The English Book Club
The English Book Club

Let’s plan for winter term 2022/2023!

Our club member Kristin found this devastating poem based off a blog post by Brian Bilston:

Book Group

The last Thursday of every month was Book Group,
when the books would gather together to discuss Graham.

“It’s no fun here any more,” remarked Bleak House, glumly.
“Why doesn’t he read us?” whined the Grapes of Wrath. “It makes me so angry!”
“I’m sure he only bought me so he can show me off to his friends,”
complained Ulysses, in a stream of self-consciousness.

“I bet he can’t even remember my name, The Idiot,”
muttered a voice from the Russian literature section.
“That’s because he avoids you like The Plague,” said another.
“C’est vrai!” came a cry. “It is like I do not exist.”

“Let’s not give up on him yet.” It was Brave New World.
After some Persuasion, they agreed to give him one last chance.
“Be quiet!” cried Waiting for Godot with Great Expectations.
“Here he comes now!”

Graham entered the room, with his phone.
He sat down and watched some videos of pandas falling over.
After an hour or so, he started googling cats dressed as celebrities.

On the shelf, the books waited with uncracked spines,
their silence speaking volumes.

Brian Bilston’s Poetry Laboetry

Let us not be like Graham. It is time to set up a new reading schedule! Make sure to join our planning session on October 13, 2022—only those who participate in the reading selection may complain about it later. 😉

As a reminder, these are the rules and guidelines we have established as our book club’s habits:

  • Everybody can bring up to three book suggestions for the term.
  • All suggested books must be originally written in English.
  • All suggested books must be stand-alone texts or readable and discussible as stand-alone texts.
  • All suggested books should be no longer than about 300 pages.
  • Other than that, everything is allowed: we always try to have diversity in authors’ gender and nationalities and we usually mix contemporary novels with classic literature, graphic novels and occasionally film adaptations to create varied reading schedules.

For some inspiration, you may want to have a look at our book club’s history.

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