What we’re about
This is a group where we read everything out loud during our meetings — poetry, short stories, plays, novels and non-fiction. Therefore, there’s no need to prepare by reading anything in advance. Either a link to the text will be provided, or we'll do screen-sharing.
You don't have to be a "good reader" to participate; we all get better through practice. It's more fun and more learning happens when people read together, sharing their perspectives.
Another advantage of this format is that we can all react "in the moment" to what we are reading, unlike in regular book clubs where you read the book first, and then forget some of it by the time you actually get to talk about it.
The group was founded by Phyllis in mid-2020, and has been going strong ever since!
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Read-Aloud: Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog"Link visible for attendees
Having read "The Lady and the Dog" once, we will new read this post by Adrian D’Ambra who covers both the above story and "The Little Trilogy".
Then to finish up with Chekov (for the moment), we'll re-read "The Lady with the Dog", discussing as we go.
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"Anton Chekhov wrote his three stories, what later came to be called The Little Trilogy, in 1898. I’m not sure whether there were any commemorations of his feat in 1998, but there should have been public readings all over Russia and all over the world. That’s how good these stories are. If the world survives for another hundred years, in 2098 they will still be good.
Practically any writer of short stories in the world has been influenced by Chekhov’s stories. The way they are realistic bits and pieces of life, the way not much happens in them, the way the mood and subtleties of tone predominate.
So people try to write like Chekhov and, in large part, fail. That’s one reason that practically any issue of The New Yorker and any issue of the top American literary journals is full of bad stories."
– text and image from U.R. Bowie on Russian Literature
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Latecomers (unless we know you) will generally NOT BE ADMITTED once the reading starts.If this is your first time with us, consider joining five or ten minutes early, so we can work out any technical issues you may be having.
- Read-Aloud: Murakami's "The Kidney-Shaped Stone that Moves Every Day"Link visible for attendees
Having read and discussed Checkov's "About Love" and "The Lady with the Dog", we now will read two Murakami stories which I think parallel them: first "The Kidney-Shaped Stone that Moves Every Day", and "honey bear".
I will share my Kindle screen and we will read them together -- it will take two sessions.
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"One more nice thing about short stories is that you can create a story out of the smallest details—an idea that springs up in your mind, a word, an image, whatever. In most cases it’s like jazz improvisation, with the story taking me where it wants to. And another good point is that with short stories you don’t have to worry about failing. If the idea doesn’t work out the way you hoped it would, you just shrug your shoulders and tell yourself that they can’t all be winners."
Murakami, Haruki. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Vintage International) . Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Illustration by Floc’h from the New Yorker publication of the story.
***
Latecomers (unless we know you) will generally NOT BE ADMITTED once the reading starts.If this is your first time with us, consider joining five or ten minutes early, so we can work out any technical issues you may be having.
