Reading together
Group activity
Manjul bajaj explores the idea of a book club, its form and popularity in the context of the US and UK, and its growing presence in India through television and online platforms.
The term ‘book club’ has a genteel feel to it. It conjures up images of well-heeled ladies of leisure (with a token, more than averagely evolved gent thrown in for good measure) meeting up in somebody’s living room for elevenses or a late afternoon
natter about books over lemonade or coffee.
I have this theory that most neighbourhood book clubs start as the thinking woman’s alternative to the kitty party, an excuse to get out of the house and meet other people, with a guarantee thrown in that the conversation won’t all be about clothes and children. Some others are initiated by lapsed readers of either sex — people who need the energy and discipline of a reading group to re-establish their connection with books while the remainder are adjuncts of local bookshops or libraries striving to keep readers interested in books in a world full of other entertainment options.
The common living room version of the book club comprises anywhere between five to fifty members and meets most commonly once every month to discuss an agreed upon book. Most book clubs typically last for one to four years before the novelty wears off, members move out of meeting range or develop irreconcilable differences of taste and opinion.
In the past, no one took book clubs seriously other than their own members.
However, the entry of television, internet and social networking into the picture in the last couple of decades has seen book clubs evolving into a force to be reckoned with. Quite paradoxically, television and the internet, often seen as the enemies of the reading habit, have had a huge multiplier effect on the sale of books.
The ‘Oprah Effect’
Television talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey single-handedly changed the way America read when she started her book club in 1996. The book club shut down in May this year, when the Oprah Winfrey Show went off the air. In the 15 years of its existence, the 69 titles chosen by it together sold over 55 million copies.
Popularly described as the ‘Oprah Effect’, it became the single most important factor which could change the fate of a book, rescue it from obscurity and catapult it on to national bestseller lists. It made household names out of unknown books and writers as well as resurrected venerated old classics from their graves to notch up second lives with sales figures far exceeding their original run. The club wasn’t without its critics and many slammed Oprah’s selections for their touchy-feely and nauseatingly uplifting nature.
However, a close look at the actual list of chosen books shows a very diverse and interesting mix of authors ranging from old masters like Tolstoy, Faulkner and Steinbeck to contemporary greats like Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou to sharper, later voices like Jeffery Eugenides and Jonathan Franzen. With her mix of TV talk show glamour, genuine love of books and patent enthusiasm for engaging with readers and a well thought out endorsement strategy, Oprah Winfrey managed to make books exciting and brought millions of erstwhile non-readers into the fold.
In 2004, UK’s popular Channel 4 TV hosts, Richard and Judy, added a book club to their show, in a move that seemed to echo Oprah’s in the US. The Richard and Judy book club list which chose 10 titles each year went on to exert a powerful
impact on book sales in the country, their influence larger than that of all the
literary prizes in the country put together. The Richard and Judy selections were carefully screened and whetted by a team headed by the show’s producer and
comprised a literary winter list and a lighter selection for summer reads. The book club has changed avatars in the past. It first went off Channel 4 to another
channel and then the duo took a call to split as presenters and took the show off the air. In its latest version (since 2010), it works in collaboration with WH Smith & Co and issues four reading lists of eight titles each for every season of the year — spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Indian scenario
Nearer home in India, the past few years have seen the business of books getting livelier, with the entry of a slew of literary prizes and a growing number of festivals that now dot the literary landscape.
However, the idea of a book club based on celebrity recommendations is still awaiting its moment. There were some moves in this direction by popular author and columnist, Shobhaa De, but the initial idea seems to have yielded way to a publishing imprint with her stamp within the Penguin India fold.
The synergy between prime-time television and reading remains largely unexploited. Though there are a couple of book-based programmes on different channels (most prominently Just Books on NDTV Profit), they do not follow a book club format, which typically chooses a book to be read by everyone and backs it up with reading guides, discussion questions, author interviews and audience participation. The other important development over the last few years has been the emergence of online book clubs and reader communities like Shelfari, LibraryThing and Goodreads.
Social cataloguing sites like Shelfari allow members to create virtual bookshelves of the titles they have read or wish to read, tag, rate and review books, join online discussion groups, see what their friends are reading and find other people who share their reading tastes or interests. They also offer readers a variety of add-on facilities like free e-books, discounts, author profiles, interviews and quotes.
Reading is essentially a solitary activity and man, a social animal. The power and utility of book clubs lies in that they bridge this gap successfully by creating a
community around books and making reading a shared experience.
