Next Friday October 26 there will be the first Lost in Classics book club meetings both online and in person. I am very pleased to say that the live meeting at my house is already fully booked! There are still places available for the group video call so if you have been thinking about joining in but are still hesitating I hope to convince you with these five benefits of joining a book club.
1. It's motivating! Every Saturday morning I have a group video call with my two colleagues I met on a course about online teaching. We tell each other what we have done to improve our work in the past week and set ourselves goals for the next. We encourage and support each other even if we don't do everything we would like. We just keep each other in check and remind each other of the importance of keeping focused. It is really useful to talk over any problems and get advice. Just the thought that I have to 'report back' to them pushes me into action. A fixed appointment with fellow readers can be just as stimulating. You share a common passion and desire but also problems and difficulties. Every month in a book club each member takes on a specific role for example looking at language, characters or plot and shares their findings with the others in the group. The sense of responsibility for the quality of another person's experience can be highly motivating. 2. You can share the load! In a book club each member takes on a specific role, changing every month. For example, one person looks at the main themes, another at the setting, another at words and grammar etc. By sharing roles you don't have to read or understand the whole novel if you don't have the time. You can just concentrate on one aspect. So, if you have a lot of time that month you can research more, if you have little time you can focus on an extract or chapter and report what you find there. Your contribution can also be in the form of a picture, a poem or a short video that represents your ideas best. It's up to you. The other members in their turn will decide their contribution so that at the end of the meeting you will have an overall vision of the novel. 3. You could read as many as 12 English books a year! Would you like to read more but have difficulty getting started? By joining a book club you could read a book a month, that's 12 in a year! Imagine that the 12 books cover 12 different genres, historical periods or contexts. Imagine that each novel gives you the opportunity to go into different vocabulary and grammar issues. Imagine how many characters or themes you can meet! If I had a tattoo it would read 'I have lived a thousand lives'. Wouldn't that be wonderful! The members of a book club can decide on the books they would like to read together. Of course you don't have to read every month. The quality of your experience is worth more than quantity here. We are 'lost in classics'. Think of your favourite novel. How wonderful is it to be caught up in another world? When reality gets tough you can always take refuge in another world and learn from another person's experience. 4. Practice speaking in a comfortable, non-threatening environment! Speaking spontaneously in front of strangers can be intimidating, even for a native speaker! In a book club you can make friends from all over the world, from the familiar setting of your sofa, wearing your pyjamas if you want! You can build relationships with people who share the same passions and interests so that you can feel comfortable expressing yourself. For each role I will provide you with a worksheet that will give you some ideas and things to focus on. You can prepare your contribution in advance, even writing down exactly what you want to say or just making some notes. The most important thing is to be clear and communicate your message, don't worry about small mistakes. If you prefer you can look online for something that expresssses your ideas in the way you would like to and share that at first: a picture, a poem or a video. You choose exactly how much you feel comfortable sharing in that moment. 5. Make friends! As I said before a book club is above all a way to connect with others that have your same interests and perhaps goals. You can never have too many friends. It is thanks to online friendships and collaborations that I am speaking to you today. We can build a community of like-minded people exchanging ideas and opinions. Let's share our love of reading in English! I hope I have convinced you to give it a try. Contact me for details of how to join the next meeting!
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What is this?When I started lostinclassics I looked for language lessons in the books I was reading, such as for example the use of phrasal verbs or inversion in conditionals and I explained them through examples found in the text. I also did reviews of the books I read and tried to give some advice on how to read classics using the various resources I know of. Then I switched to just reviews and lately I have been doing a bit of creative writing inspired by my reading. Who knows what I will come up with next! Archives
September 2020
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