OPL offers avant garde approach for book club afficionados
The Oshkosh Public Library is penning a new chapter in book club history. The Not Your Classic Book Club stands out to community reading connoisseurs because it ditches the ‘stodgy’ club rules.
Reader’s Advisory Librarian Sarah Read coordinates a less formal format of discussion.
“Instead of us all agreeing to read the same book and discuss it, everybody just reads whatever they want and then we come together and each of us takes a turn to talk about what we’ve read that month,” she said.“It’s really just kind of a loose ‘show and tell’ of what you read that month.”
The not-so-normal club has been running for the last few years after a patron’s request influenced the previous Reader’s Advisory Librarian to create it. Read picked it up a year ago and has been running the club ever since.
Since the beginning of the book club, each meeting has amassed a small group of readers.
“Usually there are about five or six people who come… we’ve had as many as nine and as few as two,” Read said.
Members of the club hail from a wide array of ages.
“For this group we really have had the full adult range of ages. I think our youngest member who comes quite regularly is 18 or 19, all the way up through the 80’s. It is an all ages group,” Read said.
Because of the loose layout, book club attendees are able to read whatever best interests them and share out regardless of what other people may have read that month. Whether the book is a fan favorite or a complete flop, all opinions are valued and appreciated.
Members of the club appreciate the wide variety of literature on tap because of this unconventional structure.
“My favorite part is that there isn’t assigned reading, so you can read whatever you like, share that with different people and be exposed to a lot of books that you wouldn’t normally read. I’ve gotten a lot of good inspiration for what to read next,” attendee Jen Jeschke said.
The diverse recommendations of the club bonds the members in their love of reading.
“I like that too because I have certain genres that I usually read but it is really fun to learn about others too and to think ‘oh well I maybe I should try this’,” first timer Deb Martin said.
Many of those who attend the Not Your Classic Book Club have perused conventional book clubs, but were ultimately left with a yearning for a new and more engaging format.
“It was making reading which is supposed to be fun and a nice hobby into a job to try and force myself to read a book for a club, so it never lasted long,” Jeschke said.
With all of the positives of the club, so too come challenges. The short time the club is given offers certain issues, Read attests.
“When we have a large group and we have a number of voracious readers, sometimes we run out of time,” she said.
This kind of excitement is what fuels the club and entices readers to come and share all of their thoughts on what they have read, keeping people coming month after month.
“It’s a good problem to have,” Read said.
The variety offers challenges of a pleasant variety.
“This is great because of the variety of readers’ tastes. It really is a celebration of how every book has its reader, and every reader has its book, and we don’t all have to enjoy the same things, but we can still enjoy sharing our love of reading,” she said.
The club meets every third Thursday of the month from 6:00pm to 7:00pm in the lower level conference room of the Oshkosh Public Library, and members are excited at the prospect of new faces.
“It is a really great way to form new friendships and bring people together,” Read said.
Jeschke encourages younger readers to attend.
“I hope they come! Try it out! See what the highschool kids are reading these days and what they can share with us…it would be interesting to hear that perspective,” she said.
by Adri Meszaros
Published October 7 2024
Oshkosh West Index Volume 121 Issue I