Whatcha Reading?

Guess what?  You’re reading a book that we want to hear about!

I tell people that I literally grew up in my hometown library in central Nebraska. That makes sense because my mother was a librarian. She instilled in me my love of reading across authors and genres, and I grew to love talking with others about what they were reading.

Thanks to Friends of the Edgewater Library, Edgewater Village Chicago, and the Edgewater Branch of the Chicago Public Library, it’s easy! We’ve partnered to create a program in which we chat for an hour about books we’re reading.

This month is the sixth anniversary of The No Book Club, and we’ve been hearing about the widest variety of books you can imagine! Unlike a more traditional book club, everyone doesn’t read the same book each month. Instead, each person takes a turn to talk about their latest read. 

And what a variety of books we’ve been able to learn and talk about — from WWII stories of women in the French Resistance, to biographies and science tomes. Personally, I enjoy hearing what others are reading, but beyond that I’ve added some great books to my own reading list.  And it’s fun to watch as books make their way through folks in the group over a span of months.  

While we started out meeting in person six years ago, we switched to a Zoom format when the pandemic came along-–and decided that we like the virtual version. One of the reasons is now we have participants who don’t even live in Chicago. We meet at 1 p.m. Central on the last Monday of nearly every month. 

Once you sign up, you’ll have the same link that we use every time, so you can join us whenever you can. It’s a “facilitated” meeting — which means that according to how many folks show up, everyone gets a share of the time to talk about their book — and no one person or book ends up dominating the discussion.

So come join the conversation! We want to hear what you’ve been reading, and we love having new folks join us. Just send a note of your interest to edgewater@chipublib.org, and we’ll make sure you get the link to the meeting.

Check out the list of books we discussed last month.

Blog post by Tom Welch
Chair of the Engagement Committee
Friends of the Edgewater Library

Editor’s Note - Back by popular demand! For those who want an in-person experience of The No Book Club, join us at the Edgewater Library on Friday, September 8 at 10 a.m. for the first in-person TNBC since before the pandemic. Details and register here.

We’ll be in the Betty A. Barclay Community Room, 2nd floor. The in-person TNBC will be held on the second Friday of every month going forward. Check out the dates on the TNBC website page.

Photos curated from Pixabay, Unsplash, and iStock.
Photo of the stacked books by Joanne Kitsos.