunaskitaabclub)
Beginning as a repository of her personal book recommendations shared online, author-poet Karuna Ezara Parikh's venture evolved into a formally structured book club on Instagram, aimed at bringing together numerous readers in a collective literary exploration. The club's unique feature lies in its culmination—a culminating online session held on the last weekend of the month, featuring an engaging conversation with the book's author.
Join the discussion here.
Babelfish Book Club (@babelfish.bookclub)
An initiative by Westland publications, Babelfish Book Club meets every month at plant and art-based cafe, Planeterie, to discuss fiction in translation from around the world. You can also get a discount on their book of the month if you buy from Midlands Bookstore. Next month, they’re going to discuss the book Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghda.
Join them here.
The Author-ised Book Club (@theauthorisedbookclub)
Started by Surbhi (@theurban_reader) and Simant (@allthatissim) on a quest to read one author at a time, The Author-ised Book Club aims to read backlist and new books by authors they’ve come to love or are yet to discover. After taking a break for the month on July, the book club restarts next month. They alternate between two authors so that reading doesn't become monotonous until they have finished reading all works of said author. At the end of the month, they host two discussions on an Instagram group to discuss the book and everyone’s thoughts.
Join them via DM.
