Book clubs aim to attract new readers

IT’S a new year and thoughts have probably already turned to new year’s resolutions and taking up new activities.
In East Clare, Scariff Library is advocating taking up an activity that is suitable for all age groups, helps stimulate the mind in a social setting and won’t hit the pocket.
The library is kicking off 2013 with its monthly adult, teenage and children’s book clubs and is inviting new members to come along and voice their views on everything from fun light reads to old classics and from contemporary literature to autobiographies.
“It is a new year and it’s a good time to try something new. A lot of people would come in to join the library in January anyway and this is a little value added thing in a way. The book clubs all use library books and there is no extra cost after joining the library. It is free to join for unemployed or senior citizens anyway and we get the books from other branches, so we have up to 10 copies of a book,” Caroline Ahern, assistant librarian with Scariff Library, said.
The library operates two adult book clubs, a teenage book club and a children’s one. The adult evening book club meets from 7pm to 8pm on the second Thursday of every month and the adult morning book club meets on the second Friday of every month at 11am. Tea and coffee is provided at each gathering.
The teenagers meet on the second Tuesday at 6pm every month and the book club typically caters to those aged between 13 and 16. Their meetings sometimes include pizza nights and activity evenings. The children’s book club meets on the last Friday of every month at 4pm and caters for children aged from nine to 12.
“Book clubs cater for people who enjoy reading to come together and talk about books, which is not something you would normally do on an everyday basis. You might have a book that is recommended but you wouldn’t get to talk about it in depth and it is a place where you will discover new authors. Especially for the teenagers, it’s a real social thing.
“We’ve had lots of children going to different schools, they might be homeschooling and they really make friends that way. It is a social outlet for the teenagers in a big way and it is for the adults as well.
“With the children, we would be aware of the literacy levels so we do put a limit of nine to 12 but you might have good readers in that age group and at the same time you might have a few weak readers and we would be aware of that. So we would have a battle of the books and you would do an easier book and a hard book, so it’s not noticeable to give weaker readers a chance to join in. For the teenagers we have a young adult section and we would pick a book from that section,” Caroline added.
She explained the types of books they read are a real mix. Sometimes they would read the classics and before Christmas, the adults read The Great Gatsby, as the movie is coming out.
“Generally, you start off with ‘what did you think of the book?’ and the discussion flows from there. It’s very casual,” she said.
According to Caroline, the teenage book club steers clear of books on the Junior and Leaving Cert syllabus in order to break the link with school.
“The idea of this is reading for enjoyment so we want to something they would not be doing for school. With the children’s book club, we would use the internet and they would also play games. Rather than a discussion forum, we would do quizzes on the book,” she concluded.